Google Cloud Platform


Google Cloud Platform, offered by Google, is a suite of cloud computing services that runs on the same infrastructure that Google uses internally for its end-user products, such as Google Search, Gmail and YouTube. Alongside a set of management tools, it provides a series of modular cloud services including computing, data storage, data analytics and machine learning. Registration requires a credit card or bank account details.
Google Cloud Platform provides infrastructure as a service, platform as a service, and serverless computing environments.
In April 2008, Google announced App Engine, a platform for developing and hosting web applications in Google-managed data centers, which was the first cloud computing service from the company. The service became generally available in November 2011. Since the announcement of the App Engine, Google added multiple cloud services to the platform.
Google Cloud Platform is a part of Google Cloud, which includes the Google Cloud Platform public cloud infrastructure, as well as G Suite, enterprise versions of Android and Chrome OS, and application programming interfaces for machine learning and enterprise mapping services.

Products

Google lists over under the Google Cloud brand. Some of the key services are listed below.

Compute

As of Q1 2020, Google Cloud Platform is available in 22 regions and 61 zones. A region is a specific geographical location where users can deploy cloud resources.
Each region is an independent geographic area that consists of zones.
A zone is a deployment area for Google Cloud Platform resources within a region. Zones should be considered a single failure domain within a region.
Most of the regions have three or more zones. As of Q1 2020, Google Cloud Platform is available in the following regions and zones:
Region NameLaunch DateLocationZones
us-west1Q3, 2016The Dalles, Oregon, USA
  • us-west1-a
  • us-west1-b
  • us-west1-c
us-west2Q3, 2018Los Angeles, California, USA
  • us-west2-a
  • us-west2-b
  • us-west2-c
    • us-west3Q1, 2020Salt Lake City, Utah, USA
  • us-west3-a
  • us-west3-b
  • us-west3-c
    • us-west4Q2, 2020Las Vegas, Nevada, USA
  • us-west4-a
  • us-west4-b
  • us-west4-c
    • us-central1Council Bluffs, Iowa, USA
  • us-central1-a
  • us-central1-b
  • us-central1-c
  • us-central1-f
    • us-east1Q4, 2015Moncks Corner, South Carolina, USA
  • us-east1-b
  • us-east1-c
  • us-east1-d
    • us-east4Q2, 2017Ashburn, Virginia, USA
  • us-east4-a
  • us-east4-b
  • us-east4-c
    • northamerica-northeast1Q1, 2018Montréal, Canada
  • northamerica-northeast1-a
  • northamerica-northeast1-b
  • northamerica-northeast1-c
    • southamerica-east1Q3, 2017São Paulo, Brazil
  • southamerica-east1-a
  • southamerica-east1-b
  • southamerica-east1-c
    • europe-west2Q2, 2017London, U.K.
  • europe-west2-a
  • europe-west2-b
  • europe-west2-c
    • europe-west1St. Ghislain, Belgium
  • europe-west1-b
  • europe-west1-c
  • europe-west1-d
    • europe-west4Q1, 2018Eemshaven, Netherlands
  • europe-west4-a
  • europe-west4-b
  • europe-west4-c
    • europe-west6Q1, 2019Zurich, Switzerland
  • europe-west6-a
  • europe-west6-b
  • europe-west6-c
    • europe-west3Q3, 2017Frankfurt, Germany
  • europe-west3-a
  • europe-west3-b
  • europe-west3-c
    • europe-north1Q2, 2018Hamina, Finland
  • europe-north1-a
  • europe-north1-b
  • europe-north1-c
    • asia-south1Q4, 2017Mumbai, India
  • asia-south1-a
  • asia-south1-b
  • asia-south1-c
    • asia-southeast1Q2, 2017Jurong West, Singapore
  • asia-southeast1-a
  • asia-southeast1-b
  • asia-southeast1-c
    • asia-southeast2Q2, 2020Jakarta, Indonesia
  • asia-southeast2-a
  • asia-southeast2-b
  • asia-southeast2-c
  • asia-southeast2-d
    • asia-east2Q3, 2018Hong Kong
  • asia-east2-a
  • asia-east2-b
  • asia-east2-c
    • asia-east1Changhua County, Taiwan
  • asia-east1-a
  • asia-east1-b
  • asia-east1-c
    • asia-northeast1Q4, 2016Tokyo, Japan
  • asia-northeast1-a
  • asia-northeast1-b
  • asia-northeast1-c
    • asia-northeast2Q2, 2019Osaka, Japan
  • asia-northeast2-a
  • asia-northeast2-b
  • asia-northeast2-c
    • asia-northeast3Q1, 2020Seoul, Korea
  • asia-northeast3-a
  • asia-northeast3-b
  • asia-northeast3-c
    • australia-southeast1Q3, 2017Sydney, Australia
  • australia-southeast1-a
  • australia-southeast1-b
  • australia-southeast1-c

    • Similarity to services by other cloud service providers

    For those familiar with other notable cloud service providers, a comparison of similar services may be helpful in understanding Google Cloud Platform's offerings.
    Google Cloud PlatformAmazon Web ServicesMicrosoft AzureOracle Cloud
    Google Compute EngineAmazon EC2Azure Virtual MachinesOracle Cloud Infra OCI
    Google App EngineAWS Elastic BeanstalkAzure App ServicesOracle Application Container
    Google Kubernetes EngineAmazon Elastic Kubernetes ServiceAzure Kubernetes ServiceOracle Kubernetes Service
    Google Cloud BigtableAmazon DynamoDBAzure Cosmos DBOracle NoSQL Database
    Google BigQueryAmazon RedshiftAzure Synapse AnalyticsOracle Autonomous Data Warehouse
    Google Cloud FunctionsAWS LambdaAzure FunctionsOracle Cloud Fn
    Google Cloud DatastoreAmazon DynamoDBAzure Cosmos DBOracle NoSQL Database
    Google Cloud StorageAmazon S3Azure Blob StorageOracle Cloud Storage OCI

    Certifications

    Similar to offerings by Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, and IBM Cloud, a series of Google Cloud Certified programs are available on the Google Cloud Platform. Participants can choose between online learning programs provided by Coursera, Pluralsight, or Qwiklabs as well as live workshops and webinars. Depending on the program, certifications can be earned online or at various testing centers located globally.