Google Cloud Platform

GCP is a very complicated platform, with unlimited potential for those who know how to use it; but once you learn how to use a specific tool - it becomes a very powerful and simple tool to use.

I currently only use the Compute Manager (Virtual Machine), VPC Network (External IP) and Network Services (Cloud DNS) to run a cloud-based Wordpress site. Overall, once you learn the system, Google Cloud offers a very powerful solution for web management - giving unlimited potential for upgrades & sizes, allowing for localized solutions & access to the full Google Cloud network, and giving a (cheap) solution for powerful web hosting. With GCP, we spend only $7 a month (CAD), and our site runs significantly faster than it previously did on other hosting services.

On top of that, GCP allows complete control over the backend linux server; which is a learning curve in itself, but offers quick & easy ways to manage every aspect of your website - the PHP version, specific file permissions, custom platform solutions (such as access to install different Google API's).

Google Cloud Platform is an insanely powerful platform with incredible features, but it also carries a VERY steep learning curve and is not for the faint of heart. While other web hosting services provide a simple interface most people can learn quickly, GCP throws you into the deep-end; requiring deeper knowledge of linux code (for backend management) and an understanding of web hosting in order to operate properly. Fortunately, with numerous guides and support forums/groups out there, it can be easy to learn.

The integration with other Google products is particularly impressive and makes it easy to set up. Using Forms for entry to Sheets which sync to BigQuery and DataStudio makes for very quick and easy expansion. Recently they have added a feature whereby query results can be viewed in Sheets for quick, less technical analysis.

I was particularly impressed by BigQuery's free public datasets: such as covid.

AppSheet is much easier to use than MS PowerApps.

They are continually adding novel features, with a natural language processing feature coming soon, allowing SQL queries to be composed using natural English.

BigQuery does not feel like a mature product yet. The UI can be buggy and is not particularly user friendly.

DataStudio lacks the flexibility of software like MS PowerBI; it lacks basic scientific graphs like boxplots and control charts and I would not recommend it for scientific data.

AppSheet lacks the flexibility of MS PowerApps and is priced per user, making it expensive to scale and greatly reducing the potential use cases.

My marketing team uses Google Cloud Platform to collect Google Analytics clickstream data and marry it with structured data from other sources. I analyze that correlated dataset using SQL queries. Some benefits I see off using GCP: I can access data online using a Google email address which I already use for other Google tools. I can export the data extract using Google Sheets and store it in Google Drive. I can import additional data by setting up a daily feed from Google Analytics. So, I get the benefits of a relational database with ability to scale using Google servers.

Google Cloud Platform is great for importing datasets from Google Analytics and other Google suite tools. But from tools which are not in the Google eco system, it involves heavy lift from ETL developers or architects. Additionally, GCP Bigquery tool has a limit on the volume of queries an analyst can run. Once that limit or cap is crossed, companies have to pay extra. So, using the LIMIT command in SQL becomes critical to limit the numbers of rows. Also, there is a challenge of legacy SQL vs. current version because they use different syntax.

1. One of the best User Interface available for cloud services in Industry.
2. Evolving and always enhancing feature-set which can not be ignored. Anything that can be service-based and can be provided as a managed service, you will find it in Google Cloud Platform.
3. Below are some of the best and most reliable services you will be getting along with this platform:
- Google Kubernetes Engine: is one of the best managed K8s engine. The availability of this tool is fabulous and configuring setting up clusters is done in minutes. Also, the performance of this service is amazing, be it in any region, across the globe.
- Google Cloud Storage: Can be used for any sort of files, any format of any size is accepted. It is by far one of the best places to store your cloud workloads data and files.
- Google Pub/ Sub: is basically publication/ subscription service, which is also fully managed. Provides blazing fast speed in delivering and receiving messages across this service.

1. Free trial is a little low on duration. At the moment, the free trial provides 3 months of access, however, I personally feel this is a little less time for an organization to test out their workloads and decide on GO/NO GO decisions.
2. Cache's shall be better managed. At the moment, a very constant and high-speed internet is required so as to manage this platform. If caches can be managed and better utilized, platform laggy-ness due to fluctuating internet bandwidth can be reduced, which would largely impact the user experience.

Google Cloud Platform is very easy to get started with compared to other clouds. There is free training videos and courses. The costs are among the lowest of all cloud platforms.

At the beginning compute resources ran out in datacenters that you were already in and using. Also, sometimes features are depreciated or changed to paying for. There is a few months notice on those but still an inconvenience.