Item: Google Cloud IoT
Rating: 4
Author: Jeffrey Lange

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

I had to use Google Cloud IoT platform for building a smart home project to interact with entities, mostly Google's Nest thermometer. The third-party software was called Home Assistant, where you can connect IoT devices and automate making a smart home a lot smoother. There is a lot of integration that happens doing it this way but the functionality is very pleasing.

Pros and Cons

Access to several services.
Very thorough services.
Wide range of functionality.

Not beginner friendly.
Needs more tutorials and walk throughs on how to get started.
Very complicated and unless you know what you are doing you will be lost.
Lack of material found on how to do each section / services.

Most Important Features

Needs to be User friendly.
Tutorials need to be easy accessible.
A working example needs to be included with each service.

Return on Investment

The amount of hours to get things integrated is negative.
The amount of hours researching how to get devices integrated is negative.
Overall the amount of time and effort getting things working has been a negative experience.

Key Insights

Do you think Google Cloud IoT delivers good value for the price?

Are you happy with Google Cloud IoT's feature set?

Did Google Cloud IoT live up to sales and marketing promises?

Did implementation of Google Cloud IoT go as expected?

Would you buy Google Cloud IoT again?

Other Software Used

Adobe Dreamweaver, Terminal, Ubuntu Linux, Microsoft 365, NordVPN, Discord, IBM Cloud Virtual Servers, Notepad++, Kali Linux, Fedora Linux, Facebook Business Manager, Adobe PhotoShop, Adobe Illustrator CC, Adobe Premiere Pro, Adobe Acrobat DC, Adobe Bridge, Microsoft Windows, GitHub

Likelihood to Recommend

I consider myself very techy and found Google Cloud IoT platform very challenging to manage. The lack of tutorials and discussions to understand how each section works is very challenging. I specifically made a connection after several hours to Google Nest to third-party integration, Home Assistant. Shortly after Google Cloud upgraded to a new version breaking the connection. This was extremely frustrating. No service should take several hours to figure out, in my opinion, if it does, the platform is doing a poor job of making it easy. I'm personally very discouraged any time I ever have to use this platform. It's very hard to find answers.

Google Clout IoT is very complex to beginners

Overall Satisfaction with Google Cloud IoT