Google Cloud Functions vs. Google Kubernetes Engine

It is easy to use, in 15 minutes you just have to follow a few steps, do some easy configurations and you have the project ready to run, once it is connected to the codebase, the execution is automatic. For anyone coming into the google environment, Functions make code execution easy and transparent. CI/CD is perfect

Incentivized

Google Kubernetes Engine is well suited for dynamic and large workloads since it can scale up with usage. It is easily configurable, which allows for flexibility. User interface is simple to navigate, which reduces roadblocks for a team with people unfamiliar with Kubernetes. Great if you are already using other GCP services as it integrates well with that.

Incentivized

• integration with oAuth
• integration with Firebase
• integration with React Frontend

Incentivized

• Deployment of a new GKE cluster is really fast in comparison to other cloud providers.
• GCP is ahead other vendors and always provide the most up to date Kubernetes version.
• GKE automation for master upgrade and the worker nodes pool works really well.

Incentivized

• Needing a zip file is problematic (when wanting to automate deployment for example).
• Requires another solution to execute automatically (ex. cloud scheduler).

Incentivized

• Not as intuitive as it could be
• Documentation could be better, especially for people using other Google Cloud tools
• Not the preferred Kubernetes Engine for many apps

Incentivized

The console UI is pretty nasty. Managing various authentication/permissions configurations is just a nightmare. On the other hand, once you are over the hump it's not so bad. AWS Lambda is no better.

Incentivized

It's a great product if you learn it. It has flexibility and is very strong. Autoscaling and Resource management make running huge applications a breeze. Using Helm with Kubernetes and Terraform for infrastructure creation can totally automate your CICD pipeline. You also get easy access to CUDA cores for machine learning.

Incentivized

Documentation is provided and clear for this service. Although GCP support is included in the current contract we didn't get to use it since the process is pretty straightforward.

Incentivized

Google support is excellent and helpful, but the first answer is always so bureaucratic no matter how many logs, evidence, and information you sent.

Incentivized

GCF and Lambda are basically 1:1 the same. Fairly high level of complexity and learning curve. Comparable "power". Retool Workflows are a different sort of beast that is architecturally similar to externalizing a bit of logic in a "cloud function" (Retool calls them "workflows"). Retool workflows have a graphical UI for constructing logic flows which you would either love or hate. The #1 difference is cost. Retool Workflows are fantastically expensive compared to GCP or AWS Lambda.

Incentivized

We had to move several products to Google Cloud, and the Google Kubernetes Engine was the option recommended to us, so we investigated it and ran with it. Back then (2019), we were not aware of Cloud Run-provisioned K8s clusters, so our other option was a completely self-managed K8s cluster on Compute Engine VMs, which we did not have the knowledge of and capacity to handle.

Incentivized

• Using it for FinOps, we cut the bill in 2 for certain services (out of production).

Incentivized

• Compared to other big K8s providers it has the best price/performance factors.
• Upgrade process from stable to regular versions
• Old stable releases: 1.15/1.16 should be in a stable branch.

Incentivized