Google Compute Engine

Score8.7 out of 10

202 Reviews and Ratings

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.

Categories & Use Cases

Media

Screenshot of How to choose the right VM
With thousands of applications, each with different requirements, which VM is right for you?

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Migration Center is Google Cloud's unified migration platform with features like cloud spend estimation, asset discovery, and a variety of tooling for different migration scenarios.

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Screenshot of How to choose the right VM With thousands of applications, each with different requirements, which VM is right for you?

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

Automation
Automation of administrative tasks
Category average: 7.4
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

Marcos Vinícius Costa de Carvalho View 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

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

Marcos Vincius Costa de Carvalho View 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

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

Verified User

Engineer in Information Technology (501-1000 employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Best for scalable customizable VMS with strong performance Google Cloud integration

Pros

Cost Benefits- Users can benefit from sustained use discounts reducing costs based on usage
High Availability- It offers automatic failover and managed instance groups to ensure application availability

Cons

Dashboard - A more customizable dashboard with widgets for key metrics, such as CPU usage, network traffic, and storage, would allow users to monitor their resources more effectively
Enhanced Container Support - A more unified container management platform that integrates container orchestration, and storage to simplify the containerization process
Networking and Security - Adding support for more advanced networking features, such as multi-cloud peering

Return on Investment

Reduced Costs - Pay-as-you-go pricing and preemptible VMs lower infrastructure costs compared to on-premises solutions
Complexity in Management Requires expertise to optimize and manage instances effectively

Alternatives Considered

Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling

Usability

Amazon Web Services

Microsoft Azure

Amazon S3 (Simple Storage Service)

Google Compute Engine

What is Google Compute Engine?

Categories & Use Cases

Media

Key Features

Top Performing Features

Pre-configured templates

Pre-defined machine images

Elastic load balancing

Areas for Improvement

Automation

Dynamic scaling

Monitoring tools

Reviews

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Pros

Cons

Return on Investment

Other Software Used

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Pros

Cons

Return on Investment

Alternatives Considered

Other Software Used

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Pros

Cons

Return on Investment

Alternatives Considered

Other Software Used

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Pros

Cons

Return on Investment

Alternatives Considered

Other Software Used

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Pros

Cons

Return on Investment

Alternatives Considered

Usability

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