Google Cloud vs Google Compute Engine comparison

Google Cloud and Google Compute Engine are both solutions in the Infrastructure as a Service Clouds (IaaS) category. Google Cloud is ranked #5 with an average rating of 8.4, while Google Compute Engine is ranked #10 with an average rating of 8.7. Google Cloud holds a 8.2% mindshare in ISI, compared to Google Compute Engine’s 0.5% mindshare. Additionally, 97% of Google Cloud users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 93% of Google Compute Engine users who would recommend it.

Google Cloud

Read 73 Google Cloud reviews

7,351 Views
5,393 Comparison Views

97% willing to recommend

Google Compute Engine

Read 15 Google Compute Engine reviews

357 Views
216 Comparison Views

93% willing to recommend

Google Cloud

Google Compute Engine

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 16, 2024

Google Compute Engine and Google Cloud products compete in the cloud computing market. While Google Compute Engine is praised for efficient scaling and cost-effective customization of virtual machines, Google Cloud is favored for robust integration and ease of use with other Google services.

Features: Google Compute Engine offers customizable virtual machine configurations, efficient scaling with managed instance groups, and cost-effective Spot and preemptible instances. Google Cloud emphasizes product integration, simplified deployment, and enhanced data analysis capabilities through Google Cloud Datalab.

Room for Improvement: Google Compute Engine could improve its user interface, broaden region availability, and simplify licensing processes. Google Cloud may enhance analytics functionality, increase setup resources, and provide better cost transparency.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Google Compute Engine requires technical expertise for optimal use, with noted areas for improvement in customer response. Google Cloud is recognized for user-friendly deployment, though continuous support improvements are desired.

Pricing and ROI: Google Compute Engine operates on a pay-as-you-go model, offering potential savings, especially for development environments. Google Cloud offers competitive pricing but faces challenges in expected versus actual costs, with users appreciating its pricing flexibility.

To learn more, read our detailed Google Cloud vs. Google Compute Engine Report (Updated: December 2024).

Buyer's Guide

Google Cloud vs. Google Compute Engine

December 2024

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Categories and Ranking

Google Cloud

Ranking in Infrastructure as a Service Clouds (IaaS)

5th

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

7.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

PaaS Clouds (5th)

Google Compute Engine

Ranking in Infrastructure as a Service Clouds (IaaS)

10th

Average Rating

8.8

Reviews Sentiment

7.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of December 2024, in the Infrastructure as a Service Clouds (IaaS) category, the mindshare of Google Cloud is 8.2%, up from 5.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Google Compute Engine is 0.5%, up from 0.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Infrastructure as a Service Clouds (IaaS)

Featured Reviews

Monirul Islam Khan

Data Specialist at a non-profit with 10,001+ employees

Great for big data with off-the-charts scalability for storage and databases

The solution should be more configurable for high-volume databases. The managed service does not allow flexible database configurations that are needed for better filter performance. We have a TPS first-grade, high-volume database using an ERC system. We are moving to Clarity for managed services and need more configurations to support it. The solution could improve its management services for MongoDB. The website's memory only allows one TB.

Read full review

Ivy W.

Senior Data Scientist at Breuninger

A cost-effective and quite an elastic solution

I would say that Google Compute Engine is easy to use for skilled people and people with a tech background. For regular users who do not have experience with the cloud platform, it is not very user-friendly. If you wish to use Compute Engine, you must know a lot of technical terms such as availability, instance, and scalability. You also need to choose the proper instance for you. In my experience, there is a standard option, an advanced option, and a customized option for Google Compute Engine. You can choose the Compute Engine with high speed or with memory speed. All of this is too much for a person who is not tech-savvy. I am not sure whether they designed it like that on purpose or if they plan on improving it. I cannot think of any features that need to be upgraded.

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Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Pros

"Google Cloud has low downtime."

"The solution is scalable."

"The solution is stable and reliable."

"The tool's most valuable feature is encryption. Google Cloud has reduced our operational costs and increased efficiency. For example, deploying production applications traditionally took about a month, but with Google Cloud, it now takes only a day or two. This also extends to monitoring, allowing us to identify and address issues faster than on-premises solutions."

"What I like most about Google Cloud is its stability. I also like that its GUI works fine for my company."

"I have found almost everything valuable. Most cloud products are moving in this direction, including artificial intelligence, blockchain, and security."

"We can increase the storage as we need."

"It is very easy to share documents."

More Google Cloud pros

"The support for ephemeral instances has been particularly valuable for me. It allows me to significantly reduce costs for temporary virtual machines by automatically destroying them once they are no longer needed, which can result in cost savings of up to 90 percent. Additionally, the solution is easy to use."

"The main motive for choosing Google Compute Engine is pricing."

"I recommend the tool to others since it has high availability features, scalability, and stability."

"It's the most engineer-friendly product compared to Amazon AWS or Azure."

"The initial setup is reasonably straightforward. It's a handful of networks and a handful of computers."

"The solution helps to direct SSH into the machine at the click of a button. It also helps to deploy container images right from the UI. There is no need to manage the containers on the machine. I also like the tool’s Spot provision model."

"The solution is readily available, and software engineers can provision it. It is scalable and allows self-service."

"From a feature perspective, I find API integration, automation capabilities, and features like preemptive and Spot instances valuable. Migration tools have also been useful."

More Google Compute Engine pros

Cons

"The price could improve. Every customer would agree, that they would like the price to be reduced."

"They need to improve the costing for predictive analytics, which is mainly related to the tools that come with AI. They also need to improve the BigQuery cost optimization and the visualization."

"Google Cloud could improve the integration with other solutions."

"Google Cloud should provide more introductory videos on how to get started. Currently, very few of these resources are available. Additionally, training on Google Cloud products is not very well streamlined. Users have to search for training, which can be quite complex."

"The ease-of-use could be improved for less technical users."

"We'd like the storage to be increased."

"My only concern is that a number of the offerings are built on their own proprietary technologies which means means that, with respect to the offerings in Google Cloud, it's difficult to have a path to migrate to other cloud providers."

"I would improve the integration with other devices such as smartphones. It is integrated in our company, but I think it could be improved."

More Google Cloud cons

"There have been instances when a customer has tried to deploy a certain number of VMs inside a project, and they come across quota issues."

"It has some limitations. For example, you don't get through layer two connectivity. So I've had some difficulty deploying custom VMs. For example, you can't deploy a KVM file to file directly on GCP."

"The biggest problem is that it's got a very archaean and complex security environment that has to be very carefully set up and is easy to break."

"Google Compute Engine does not have many options at a lower tier level. If they had more options it will be better. For example, Amazon AWS or Microsoft Azure, have more options and different types of instances, of VMs we can select."

"I rate the product's stability around five to six out of ten."

"Google Compute Engine needs to have multi-region support. It would also be nice to have a tracking mechanism."

"The licensing process is not a very straightforward process."

"Google has a lack of focus on their products."

More Google Compute Engine cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The service is cheap and I give it a seven out of ten for the cost."

"This solution is worth the money we are paying. I would rate the pricing a three out of five."

"We use the NGO version so the cloud reasonably priced at $2 to $3 per month."

"The price of the solution could be better."

"The pricing is rated a six out of ten."

"The cost might be $10 a month per user, which is about $300 a month in total."

"The price of Google Cloud is affordable compared to others services. I pay monthly for the service."

"The solution is cheaper than AWS."

More Google Cloud pricing and cost advice

"Google is providing money for learning Google Compute Engine. They offer a $300 free trial to new customers. Any beginner can easily get started."

"In terms of improvement, one is definitely the licensing piece. So there is a feature, the BYOL (Bring Your Own License) licensing piece, to bring your own license. It is not that straightforward. It requires some support from Google to get it sorted, access those licenses, and configure those licenses."

"Google Compute Engine's pricing is flexible and the best of all other alternatives."

"It's $60,000 to $70,000 a month to replace about $10,000 a month in data center costs."

"I rate GCE's pricing a five out of ten since it's affordable."

"Google Compute Engine is not the least expensive solution. Microsoft Azure, and Microsoft One, are offering a less expensive solution. The price is based on usage. Whenever we use it, we have to pay for only usage. It is a pay-as-you-go model."

"The tool is reasonably priced, considering its scalability features. If we want to extend the server's capacity, we can do it, and I think it's reasonable."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Educational Organization

51%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Financial Services Firm

Computer Software Company

Manufacturing Company

22%

University

15%

Computer Software Company

15%

Healthcare Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Google Cloud?

Google Cloud is perceived as a cost-effective and user-friendly option, especially compared to AWS. The current affordability and ease of use make it suitable for medium-sized companies. While the ...

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What needs improvement with Google Cloud?

The performance after long-term use shows the storage is too full, and I cannot add more storage without paying for it. I want to migrate to another solution if I need to pay for additional storage...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Google Cloud?

For personal storage, Google Workspace, Google portal, Google video, Google file, and Google Cloud Shell for programming language.

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What do you like most about Google Compute Engine?

Everything is simple and useful. The initial setup is not challenging.

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Google Compute Engine?

Google resources are cheaper compared to AWS and Microsoft Azure. Among the three, Google is the cheapest option.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Google Compute Engine?

Google has a lack of focus on their products. They have many products in various areas of the market, but they do not productize or appeal to the market effectively. They should concentrate on prod...

See all answers

Comparisons

Alibaba Cloud vs Google Cloud

Compared 25% of the time

Akamai Connected Cloud (Linode) vs Google Cloud

Compared 14% of the time

Red Hat OpenShift vs Google Cloud

Compared 12% of the time

Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) vs Google Cloud

Compared 12% of the time

Pivotal Cloud Foundry vs Google Cloud

Compared 11% of the time

More Google Cloud Competitors

Google App Engine vs Google Compute Engine

Compared 50% of the time

More Google Compute Engine Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Google Cloud

December 2024

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Buyer's Guide

Google Compute Engine

December 2024

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Google

Overview

Google Cloud is an Infrastructure as a Service Cloud (IaaS) and Platform as a Service (PaaS) solution that provides infrastructure tools and services for building applications on top of a public cloud computing platform. As one of the leading global infrastructures, this product allows users to securely manage enterprise data, receive valuable insights, and store documents. Google Cloud provides its various services through tools and services for data warehousing, security key enforcement, application programming interface (API) management, artificial intelligence (AI), and machine learning (ML).

The use cases of Google Cloud can be divided into four main categories:

Big data
Compute
Services
Storage

The solution is utilized by organizations of all sizes and industries, as it is suitable for the following purposes:

Running and building applications: Google Cloud lets businesses run and build their applications anywhere because of its commitment to open-source, hybrid, and multi-cloud. This can accelerate development time as businesses avoid vendor lock-in.
Data insight: Google Cloud provides companies with advanced ML and analytics for their data. This can facilitate business decisions and improve work processes, as every team member can have access to data reports via this solution.
Security: Utilizing Google's technology, this solution helps users protect and defend their data and applications against threats and harmful activities.
Team collaboration: Google Cloud offers companies advanced collaboration features. They can integrate email, chat, video calling, and document collaboration all in one place when using this platform.

Google Cloud Features

Google Cloud offers multiple features for its clients. Some of these include:

Big data features: The solution offers full big data services through tools such as BigQuery and Google Cloud Dataflow. These tools allow users to process large data queries as well as create, monitor, and receive reports from data processing pipelines.
Containers: The solution offers containers, which allow users to speed up deployment and scale applications.
Cloud debugger: This feature allows users to debug code during the production process. In this way, businesses are able to locate issues early in the code and fix them before deploying the application.
Cloud save: This feature provides the ability to synchronize cloud-stored data across all devices an organization is supporting. Through it, users can save and retrieve information and maintain all data copies up to date.
Cloud trace: This Google Cloud feature allows users to detect the reasons for performance bottlenecks and fix the issues. It also provides users with information on the time their product takes to process certain requests, allowing them to follow performance more closely.
Hosting features: The solution offers two hosting options. App Engine is the PaaS of Google Cloud and Computes Engine is their IaaS.
Load balancing: This feature balances the traffic of multiple compute instances across various geographic regions.
Maintenance: Users receive frequent insight into the performance of their applications and through automations, Google Cloud lets them know of any issues that need to be fixed.

Google Cloud Benefits

Google Cloud brings various benefits to its users. Some of these include the following:

The pricing model of Google Cloud allows users to pay only for the selected features and tools they wish to use, which saves their organizations money.
Users can rely on accelerated content delivery through Google Cloud Content Delivery Network (CDN).
Google Cloud offers a wide variety of tools and libraries, which assist users in the development of cloud applications.
The tool has an advanced admin control that allows users to easily add or remove new users and maintain the security of business platforms.
Google Cloud offers consulting services whereby experts provide assistance with cloud strategy development.
The platform is updated on a frequent basis, which can increase companies' productivity through consistent innovations.
Google Cloud offers remote access from anywhere at all times via Google's web applications.
The solution reduces the risks of data breaches as it offers minimal storage of offline data.
Users can expect support not only from the platform but from the growing online community as well, where their questions can be answered in a timely manner.
The product provides detailed documentation for its clients, allowing them to benefit from tutorials and other samples, in order to learn to work with it in the most efficient way.

Reviews from Real Users

Isuru P., an assistant vice president at a tech services company, likes Google Cloud because it is easy to deploy next-generation applications using it.

An IT solutions consultant at a tech services company rates Google Cloud highly because they find the solution stable with a good user experience and a straightforward setup.

Google Compute Engine delivers virtual machines running in Google's innovative data centers and worldwide fiber network. Compute Engine's tooling and workflow support enable scaling from single instances to global, load-balanced cloud computing.

Compute Engine's VMs boot quickly, come with persistent disk storage, and deliver consistent performance. Our virtual servers are available in many configurations including predefined sizes or the option to create Custom Machine Types optimized for your specific needs. Flexible pricing and automatic sustained use discounts make Compute Engine the leader in price/performance.

Sample Customers

Information Not Available

Allthecooks, BetterCloud, Bluecore, Cosentry, Evite, Ezakus, HTC, Infectious Media, iStreamPlanet, Mendelics, SageMathCloud, Sedex, Treeptik, Wibigoo, Wix, zulily, Zync

Buyer's Guide

Google Cloud vs. Google Compute Engine

December 2024

Free Report: Google Cloud vs. Google Compute Engine

Find out what your peers are saying about Google Cloud vs. Google Compute Engine and other solutions. Updated: December 2024.

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