What is GCP?

Google Cloud vs. Google Cloud Platform

Google Cloud and Google Cloud Platform, while often used interchangeably, don’t refer to the same services. The difference may not matter to someone with no business in the cloud, but a cloud practitioner or organization needs to understand. The paragraphs below outline the key differences between these two terms:

Google Cloud: It is the broader suite of cloud-based products and services offered by Google. It includes Google Cloud Platform, Google Workspace, and APIs like Google Maps and Ads.

Google Cloud Platform: Google Cloud Platform is a part of Google Cloud. It offers infrastructure and platform services like virtual machines, storage, databases, and machine learning tools.

Pricing Model of Google Cloud Platform

• Pay-as-you-go: Charged based on actual resource consumption.
• Committed Use Discounts (CUDs): Up to 57% discount in exchange for 1- or 3-year resource or spend commitments.
• Sustained Use Discounts: Automatically applied discounts for consistent usage within a billing cycle.
• Preemptible VMs: Deeply discounted short-lived compute instances for fault-tolerant workloads.
• Free Tier: Always-free limited usage for selected services.

Services Offered by Google Cloud Platform

Below is a classification of the services that are most popular amongst GCP’s customers. 

1. Compute

• Compute Engine – Custom virtual machines for general-purpose workloads
• App Engine – Serverless application platform for scalable apps
• Cloud Run – Managed container platform for stateless services
• Cloud Functions – Event-driven, serverless compute for lightweight operations

2. Storage & Databases

• Cloud Storage – Scalable object storage for unstructured data
• Cloud SQL – Managed relational database (MySQL, PostgreSQL, SQL Server)
• Firestore – Serverless NoSQL database for mobile and web apps
• Cloud Spanner – Globally distributed relational database with strong consistency

3. Data & Analytics

• BigQuery – Serverless data warehouse for ultra-fast analytics
• Dataflow – Real-time and batch processing with Apache Beam
• Dataproc – Managed Spark and Hadoop clusters
• Pub/Sub – Asynchronous messaging for event-driven architectures

4. AI & Machine Learning

• Vertex AI – End-to-end platform for developing, training, and deploying ML models
• AutoML – Low-code tools for building custom ML models
• Vision AI – Image analysis using pre-trained models
• Dialogflow – Conversational AI for chatbots and virtual assistants

Benefits and Drawbacks of Using Google Cloud Platform

Benefits

• High-performance global network infrastructure
• Industry-leading tools for data analytics and AI
• Strong support for multi-cloud and Kubernetes-native development
• Transparent, competitive pricing with automatic discounts

Drawbacks

• Smaller global market share than AWS and Azure
• A less mature enterprise ecosystem in some regions
• Fewer integrations in the third-party marketplace
• Slightly steeper learning curve for new users 

To keep costs in check, be sure to implement GCP cost optimization practices. 

GCP and Its Competitors

GCP competes closely with AWS and Azure, offering unique strengths in data, AI, and Kubernetes. Each platform has its advantages depending on business needs and technical requirements.

GCP vs. AWS

GCP offers more flexibility in pricing and data tools; AWS leads in breadth of services and global adoption.

GCP vs. Azure

GCP excels in data science and containerized workloads, while Azure has stronger enterprise and on-premise integrations.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

• Q1:  What are the popular GCP certifications I can pursue as a company?

  Top certifications include Professional Cloud Architect, Data Engineer, Cloud Security Engineer, and Associate Cloud Engineer — ideal for building team capability.

• Q2: Does CloudKeeper Lens support GCP?

  Yes, CloudKeeper Lens offers visibility and optimization insights for GCP usage, helping businesses track and reduce costs efficiently.

• Q3: Is there a service or benefit that’s unique to GCP and not offered by AWS or Azure?

  BigQuery is GCP’s standout serverless analytics platform with unmatched speed, scale, and pricing structure.

• Q4: Does GCP offer discounts on its services? If yes, how do they work?

  Yes. Discounts are available via Sustained Use Discounts and Committed Use Discounts, automatically or through usage commitments.

• Q5: Does Google provide personalized customer support if I purchase significant service instances?

  Yes. Google offers premium support tiers, including Technical Account Managers, for enterprise customers with high service usage.