What is Google Cloud Platform? Everything you Need to Know

Google Cloud provides highly scalable and dependant cloud computing services to their users. The services allow computation and data storage to the users. It also helps developers to build, test and deploy applications. The platform entails storage, application and cloud computing services for web solutions, mobile and backend through the internet. Google Cloud had a revenue of $6.87 billion in the third quarter of 2022. Currently (January 2023), it hosts more than 1.42 billion websites. There are millions of apps that use this platform.

The backend is simple as Google cloud just uses a file system – it is also the foundation on which Google cloud services stand.   

What is Google Cloud Platform?

Google Cloud Platform is a cloud computing solution offered by Google. The services offered by the platform offer different benefits to the users, such as efficient data storage, allowance to build or deploy applications, etc. It is a public cloud vendor, just like any other global cloud computing platform such as Amazon Web services or Microsoft Azure cloud services. This platform allows users to access computer resources stored in Google’s data center from across the globe. It offers its benefits for free or on a pay-per-use basis, depending on which kind of features consumers need to use. It is a one-stop platform that allows users to take care of everything, including cost Management, data management, web and video delivery over the web, access to AI and machine learning tools, and much more. 

Do Google Cloud and Google Cloud Platform mean the same thing?

Though Google Cloud and Google Cloud Platform are dependent on each other and are inseparable, these two terms do not mean the same. Google Cloud refers to a combination of services available over the internet. All of the services help business organizations and companies to go online. On the other hand, Google Cloud Platform offers public cloud infrastructure to companies and organizations to host web-based applications. Google Cloud Platform is a part of Google Cloud. There are some other services as well that are parts of Google Cloud, such as

  • Google Workspace offers identity management for organizations and also helps organizations to manage their Gmail and collaboration tools. 
  • Enterprise versions of Android and Chrome OS are the operating systems for phones and laptops that are used to connect to web-based applications.
  • Application programming interfaces are used for machine learning and enterprise mapping services. These solutions offer software-to-software communication.

Though Google Cloud Platform is the main thing in the Google Cloud infrastructure, it is different from what the phrase Google Cloud means.

What services are offered by Google Cloud Platform?

There are several Cloud development services offered by Google Cloud Platform that serve numerous benefits to consumers. The services include

Google Cloud Compute Services

The list of cloud computing services includes

  • Google app engine that is used to deploy Java, PHP, and other applications. It is also used for developing and hosting web applications in Google-managed data centers.
  • Compute engine that is used for running Microsoft Windows and LINUX virtual machines. 
  • Kubernetes Engine offers applications for automating deployment, scaling and operations of application containers across clusters of hosts. 

Google Cloud Storage Services

The list of storage services includes 

  • Google Cloud Storage allows users to store and access data on a Google Cloud Platform infrastructure. 
  • Cloud SQL allows users to create, configure and use relational databases that stay in Google Cloud.
  • Cloud Bigtable offers fast, fully managed and highly scalable NoSQL database service. 
  • VPC or Virtual Private Cloud that offers a private network with IP allocation, routing and network firewall policies.
  • Cloud load balancing distributes the workload across multiple computing resources.
  • Content delivery network, which is a distributed network of proxy servers geographically and their data centers.

Big data services

The Big data services offered by the Google Cloud platform include

  • BigQuery is a fully managed data analysis service that allows businesses to analyze big data. 
  • Google Cloud data store offers a completely managed schema-less, non-relation data store system. 
  • Google dataproc is a fast and efficient service that is used for distributed data processing. 

Besides these, there are also other services offered by the Google cloud platform, such as

  • Security and Identity Management services, including Cloud Data Loss Prevention API, Cloud IAM, etc. 
  • Management services, including Google Stackdriver, Google Cloud Console App, etc. 
  • IoT services, including Cloud IoT Core and Cloud IoT Edge.

Pros and cons of the Google Cloud platform

All the services of the Google cloud platform come with amazing benefits for the users. Here are some pros and cons of using Google Cloud Platform for Cloud computing solutions.

  • It allows users to work from anywhere in the world by using web-based apps. 
  • It allows many users to contribute to and access projects at the same time by using this platform. 
  • Google offers top-notch security to the data of organizations. So, all your personal and sensitive data are safe. 
  • If, anyhow, a data center is not available, the system of Google Cloud Platform immediately falls back on the secondary center without interrupting the work. 
  • It offers control and ownership to the users over their data in Google apps. 
  • With the Google app engine, the overheads are reduced, which helps organizations to manage their costs.
  • Google has amazingly incorporated actions into GCP’s documents which are divided into an overview section followed by a hands-on section. It also guides users through the implementation of the features. 
  • It comes with advanced software-defined networking and edge-caching services that offer fast, scalable and consistent performance delivery. 
  • One of the worth mentioning advantages of Google Cloud Platform is its user-friendly interface. It has no complications and also guides the users whenever it is needed. 
  • Users can get efficient updates on a weekly basis on the Google system.

GCP Cons

  • The opinionated model of Google Cloud Platform only caters to software developers. 

Ending words

Here we have mentioned everything that you need to know about the Google Cloud Platform. We hope this information has helped you to understand the system.


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