Google Compute Engine: Computing without limits
By Craig McLuckie, Product Manager, Google Compute Engine
Over the years, Google has built some of the most high performing, scalable and efficient data
centers in the world by constantly refining our hardware and software. Since 2008, we've been
working to open up our infrastructure to outside developers and businesses so they can take
advantage of our cloud as they build applications and websites and store and analyze data. So
far this includes products like Google App Engine, Google Cloud Storage, and Google BigQuery.
Today, in response to many requests from developers and businesses, we're going a step
further. We're introducing
Google Compute
Engine, an Infrastructure-as-a-Service product that lets you run Linux Virtual
Machines (VMs) on the same infrastructure that powers Google. This goes beyond just giving you
greater flexibility and control; access to computing resources at this scale can fundamentally
change the way you think about tackling a problem.
Google Compute Engine offers:
- Scale. At Google we tackle huge computing tasks all the
time, like indexing the web, or handling billions of search queries a day. Using Google's data
centers, Google Compute Engine reduces the time to scale up for tasks that require large
amounts of computing power. You can launch enormous compute clusters - tens of thousands of
cores or more.
- Performance. Many of you have learned to live with erratic
performance in the cloud. We have built our systems to offer strong and consistent performance
even at massive scale. For example, we have sophisticated network connections that ensure
consistency. Even in a shared cloud you don’t see interruptions; you can tune your app and
rely on it not degrading.
- Value. Computing in the cloud is getting even more appealing from
a cost perspective. The economy of scale and efficiency of our data centers allows Google
Compute Engine to give you 50% more compute for your money than with other leading cloud
providers. You can see pricing details here.
The capabilities of Google Compute Engine include:
- Compute. Launch Linux VMs on-demand. 1, 2, 4 and 8
virtual core VMs are available with 3.75GB RAM per virtual core.
- Storage. Store data on local disk, on our new persistent block
device, or on our Internet-scale object store, Google Cloud
Storage.
- Network. Connect your VMs together using our high-performance
network technology to form powerful compute clusters and manage connectivity to the Internet
with configurable firewalls.
- Tooling. Configure and control your VMs via a scriptable command
line tool or web UI. Or you can create your own dynamic management system using our
API.
At launch, we have worked with a number of partners - such as
RightScale,
Puppet Labs,
OpsCode,
Numerate,
Cliqr and
MapR - to integrate their products with Google Compute
Engine. These partners offer management services that make it easy for you to move your
applications to the cloud and between different cloud environments.
You can learn more about Google Compute Engine
here. We’re going to pace ourselves and start
with Google Compute Engine in limited preview (
sign up here), but our goal is to give you
all the pieces you need to build anything you want in the cloud. Whether you need a platform
like Google App Engine, or virtual machines like Google Compute Engine, these days, you define
your limits. We’re just at the start of what the cloud can do.
Craig McLuckie is the Product Management Lead for Google Compute Engine. He spends
his days working with an amazing engineering team to open Google’s infrastructure to the
world.
Posted by Scott Knaster,
Editor
