List of the Top GCP Services in 2024 | Google Cloud Platform

22 Feb | Qaiser Shakoor | Cloud Computing

Knowing the significance of the top GCP services is crucial for individuals and companies seeking to use cloud computing effectively. GCP provides many services for creating, launching, and controlling apps and services worldwide. Understanding these primary services helps people and companies use the platform's tools in a better way. This improves efficiency and makes operations simple. Eventually, it leads to achieving better business consequences.

Moreover, GCP is complicated to a certain extent because it has different services and options. Understanding its top services can help people and companies use GCP better.

Defining the Google Cloud Platform:

Google offers various cloud computing services under the GCP. These services help people and companies store, manage, and handle data and apps in the cloud. It means you don't need on-site infrastructure or physical hardware.

GCP is known for being reliable, scalable, and secure. For this reason, many businesses, regardless of size, choose it.

List of Top GCP Services:

Google Cloud Platform provides various services for different cloud computing needs. Here, we highlight some of the most commonly used services GCP offers.

1. Compute Engine:

One of the top GCP services is Compute Engine. It provides versatile, high-performance virtual machines to develop and run applications, with capabilities such as:

Wide choice of popular operating systems and machine types
Global infrastructure for delivering low latency, high availability
Per-second billing model saves costs
Live migration of VMs across hosts minimizes disruptions
Shielded VMs and encryption safeguard workloads

For core computing needs, Compute Engine stands out for price performance, security, and smooth scalability via autoscaling groups.

2. Cloud Storage:

Cloud Storage is a highly durable service of GCP. It hosts mass volumes of unstructured data cost-effectively, such as documents, images, backups, and media files. Its benefits are given below:

Industry-leading durability and availability
Rich media management capabilities like image analysis, and transcoding.
Role-based access controls and encryption protect sensitive data.
Ecosystem integration simplifies cloud migrations.

As an infinitely scalable object store, Cloud Storage shines for serving media cost-efficiently while keeping pace with rising data demands.

3. BigQuery:

GCP's serverless BigQuery facilitates gaining insights from vast datasets using standard SQL. It provides the following benefits:

Petabyte-scale analysis capacities with zero infrastructure
Blazing-fast performance allows interactive analysis
Integrates datasets from Cloud Storage, Bigtable, API feeds, etc.
Integrated ML for predictive analytics and forecasts
Data visualization and geospatial analytics baked-in

BigQuery offers exceptional speed, scale, and user-friendliness for real-time analytics and strategic business intelligence apps.

4. Kubernetes Engine:

Container deployments are simplified with GCP's fully managed Kubernetes Engine (GKE). The highlights of Kubernetes Engine include:

Rapidly deploy, manage, and scale containerized apps
Minimal expenses with serverless Kubernetes infrastructure
Simplified operations with cluster auto-upgrade
Granular visibility into health, logs, and utilization
Advanced security against threats and anomalies

GKE makes running containerized workloads smooth while eliminating infrastructure burdens.

5. Cloud Filestore:

Cloud Filestore is a service provided by Google. It offers scalable and reliable shared file storage. It serves various needs, ensuring easy management. This storage solution is ideal for users who need access to similar files. It's specifically useful for enterprises and large-scale applications.

This GCP service ensures your data remains durable and accessible, meeting enterprise-level requirements. It's compatible with NFS and POSIX, ensuring seamless integration with various systems.

6. Google App Engine (GAE):

This GCP service allows you to create and run applications using the same technology that powers Google's apps. With App Engine, you can develop and launch your projects quickly. It is simple to maintain because there is no need to worry about updating software, hardware, or data backups. Plus, it grows with your needs effortlessly.

7. Cloud SQL:

Cloud SQL is another helpful web service provided by Google. It lets you create and manage databases on their cloud platform. With Cloud SQL, you can easily set up and use relational databases online. Imagine having someone take care of your databases entirely so you can concentrate on your apps and services. That's what this service offers.

GCP Services in Action: Success Stories

The following leading brands have used GCP services to drive groundbreaking outcomes:

HSBC taps advanced data analytics in BigQuery to detect financial crime faster amidst growing regulatory burdens.
The Washington Post relies on Compute Engine to stitch together disparate subscriber data sources for a unified customer view.
Citrix uses Kubernetes Engine to reduce the deployment time of EUC environment updates from one week to hours.

How to Begin Using Top GCP Services?

Follow these steps when deploying your first workloads on these Google Cloud Services:

Compute Engine:

Enable Compute Engine API for your GCP project.
Launch a VM instance by selecting the machine type and OS image.
Secure VM using identity & access management.
Connect and configure the VM environment.

Cloud Storage:

Create a new Cloud Storage bucket.
Upload objects like images and files to a bucket.
Manage access permissions on the bucket.
Embed storage into applications.

BigQuery:

Create a new BigQuery dataset.
Load data sources like CSV into the dataset.
Execute SQL queries to analyze the dataset.
Build charts/dashboards visualizing insights.

The Future of GCP:

Because of Google's technical expertise, cloud-native development methodology, and Silicon Valley background, various innovative advancements are anticipated in the following areas:

Confidential computing to enable encrypted data analytics
Anthos for modernizing applications across environments
Cloud Code IDE advancing cloud-native development
Contact Center AI to reimagine customer engagement

Early access to new technologies will enable you to benefit from GCP advancements.

FAQs:

1. What sets GCP apart from others?

Driven by Google's mighty infrastructure and superior security protocols, GCP provides a broad range of services. This combination guarantees excellent performance and reliability, setting GCP apart from the competition.

2. How can companies select the top GCP services that best suit their requirements?

Businesses should assess their requirements and objectives to match them with the features and benefits of GCP services. Consulting with GCP experts can also aid in decision-making.

3. Is GCP appropriate for startups and small businesses?

GCP provides services to all sizes of enterprises. It provides solutions that can change and expand with small businesses as they grow. These options are budget-friendly too.

Conclusion:

As the cloud becomes the launchpad for change, getting the right Cloud solutions grows more critical. GCP brings formidable strengths in price performance, security, analytics, and container orchestration through its top services.

Each of GCP's services has unique advantages designed to meet different requirements. They enable businesses to control the capabilities of cloud technology for better performance and lower expenses. With these services, companies can enhance their operations and achieve superior outcomes.

Rather than complexity, the Google Cloud Platform strives for approachability. Unlock simpler, intelligent cloud computing by putting GCP services to work for your business. The future remains bright on Google Cloud.

Tags: #GoogleCloud