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Google Compute Engine

Score8.6 out of 10

204 Reviews and Ratings

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What is Google Compute Engine?

Google Compute Engine is an infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) product from Google Cloud. It provides virtual machines with carbon-neutral infrastructure which run on the same data centers that Google itself uses.

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Key Features

Learn about the best (and worst!) features Google Compute Engine has to offer, as determined by TrustRadius' reviewers.
Based on 204 ratings of Google Compute Engine's features
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Top Performing Features

  • Pre-configured templates

    Pre-defined templates for virtual machines

    Category average: 7.7

  • Pre-defined machine images

    Range of different server configurations available

    Category average: 8.2

  • Elastic load balancing

    Automatic balancing and distribution of resources across multiple virtual computers

    Category average: 8.9

Areas for Improvement

  • Automation

    Automation of administrative tasks

    Category average: 7.5

  • Dynamic scaling

    Ease of scaling up or down in response to customer needs

    Category average: 8.7

  • Monitoring tools

    Monitoring tools provide alerts when problems are detected

    Category average: 7.6

Reviews

What users are saying about Google Compute Engine.
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Great tool with some caveats

Incentivized
Marcos Vinícius Costa de CarvalhoView profile
Business Analyst in Information Technology at ACE Ventures (51-200 employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use Google Compute Engine to run virtual machines that host our internal applications. As we don't have on-prem servers, we need a cloud structure to host our developed applications and the open source ones. We basically use cloud VMs and some their underlying network infra structure, leveraging the IAM policies to adequately provide access to our team members.

Pros

  • Reliable virtual machines
  • Low network latencies
  • committed use discounts

Cons

  • Some random network disconnections
  • Never could get to configure the machine monitoring properly
  • It has too many options in different menus, feels somewhat overwhelming

Return on Investment

  • GCE made our company's opensource stack be possible, significantly reducing other SaaS costs
  • Optimized cloud costs with the committed discounts
  • Allowed us to take control of the scale of each application without impacting user experience and improved user satisfaction

Other Software Used

Gemini, ChatGPT, Anthropic Claude

Infrastructure as a Service with high availability at lower cost

Incentivized
Verified User
Project Manager in Information Technology (11-50 employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use Google Compute Engine (GCE) as an Infrastructure as a Service to run some medium-scale workloads of the application. We also use it to run web servers for internal usage. It is very convenient to create, deploy and scale instances based on the demand and it integrates very well with other cloud services.

Pros

  • zero downtime maintenance
  • great global load balancing
  • automatic discounts

Cons

  • very complex pricing
  • learning curve
  • difficult user interface (lot of options)

Return on Investment

  • positive: reduced costs + budget alerts
  • negative: initial migration because the app was not optimized for the cloud

Alternatives Considered

Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) and Microsoft Azure

Other Software Used

Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2), Firebase, Couchbase Server

Google Compute Engine - Reliable and salable

Incentivized
Verified User
Consultant in Information Technology (10,001+ employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

In our organization we use Google Compute Engine to host our multiple internal applications. It helped to solve the infra scalability, resource management, optimizing operational cost.

Pros

  • Low latency Network
  • Flexible billing option
  • VM customization
  • Auto scaling

Cons

  • Third party compatibility
  • Support documentations should be simple
  • VM is slow during startup
  • Hybrid cloud setup is complex

Return on Investment

  • Reduced operational cost
  • Increased deployment efficiency
  • Eliminated on prim dependency
  • Scalability

Alternatives Considered

Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) and Azure Virtual Machines

Other Software Used

Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2), Azure Virtual Machines

Google Compute Engine - Solid choice for low budget companies

Incentivized
Marcos Vincius Costa de CarvalhoView profile
Business Analytics Analist in Information Technology at ACE (51-200 employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

I use Google Compute Engine to run the virtual machines that power our entire business, from our public apps to our internal databases. It solves the fundamental problems of infrastrucure cost, reliability and scalability

Pros

  • Variablity of machine types
  • Instance provisioning Speed
  • Seamless ecosystem integration
  • Fair billing

Cons

  • Steep learning curve in the UI
  • Cost forecasting and Management
  • Default Resource Quotas and increase process

Return on Investment

  • Reduced costs over AWS and Azure
  • Financially Enabled us to host our own Applications
  • Direct Reduction in Monthly Compute Costs

Alternatives Considered

Azure Virtual Machines

Other Software Used

Pipedrive, n8n

The cloud server infrastructure you need a few clicks away

Incentivized
ISIDRO MORANView profile
Director, Engineering in Engineering at Vistadash (51-200 employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Our entire server infrastructure runs on Google Compute Engine. This includes web, authentication and CI/CD servers (Jenkins). We can easily scale by deploying virtual instances as needed with just a few clicks. Tasks such as backup and monitoring are handled automatically, allowing our team to stay lean and focus on our main subject matter.

Pros

  • Instance deployment
  • Backup and Recovery
  • Alerts and monitoring

Cons

  • OS upgrades
  • Resource allocation
  • Disk management

Return on Investment

  • Zero infrastructure headcount
  • Low to none support associated costs
  • Accurate cost forecast

Alternatives Considered

Google Cloud SQL, Google Cloud Storage, Google Cloud Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) and Google Cloud Deployment Manager

Other Software Used

Atlassian Bitbucket, Atlassian Jira, Jenkins

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