Google Cloud Platform

In this, article you’ll learn about What is Google Cloud Platform (GCP), Why Google Cloud Platform, Software as a Service, Platform as a Service and Infrastructure as a service.

Cloud computing is defined as the services offered through remote servers on the internet. These services might include database storage, applications, compute power and other IT resources over the pay-as-you-go pricing approach. The remote server allows users to save, modify, or process data on the internet or cloud-based platform instead of storing it on a local server or their devices.

Cloud computing is evolving due to fast performance, better manageability, and less maintenance. It helps organizations to minimize the number of resources and overall infrastructure costs. Additionally, it helps IT teams better focus on the important applications, services, and processes and achieve the company’s goals.

Typically, the cloud-computing providers offer their services according to the following three standard models:

• Platform as a Service (PaaS)
• Software as a Service (SaaS)
• Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)

What is Google Cloud Platform?

Google Cloud Platform (GCP) is a suite of cloud computing services provided by Google. It is a public cloud computing platform consisting of a variety of services like compute, storage, networking, application development, Big Data, and more, which run on the same cloud infrastructure that Google uses internally for its end-user products, such as Google Search, Photos, Gmail and YouTube, etc.

The services of GCP can be accessed by software developers, cloud administrators and IT professionals over the Internet or through a dedicated network connection.

Why Google Cloud Platform?

Google Cloud Platform is known as one of the leading cloud providers in the ITfield. The services and features can be easily accessed and used by the software developers and users with little technical knowledge. Google has been on top amongst its competitors, offering the highly scalable and most reliable platform for building, testing and deploying the applications in the real-time environment.

Apart from this, GCP was announced as the leading cloud platform in the Gartner’s IaaS Magic Quadrant in 2018. Gartner is one of the leading research and advisory company. Gartner organized a campaign where Google Cloud Platform was compared with other cloud providers, and GCP was selected as one of the top three providers in the market.

Most companies use data centers because of the availability of cost forecasting, hardware certainty, and advanced control. However, they lack the necessary features to run and maintain resources in the data center. GCP, on the other side, is a fully-featured cloud platform that includes:

• Capacity: Sufficient resources for easy scaling whenever required. Also, effective management of those resources for optimum performance.
• Security: Multi-level security options to protect resources, such as assets, network and OS -components.
• Network Infrastructure: Number of physical, logistical, and human-resource-related components, such as wiring, routers, switches, firewalls, load balancers, etc.
• Support: Skilled professionals for installation, maintenance, and support.
• Bandwidth: Suitable amount of bandwidth for peak load.
• Facilities: Other infrastructure components, including physical equipment and power resources.

Therefore, Google Cloud Platform is a viable option for businesses, especially when the businesses require an extensive catalog of services with global recognition.

1. Software as a Service (SaaS)

Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) is a way of delivering services and applications over the Internet. Instead of installing and maintaining software, we simply access it via the Internet, freeing ourselves from the complex software and hardware management.It removes the need to install and run applications on our own computers or in the data centers eliminating the expenses of hardware as well as software maintenance.
SaaS provides a complete software solution which you purchase on a pay-as-you-go basis from a cloud service provider.Most SaaS applications can be run directly from a web browser without any downloads or installations required.The SaaS applications are sometimes called Web-based software, on-demand software, or hosted software.

Advantages of SaaS

1. Cost Effective : Pay only for what you use
2. Reduced time : Users can run most SaaS apps directly from their web browser without needing to download and install any software.This reduces the time spent in installation and configuration, and can reduce the issues that can get in the way of the software deployment.
3. Accessibility : We can Access app data from anywhere.
4. Automatic updates : Rather than purchasing new software, customers rely on a SaaS provider to automatically perform the updates.
5. Scalability : It allows the users to access the services and features on demand.

The various companies providing software as a service are Cloud9 Analytics, Salesforce.com, Cloud Switch, Microsoft Office 365, Eloqua, dropBox and Cloud Tran.

2. Platform as a Service (PaaS)

PaaS is a category of cloud computing that provides a platform and environment to allow developers to build applications and services over the internet. PaaS services are hosted in the cloud and accessed by users simply via their web browser.
A PaaS provider hosts the hardware and software on its own infrastructure. As a result, PaaS frees users from having to install in-house hardware and software to develop or run a new application.Thus, the development and deployment of the application takes place independent of the hardware.
The consumer does not manage or control the underlying cloud infrastructure including network, servers, operating systems, or storage, but has control over the deployed applications and possibly configuration settings for the application-hosting environment.

Advantages of PaaS

1. Simple and convenient for users : It provides much of the infrastructure and other IT services, which users can access anywhere via a web browser.
2. Cost Effective : It charges for the services provided on a per-use basis thus eliminating the expenses one may have for on-premises hardware and software.
3. Efficiently managing the lifecycle : It is designed to support the complete web application lifecycle: building, testing, deploying, managing and updating.
4. Efficiency : It allows for higher-level programming with reduced complexity thus, the overall development of the application can be more effective

The various companies providing Platform as a service are Amazon Web services, Salesforce, Windows Azure, Google App Engine, cloud Bess and IBM smart cloud.

3. Infrastructure as a service (IaaS)

Infrastructure as a service (IaaS) is a service model that delivers computer infrastructure on an outsourced basis to support various operations. Typically IaaS is a service where infrastructure is provided as an outsource to enterprises such as networking equipments, devices, database and web servers.
Infrastructure as a service (IaaS) is also known as Hardware as a service (HaaS).IaaS customers pay on a per-use basis, typically by the hour, week or month. Some providers also charge customers based on the amount of virtual machine space they use.
It simply provides the underlying operating systems, security, networking, and servers for developing such applications, services, and for deploying development tools, databases, etc.

Advantages of IaaS

1. Cost Effective : Eliminates capital expense and reduces ongoing cost and IaaS customers pay on a per use basis, typically by the hour, week or month.
2. Website hosting : Running websites using IaaS can be less expensive than traditional web hosting.
3. Security : The IaaS Cloud Provider may provide better security than your existing software.
4. Maintainence : There is no need to manage the underlying data center or the introduction of new releases of the development or underlying software. This is all handled by the IaaS Cloud Provider.

The various companies providing Infrastructure as a service are Amazon web services, Bluestack, IBM, Openstack, Rackspace and Vmware.