If you’re wondering what types of projects are suitable for the services available within the Google Cloud platform, the phrase “the sky is the limit” wouldn’t be an exaggeration. A wide range of companies, from small startups to major corporations like Verizon and Paypal, utilise Google’s cloud solutions. With a vast network of data centres spread across the globe, Google Cloud is accessible to globally operating institutions regardless of their geographic location.
This article provides an overview of the most popular cloud services offered by Google. To organise the information, we have divided the commonly chosen services into three categories:
· Compute power and virtual machines,
· Storage and databases,
· Analytics
Computing power: Virtual Machines and Containers
When talking about the cloud, we often start with describing services related to compute power. What access will we have within Google Cloud?
App Engine
A fully managed, serverless platform designed for building and hosting web applications. It allows you to choose from several popular languages, libraries, and platforms for application development. You can also let App Engine handle server administration and application instance scaling.
Cloud Functions
Developers use Cloud Functions to create standalone functions that respond to cloud events without the need for server or execution environment management.
Compute Engine
A compute and hosting service that enables you to create and run virtual machines in the Google infrastructure. It provides scalability and performance, allowing for easy deployment of large compute clusters. With no upfront costs, you can launch thousands of virtual processes in a system that ensures consistent performance.
Google Kubernetes Engine
GKE is a well-known and highly popular Google Cloud service. It allows you to deploy, manage, and scale containerized applications on the Kubernetes platform supported by Google Cloud.
Cloud Run
It is a managed computing platform that allows you to run containers. You can trigger them by requests or events. Cloud Run operates in a serverless manner, eliminating the need for infrastructure management and allowing your company’s resources to focus on application development.
Shielded VM
This type of virtual machine ensures verifiable integrity of Compute Engine virtual machine instances. With Shielded VMs, you can have confidence that your instances won’t be compromised by malicious software.
VMware Engine
It is a fully managed service that enables running the VMware platform on Google Cloud.
Schedule a meeting with a Google Cloud Architect and choose the right cloud services for your project.
Data Storage in Google Cloud
One of the fundamental benefits provided by the cloud is the ability to store large amounts of data.
Cloud Storage
It is suitable for storing files in various formats. These can be unstructured data such as images, videos, or documents. Data is organized in containers called buckets. For example, if you have an application where users can upload profile pictures, those pictures would be stored in a bucket, which represents a collection of profile pictures. Each picture is seen as an individual object.
Cloud SQL
It is a fully managed relational database that works with MySQL, PostgreSQL, and SQLServer. Relational databases store information in tables and are often used in applications with relatively static data structures. Cloud SQL provides full encryption at rest and during transit, private IP addresses, data replication across multiple zones, automatic backups, and point-in-time recovery.
Cloud Firestore
This solution is dedicated to NoSQL databases. Unlike relational databases, NoSQL databases do not require predefining the types of data to be stored. This makes it easier to work with unstructured data that can change over time. Cloud Firestore is a scalable NoSQL database based on collections and documents. It allows for interregional data replication.
BigQuery
Google Cloud data warehouse that enables easy analysis and visualisation of large datasets. It offers fast performance and high scalability. You can interact with BigQuery through the Google Cloud console, the BQ command-line tool, and client libraries.
Cloud Spanner
A fully managed, relational database with unlimited scalability and high availability (99.99%). Industries such as gaming, fintech, media, healthcare, and retail benefit from Cloud Spanner.
Bigtable
A fully managed NoSQL database designed for large workloads, primarily for analytical and operational purposes. It has low latency and high read and write throughput.
Data Analytics in Google Cloud
By entering the data analytics ecosystem with Google, you’ll discover tools that empower you to make informed decisions based on gathered data. Here are the key ones:
BigQuery BI Engine
We mentioned BigQuery in the context of a data warehouse, but it also serves as the core of Google Data Analytics. BigQuery BI Engine is a high-speed data analysis service that accelerates many SQL queries in BigQuery by intelligently caching frequently accessed data. It can speed up queries from any source, including those created by data visualisation tools. It can also manage cached tables for ongoing optimisation.
Looker
The easiest way to understand this service is by comparing it to Google Search. While Google Search aims to organise data and information from around the world, providing fast and easy access to them, Looker does the same within the business data of your organisation. It is based on the LookML modeling language, which allows for central definition and management of business rules and definitions in a single data model with Git version control. LookML utilizes the information in the model to generate efficient SQL queries on behalf of users.
Dataflow
It is a managed service for executing a wide range of data processing patterns. Dataflow enables fast and simplified creation of streaming data pipelines with lower latency. It automatically scales resources and, combined with cost-optimised batch processing capabilities, Dataflow offers virtually unlimited capacity to handle seasonal and bursty workloads without excessive expenses. You can use Dataflow for data analysis and machine learning.
Cloud Data Fusion
This native Google Cloud service for enterprise data integration allows for the rapid creation and management of data pipelines.
Choose the right solution for you
In Google Cloud, you can utilise services individually, but you can also combine their features to better achieve your intended goals. This is particularly evident in the image below, which showcases Compute Engine, Google Kubernetes Engine, Cloud Run, and Cloud Functions side by side.
Implement services with a partner
The services listed above and their basic features are just the tip of the iceberg in terms of the capabilities they provide. We can discuss each of them at length, and it’s beneficial to learn more about their advanced parameters. If you want to fully leverage the potential of the services available in Google Cloud, contact us.
As an official Google Cloud partner, FOTC can provide professional support in cloud service management, cloud migration, cost optimisation, and achieving business goals while minimising expenses. In this article, we’ve highlighted only a few out of over 200 services available in Google Cloud. Tailor them to your business needs by leveraging the expertise of certified Google Cloud experts. Contact us.
