What is Google Cloud Platform & Should I Use It for Business?

Team Hypershift · April 8, 2024

Google Cloud Platform is "Google's unified service model for infrastructure-as-a-service that combines computing, data storage, analytics, and machine learning services."

Google Cloud Platform Features

GCP provides virtual machine migration, container management through Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE), and API management capabilities. The platform offers two primary storage solutions:

BigTable NoSQL – designed for large-scale analytics workloads
Block storage – suited for quick access to critical business data

Developers can leverage tools including PowerShell, Visual Studio, and Google's Cloud SDK to streamline development processes and improve system integration with on-premises infrastructure.

Google Cloud VPS

Virtual private servers in GCP offer businesses better resource utilization and improved performance through shared physical servers with multitenant security architecture, delivering cost efficiency without compromising safety.

Google Cloud Platform Security

GCP employs "a robust incident data and response setup that utilizes AI capabilities for automated monitoring and intervention." The platform collaborates with Mandiant experts to enhance cybersecurity measures.

Key security capabilities include:

Threat detection and identification
Attack surface discovery
Automated operational validation and testing
Dark web monitoring
Credential monitoring

Google Cloud Platform Cost

Pricing follows a pay-as-you-go model, starting with instances like E2-small at "$12.23 a month," comparable to competing platforms.

Alternatives to Google Cloud Platform

The primary competitors are Amazon AWS and Microsoft Azure, each offering diversified service menus with subscription-based pricing. While Azure excels at backup and disaster recovery and AWS offers strong scalability, GCP provides superior big data tools and AI automation capabilities.