Best Features of Google Cloud Platform (GCP)

As businesses increasingly turn to cloud computing, the choice of a cloud service provider becomes crucial. Google Cloud Platform (GCP) stands out among competitors like AWS and Azure, offering a robust suite of services designed to meet diverse needs.

This article explores the features of GCP, highlighting its strengths in scalability, security, and advanced analytics. By understanding these features, readers can determine if GCP is the right fit for their organization’s cloud strategy, ensuring they leverage the best technology for their operational goals.

For a better understanding of these GCP features, you can also try studying for a Google Cloud Platform Certification, which teaches every feature and working of Google Cloud.

Best Features of Google Cloud Platform

Here are some of the key features of GCP that make it the fastest-growing cloud service provider in the world.

1. Affordable Pricing

You can Create an account to evaluate how Google Cloud products perform in real-world scenarios. New customers get $300 in free credits to run, test, and deploy workloads, including Google-recommended, pre-built solutions. All customers can use 20+ products for free, up to monthly usage limits. 

2. Integration of AI and ML Services

Google Cloud helps developers build quickly, securely, and cost-effectively with the next generation of modern infrastructure designed to meet specific workloads and industry needs that incorporate AI in them.

Machine Learning(ML) is a subfield of Artificial Intelligence (AI). The goal of ML is to make computers learn from the data that you give them. Gemini 1.5 models, the latest and most advanced multimodal models in Vertex AI.

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3. Container based application

Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) is the most scalable and fully automated Kubernetes Service. You can Put your containers on autopilot and securely run your enterprise workloads at scale—without having expertise on Kubernetes. New customers get $300 in free credits to try GKE and other Google Cloud products

4. Storage and Databases

GCP provides us with the following storage options. They are Local SSD, Persistent Disk, Cloud Storage, Standard Storage class, Nearline Storage class, Coldline Storage class, Archival Storage class, etc. The storage in Google comes with encryption.

Google Cloud Platform (GCP) offers a variety of database services to cater to different needs:

● Cloud SQL: A fully managed relational database service supporting MySQL, PostgreSQL, and SQL Server, ideal for structured data.

● Cloud Spanner: A globally distributed relational database that combines the benefits of relational structure with non-relational scalability.

● BigQuery: A serverless data warehouse designed for large-scale data analytics and processing.

● Cloud Firestore: A NoSQL document database for building web and mobile applications, offering real-time synchronization.

● Cloud Bigtable: A NoSQL database optimized for large analytical and operational workloads.

5. Global Network

Google Cloud Platform is a global network where all regions and zones are connected by undersea cables. They offer services like multiple connectivity options in VPC, load balancer, CDN, etc.

Google Cloud Platform is distributed across various regions and Zones. Regions can be described as a specific geographical area or location where GCP resources are made available. This Geographical area is divided into three or more zones.

6. Collaboration

Google Workspace brings together innovative tools preferred by the modern workforce for collaboration and creation, including Gmail, Google Chat, Google Calendar, Google Drive, Google Docs, Google Sheets, and Google Meet.  

7. Computing

Google Cloud Compute Engine gives us various options. Compute instances are the virtual machines where you run your application workload. When you are considering Infrastructure-as-a-Service as one of the options for your workload, you can select from various options provided by the cloud service providers

8. Inbuilt Cyber Security

Organizations transform their cybersecurity programs with frontline intelligence from Mandiant to understand the latest cyber-attacks; a modern security operations platform for detecting, investigating, and responding to cyber threats; and a secure-by-design, secure-by-default infrastructure platform with controls to help maintain digital sovereignty. 

9. Cloud security

The following are the important points that will be taken care of by GCP:

● IAM roles, permissions, and policies

● Service account

● Container security

● Cloud DNS

● Cloud Armor

● Secret Manager

● Key Management Service (KMS)

● DevOps concepts

● Security in DevOps

● Google Cloud Operations Suite

● Security-best practices

Orchestration tools assist with tasks that are involved in managing complex data workloads, such as combining multiple Google Cloud or third-party services with BigQuery jobs or running multiple BigQuery jobs in parallel. Some of the examples are Dataform, Workflows, Cloud Composer, or Vertex AI Pipelines.

11. Migration

The process of migrating an organization's apps, databases, and infrastructure from an on-premises environment or any other cloud platform to Google Cloud Platform, is referred to as GCP Migration.

They allow you to move your existing workloads to Google Cloud and to take advantage of Google Cloud-managed services when you modernize your infrastructure.

12. Best Practices

Best practices can be defined as a set of guidelines that we need to follow to perform a task and achieve the desired results. Google has the following Landing Zone—best practices.