What’s new in cloud networking at Next 26

Google Cloud announced a broad set of networking innovations at Next '26 under its Cross-Cloud Network umbrella. Key highlights include: Agent Gateway for governing agentic traffic using MCP and A2A protocols; Ambient Networking for GKE and Cloud Run that eliminates sidecar proxies and cuts L4 mesh resource usage by up to 10x; GKE Inference Gateway enhancements including multi-region support and predictive latency routing; the Virgo Network fabric linking up to 134,000 chips with 47 Pb/s bandwidth; an Ultra Low Latency solution for financial exchanges (built with CME Group) featuring sub-10ns clock sync; Cloud Network Insights for cross-cloud observability; post-quantum cryptography for internet-facing workloads; Cloud NGFW and Cloud Armor security upgrades including AI-powered malware sandboxing and DDoS protection; and AI-powered network operations agents for policy generation, workload placement, and cost optimization.