Google Cloud Compute Services For Beginners

In this blog, we are going to talk about the various Compute Services offered by Google Cloud Platform and their use-cases.

Google Compute Services is one of Google’s core offerings for businesses looking to run their apps in the cloud. Under the compute umbrella we have a few different specific services and configuration options, and products available for use.

Google Compute Options

Google Cloud offers users the facility of computing and hosting where they can pick from the following options:

• Work in a serverless environment
• Use a managed application platform
• Build cloud-based infrastructure to facilitate maximum control and flexibility
• Leverage container technologies to achieve maximum flexibility

Compute Options are:

1. Compute Engine
2. App Engine
3. Cloud Functions
4. Kubernetes Engine
5. Cloud Run

1.) Compute Engine

Compute engine is an unmanaged compute service offered by Google Cloud. It is an IaaS (Infrastructure As A Service) service that provides virtual machines hosted on Google’s infrastructure.

When & Where to Use  Compute Engine?

1. Need low-level access to or fine-grained control of the operating system, network, and other operational characteristics. E.g. custom compiled kernel
2. Applications with extremely consistent utilization
3. 1:1 container to VM mapping
4. Migrating existing systems

To know more about Compute Engine, read our blog at Introduction to Compute Engine.

2.) Google App Engine

The App Engine is a PaaS (Platform As A Service) offering of Google Cloud used for building scalable web applications and IoT backends. It scales applications automatically based on the traffic received. It facilitates users with built-in services and APIs, for example, Datastores, NoSQL, user authentication API, etc.

When & Where to Use  App Engine?

App Engine is a great fit for green-field applications where server-side processing and logic are required.

1. Stateless applications
2. Rapidly developing CRUD-heavy applications
3. Applications composed of a few services
4. Deploying complex APIs

When Not to Use App Engine

1. Stateful applications requiring lots of in-memory states to meet the performance or functional requirements
2. Applications built with large or opinionated frameworks or applications that have a slow start-up time
3. Systems that require protocols other than HTTP

To know more about App Engine, read our blog at Overview of App Engine.

3.) Google Kubernetes Engine

Google Kubernetes Engine is an easy-to-use cloud-based Kubernetes service used for running containerized applications. It helps users implement a successful Kubernetes strategy for their applications in the cloud.

Kubernetes is an open-source framework for container management and automation based on Google’s actual internal container software.

When & Where to Use  Kubernetes Engine?

Use GKE when you want to provide developers architectural flexibility or minimize operational costs. While GKE is the best-managed offering, you’ll need in-house resources to manage your Kubernetes clusters.

1. Applications that can be easily containerized or are already containerized
2. Hybrid or multi-cloud environments
3. Systems leveraging stateful and stateless services
4. Strong CI/CD Pipelines

When Not to Use GKE

1. When the burden of managing underlying infrastructure lies on the team
2. Applications that require very low-level access to the underlying hardware like custom kernel, networking, etc.

Read more about Google Kubernetes Engine in our blog.

4.) Cloud Functions

Cloud Functions is a lightweight compute solution for developers for creating single-purpose, stand-alone functions responding to cloud events without the hassle of managing the server or runtime environment.

IT works well for applications with bursty or variable traffic patterns as it is highly elastic and has minimal operational overhead because it is a serverless platform.

Read more about Cloud Functions in our blog.

When & Where to Use  Cloud Functions?

It is an excellent choice for dynamic, event-driven plumbing  (connecting) such as moving data between services or reacting to log events.

1. Event-driven applications and functions
2. Deploying simple APIs
3. Quick Data transformations (ETL)

Check Out: Our blog post on Google Cloud Platform Services. Click here

5.) Google Cloud Run

Cloud Run is a managed compute platform enabling users to run stateless containers that can be invoked via web requests or Pub/Sub events. Since it is serverless, it abstracts away all infrastructure management allowing users to focus on building great applications. It is built from Knative.

It provides many benefits of App Engine with the power of GKE. It can also be run on your own GKE cluster if you want control over the runtime environment.

mike

I started my IT career in 2000 as an Oracle DBA/Apps DBA. The first few years were tough (<$100/month), with very little growth. In 2004, I moved to the UK. After working really hard, I landed a job that paid me £2700 per month. In February 2005, I saw a job that was £450 per day, which was nearly 4 times of my then salary.