Likelihood to Recommend Google Cloud Platform Cloud functions are an excellent way to start a serverless journey in GCP, however, using Cloud Run may be the better solution. For users not acquainted with Docker & Linux, I would definitely recommend Google Cloud Functions, however, for more experienced users, Cloud Run may be better suited.
Read full review The Google
Kubernetes Engine clusters are very good at being a managed cloud K8s platform - lots of documentation, features, and updates are available. It's also newbie-friendly - for both administrators and developers. Unfortunately, currently, it cannot reach true zero scale - thus, costs (rent for the service) are still involved even if you are barely using it. Thankfully, it's possible to have alternatives in Google Cloud:
Your own K8s cluster on Compute Engine VMs - you manage it completely; it will have access to a lot of Google Cloud services. Cloud Run cluster - less documented but more flexible Anthos clusters - you can use this service for a lot of types of K8s clusters - Google Kubernetes Engine, Cloud Run, on-prem, AWS, Azure Read full review Pros 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. Read full review Cons Needing a zip file is problematic (when wanting to automate deployment for example). Requires another solution to execute automatically (ex. cloud scheduler). Read full review 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 Read full review Usability Overall Google Cloud Functions is losing a lot of benefits to other GCP services, making it less attractive to users. A simple example would be the need to zip application files and push them to Google Storage which makes it a bit complicated to automate via a CI/CD pipeline. Another "similar" solution would be using Cloud Run although the need for a docker image is there, with the recent evolutions to Cloud Run (ability to downscale to 0) it makes a lot more interesting.
Read full review Google Kubernetes Engine has a good UI and documentation that facilitates setup and helps get projects moving along quickly Its built-in logging integrations with StackDriver make it easier to monitor the application and log issues quickly Automated orchestration, deployment, and scaling of nodes and networking are all easily configurable with yaml files Read full review Support Rating 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.
Read full review Very good
Kubernetes distribution with a reasonable total price. Integration with storage and load balancer for ingress and services speed up every process deployment.
Read full review Alternatives Considered GKE spins up new nodes a LOT faster than AKS. GKE's auto scaler runs a lot smoother than AKS. GKE has a lot more
Kubernetes features baked in natively.
Read full review Professional Services When issues came up, we reached out to some folks at GCP and they seemed to be very prompt and attentive to our needs. They were always willing to help and provide additional details or recommendations or links to resources. This kind of support is very helpful as it allows us to navigate GKE with more confidence. Read full review Return on Investment Using it for FinOps, we cut the bill in 2 for certain services (out of production). Read full review Positive: Allowed us to start and produce working software regardless of our experience level. Positive: Integration with other Google Cloud services that we wanted to use anyway. Negative: It's kinda clunky, and some scenarios seem Google Kubernetes Engine-specific instead of being more integrated with other Google Cloud services or the web UI. Read full review ScreenShots