Google Cloud (or GCP) is a set of cloud computing services offered by Google. Like other cloud computing services, it provides users with access to someone else’s compute infrastructure. Google’s, in this case. Essentially, this means users can perform a variety of computing tasks without having to deal with managing servers, databases, or handling other IT tasks.
Popular Offerings
Some popular GCP offerings — at least ones that I tend to use — include:
- Compute Engine, which offers virtual machines (VMs) to users;
- Cloud Storage, which offers object storage;
- BigQuery, an analytics data warehouse;
- Cloud Run, a managed/serverless compute platform;
- Cloud Build, a serverless CI/CD platform that lets you build and test software;
- Artifact Registry, storage for artifacts and other dependencies
These are just a handful. There are lots of others — some that offer stand-alone services (e.g. Cloud SQL) and some that help you conveniently work with other services (e.g. Secret Manager)