50,000 Google Workspace licenses for the government, support for Ukrainian startups, combating disinformation, and more. Google was one of the first to support Ukraine after the full-scale invasion of Russia. It also became the first company to receive the World Award from Volodymyr Zelenskyi.

In a partner material with Wise IT, his team mentions the support provided by Google to Ukraine since February 24, 2022.

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Safety and awareness

From the first days of full-scale war Google focused on protecting Ukrainian users and local services from cyber threats and helped spread important information. The company automatically increased the level of protection of Google accounts, in particular, authentication requests for people in Ukraine. At the same time, the threat analysis team monitored a number of cyber attackers and shared threat data with security officials and high-risk users.

Google has expanded access to Project Shield, a free DDoS protection tool, so that Ukrainian government websites, embassies around the world, and other governments in close proximity to the conflict can stay online, protected, and continue to provide services.

The previous air alert notification application, developed by Ukrainian programmers, immediately became recommended in the Google Play Market. After Google began to cooperate with the Ukrainian government, it was possible to implement a built-in system of rapid notification of air alarms for phones based on the Android OS. The company has also become better informed about shelters and aid points in Ukraine and European countries in search and on maps.

Recently, Google announced the provision of 50,000 Google Workspace licenses to the government of Ukraine. During the year, state institutions will be able to use them free of charge. This will protect data with constant cyber threats in mind.

The Wise IT team has extensive experience in implementing Google Workspace solutions and is ready to help with consultations at all stages of implementation.

“Google services have become our infrastructure. The tools provided by the company allowed the government to function quickly and efficiently, despite shelling and constant threats of cyber attacks, says Minister of Digital Transformation Mykhailo Fedorov. – In addition, Google ensures the protection and security of the data of Ukrainians and promotes the development of our entrepreneurs. At the same time, the company pays great attention to human capital. In particular, it supports the initiatives of the “Action. Digital Education” project.

Anti-disinformation

Google has significantly limited recommendations worldwide for a number of Russian state media on their platforms. In Europe, Google Play has removed programs from Russian state media, except for RT and Sputnik, which were previously removed. Google also removed RT and Sputnik from search results in the European Union.

Since the start of the war, YouTube has removed more than 8,000 channels and 60,000 videos for disinformation, hate speech or violence related to the war in Ukraine.

Google promptly suspended commercial activities in Russia. In particular, these are advertising on the company’s resources and networks around the world for all Russian advertisers, new registrations in the cloud, payment functionality of most services and monetization for YouTube viewers in Russia.

Humanitarian vanguard

Google and Google employees have donated more than $45 million to help with humanitarian aid in Central and Eastern Europe. They supported people-oriented organizations in Ukraine, such as “New Ukraine” and Fight for Right, as well as non-profit organizations that support refugees in border countries: Polish Center for International Aid, Hungarian Inter-Church Aid, Romanian Red Cross and People in Need in Slovakia. Many Google employees in the region themselves host Ukrainian refugees in their homes, help in local refugee centers or at the border.

For those in a new country, finding verified information and reliable services is difficult and often takes a long time. To facilitate this, Google.org has awarded a $1.5 million grant to the International Rescue Committee (IRC) and the Google.org Fellows team to expand access to critical information for those affected by the war in Ukraine.

This money and experience helped the IRC support the volunteer organization unitedforukraine.org, which helps displaced people find housing, legal assistance and psychological support. For six months, a team of 13 Googlers worked full-time for free with the IRC to expand the unitedforukraine.org and Signpost projects around the world.

Also Google temporarily canceled the fee for international calls from Ukraine and the USA to Ukraine via Google Fi, as well as for calls to Ukraine for people using Google Voice.

Here you can get professional advice on Google for business or a free cloud audit from Wise IT.

Formation

Google cooperates with the Ministry of Education of Ukraine, UNESCO and partners around the world to provide the necessary equipment, software, content and conduct trainings on digital competence. Thanks to this, many Ukrainian teachers continue to teach.

The company provided money to purchase, license and distribute 50,000 Chromebook laptops for Ukrainian teachers to communicate and collaborate with their students wherever they are.

Google also created the YouTube platform “Learning” so that Ukrainian students aged 13 to 17 could find educational content. Special emphasis is placed on Ukrainian literature and linguistics, physics, biology, chemistry, mathematics.

Google has also made some premium features of Google Workspace for Education are free for Ukrainian universities and colleges for 2022. This made it possible to hold larger remote meetings of up to 250 participants and record them directly to disk.

This year, Google launched several free training programs for Ukrainians, such as “Develop a career with Google Cloud” for business development, Startup Academy for Ukrainian startups and “Skills and skills for the future” in the field of online marketing.

From the latest news: the “Action. Digital Education” project became a participant in the Google.org Fellowship program to help 600,000 Ukrainians find work. Participants in the Google.org Fellows program, including product managers, software engineers, and marketing managers, will help develop training programs and a user referral system for employment opportunities for free for six months. The purpose of the platform is to teach digital literacy to up to 2 million Ukrainians and become an intermediary between job seekers and companies to help employ up to 600,000 internally displaced persons.

Also, Google announced the launch of professional certificates from Google in the Ukrainian language and the provision of a grant of 3 million euros for INCO. Thanks to this, Ukrainians will be offered 5,000 scholarships with comprehensive support for the development of digital skills. They are still planning to implement a system of employment recommendations. Translation of the content and platform into English is also provided. The cooperation partner is “Eastern Europe Foundation”.

Support of Ukrainian startups

At the end of March, Google announced the creation of the Google for Startups Ukraine Support Fund – a Google support fund for startups in Ukraine in the amount of $5 million. Grants were allocated during 2022.

Google regularly announces selected Ukrainian startups, and they receive up to $100,000, a mentoring support program from Google, product support and Google Cloud credits. This will help Ukrainian entrepreneurs to support and develop their business, strengthen the community and build a foundation for economic recovery after the war. Google also invited Ukrainian startups to use the space of the Google for Startups Campus in Warsaw as a temporary office.

And to help Ukrainian online businesses in wartime, Google launched Market Finder in Ukraine. This is a free service that helps companies enter new markets, find new customers and partners, increase export sales online, etc. It also offers free guides, videos and tips that make it as easy as possible for companies to take their first steps in the export market.

Here you can get professional advice on Google for business or a free cloud audit from Wise IT.

Award of the world

Google became the first company to receive the World Award – it was introduced by the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyi. It happened in May.

“Since then, the war has taken on new dimensions, and we remain steadfast in our commitment to be worthy of this award,” said Kent Walker, president of global affairs for Google & Alphabet. – We join the international community and express our sincere hope for a return to a peaceful and sovereign Ukraine – and we will continue to look for new ways to help those whose lives were so deeply and tragically affected by this.”

Wise IT has the status of Google Premier Partner. As the company says, they are proud of the opportunity to contribute to the digital transformation of Ukraine. Wise IT specialists were among the first in Ukraine to acquire this highest partner status, which allowed customers to get much more than just using Google services and solutions. A Google Premier level partner has additional opportunities for customers:

• the most favorable conditions of cooperation;
• for customers of the Enterprise level – individual conditions for extending licenses in wartime and additional credits;
• the first line of technical support – a Ukrainian team of specialists quickly solves the customer’s technical problems at all stages of the project from pilot to implementation;
• free initial training for customers
• and individual workshops for administrators or specialized IT specialists;
• closing all financial and operational reporting of the business in accordance with Ukrainian legislation.

“The Wise IT team continues to work and help businesses and organizations grow even in wartime conditions,” says Wise IT. “We are proud to be Ukrainians and to help rebuild our homeland.”

Here you can get professional advice on Google for business or a free cloud audit from Wise IT.

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