What is the Google Cloud Compute Engine?
The Google Cloud Platform (GCP) Compute Engine provides cloud computing services, an essential resource in today's technology world. It allows users to create and manage virtual machines that facilitate the deployment of applications with the speed and customization that their projects require. It offers Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), ensuring that instances can be accessed securely and efficiently.
What are the defining characteristics of cloud computing services?
Cloud computing services are designed to be:
- On-demand and self-service: You can consume the resources you need through a web browser, ensuring immediate access to tools such as file repositories or virtual machines.
- Network access: Typically, access to these services is via the Internet, allowing connection and provision of resources regardless of the user's location.
- Resource sharing: Providers' physical resources are shared among different clients, maximizing efficiency and reducing costs.
- Elasticity: Allows you to increase computing capacity quickly and flexibly, adjusting to changing needs.
- Pay-per-use: You only pay for what you actually use, such as uptime and resources consumed.
How does Google Compute Engine differentiate itself in the market?
Google Compute Engine stands out in the IaaS ecosystem thanks to its unique features:
- Variety of machine families: There are several families of virtual machines, from those for general purpose to those optimized for specific tasks.
- Customization: You can choose between preconfigured machines and those that can be customized to meet the particular needs of a project.
- Active Assist: An artificial intelligence-assisted tool that suggests performance-based adjustments and helps avoid over-provisioning.
- Per-second billing: Unlike other providers, GCP charges per second, minimizing the cost to what is strictly necessary.
- Live migration: Provides operational continuity during hardware maintenance, ensuring that applications are not interrupted.
What are Compute Engine's saleable machines?
Smartable machines are unique instances in Compute Engine, and although they can be shut down within 24 hours or less, they are very economical. These features can be useful for applications where:
- Temporary high compute capacity is needed.
- Outages do not severely affect processes (as in cases of big data analysis with frameworks such as Hadoop).
These machines are not suitable for applications that require continuous operation, such as game servers, but represent a cost-effective option for big data farms and batch processing.
The Google Compute Engine is a powerful tool that empowers companies to efficiently develop, scale and manage applications. If you are interested in optimizing your compute resources, the elasticity and accessibility offered by this service are worthy of attention, so come and explore the possibilities offered by GCP and let us know about your experiences with virtual machines in the Platzi comments space!
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