For our Discussion Post this week we had to choose a cloud service to do some brief research and analysis on.  I chose to look into Google Cloud because I am using it in another class this term, and so far my experience has been great.  I had not used a cloud service before this term so it has been really fun and informative getting to learn how to work with “the cloud”, so I thought it would be fun to discuss it here as well.

Google cloud offers a lot of services, around 95 to be exact, that fall into areas such as AI and machine learning, data analytics, computing, API management, and more [2].  From using Google Cloud in my Cloud Application Development class I have been impressed with all the features so far, though I have only used a couple.  

As I mentioned, I haven’t used other cloud service providers other than Google Cloud, so it is difficult for me to compare it to others based on personal experience. I can say Google Cloud’s UI, while a little overwhelming at first,  is very rich with a clean and informative dashboard that I think would be a challenge for other services to compete with.

Comparing it to one of its main competitors, AWS, Google cloud service wins out when it comes to costs by being up to 20% cheaper.  However, it does not offer as many services as AWS, which offers around 200 – over double Google’s amount.  AWS also has a much further reach than Google, having customers in 245 countries and territories where Google only has 35.  Google does have a better option for a free tier though, with basic features that are always free and a free $300 of credit for new users [1].

So when it comes to cloud services, and choosing which one to work with, it really boils down to your project’s specific needs and which fits best for your available resources.  Personally, I think it would be interesting to try out other cloud services in the future, but I am very likely to continue using Google Cloud for both personal and professional projects in the future.

Sources:

[1] “Google Cloud vs AWS: How Do The Two Cloud Providers Compare?”, CloudHealth by VMware, October 19, 2020.  Retrieved from: https://www.cloudhealthtech.com/blog/google-cloud-vs-aws

[2] “Google Cloud Documentation”, Google, Retrieved from: https://cloud.google.com/docs