Google Cloud's late-February 2026 release notes cover updates across GKE, Gemini, BigQuery, Cortex Framework, and more.
•GKE (2026-R8): 1.35.0-gke.3047001 is now the default in the Rapid channel; 1.34.3-gke.1318000 is the default in Extended, Regular, and Stable channels, with auto-upgrade targets updated across versions 1.29–1.35
•Gemini 3.1 Flash Image (gemini-3.1-flash-image) is now available in public preview on Vertex AI, offering improved pricing and latency for image generation
•BigQuery will restrict legacy SQL usage starting June 1, 2026; projects not using it between Nov 1, 2025 and June 1, 2026 will lose access entirely
•Cortex Framework 6.3.4 adds Airflow v3 compatibility for all Composer DAGs, fixes SAP CDC custom table names with forward slashes, and upgrades Meta API from v21 to v25
•Cloud Trace now supports configuring default location and Cloud KMS key for new observability buckets (public preview)
Google Cloud Platform (GCP) - Release notes