
Google Cloud Compute Engine goes live - jgemedina
http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9244496/Google_Cloud_Compute_Engine_goes_live?source=rss_applications
======
mik3y
So now might be as good a time as any to ask: any happy GCE-using EC2 refugees
that have tools/tips to share after making the jump?

I saw someone tried to add GCE support to boto a while back [1], but after
some discussion it seems there was a decision not to support it [2]. (I don't
know enough about the platform differences to say whether it make sense..)

[1]
[https://github.com/boto/boto/pull/1159](https://github.com/boto/boto/pull/1159)

[2] [https://groups.google.com/d/msg/boto-
dev/fNM7AFM1Ors/x-nf_MS...](https://groups.google.com/d/msg/boto-
dev/fNM7AFM1Ors/x-nf_MSjAKkJ)

~~~
res0nat0r
Mitch now works for AWS, and he probably can barely keep up with adding all of
the new features that AWS releases plus the exiting boto bugs, so I'm guessing
GCE support on top of that is out of scope and the project is just focused on
supporting any and all AWS features?

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jgemedina
Same %, still amazon might beat GCE when it comes to features.

[http://www.networkworld.com/news/2013/120313-google-
compute-...](http://www.networkworld.com/news/2013/120313-google-compute-
engine-amazon-web-services-276537.html?source=nwwsotd)

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tbarbugli
I am not going to move from EC2 with this prices and with this features and
community. I hope they are going to make it more appealing soon :)

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txutxu
For those planning "wow, I can use the google datacenters, to scale to such
level", first check this part:

[https://developers.google.com/compute/docs/resource-
quotas](https://developers.google.com/compute/docs/resource-quotas)

Just in case.

~~~
dekhn
In particular, see the form at the bottom to request more resources:
[https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1vb2MkAr9JcHrp6myQ3oTxCyBv2c...](https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1vb2MkAr9JcHrp6myQ3oTxCyBv2c7Iyc5wqIKqE3K4IE/viewform?entry.1036535597&entry.1823281902&entry.1934621431&entry.612627929&entry.666100773&entry.2004330804&entry.1287827925&entry.1005864466&entry.511996332&entry.308842821&entry.1506342651&entry.1193238839=No&entry.1270586847&entry.394661533&entry.1276962733&entry.1256670372&entry.1742484064&entry.1553073272&entry.1438649533&entry.1545046927&entry.230434627&entry.961931604)

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kevando
About time! I'm not entirely sure what GCE is, but if it means Google puts
more effort into appengine I'm all for it. Besides, AWS needs a valid
competitor that it has no chance of buying.

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rurounijones
> GCE "is a long-term strategic bet for the company," said Brian Goldfarb,
> Google's head of cloud platform marketing, adding that "we have an
> incredibly high bar for what general availability means."

and

> The company has established a service level agreement (SLA) where it
> guarantees GCE to be available 99.95% of the time

Doesn't seem to match. (99.95% is a really high bar? 20 minutes per month?
from Google?! )

[EDIT] Misunderstanding of the vocabulary on my part, read further down.

~~~
nknighthb
Yes it's a high bar. This isn't electricity or a phone line. There are complex
layers on top of complex layers. And they are going to come crashing down at
some point. The cost of ensuring otherwise scales non-linearly. I don't want
my VM to cost a substantial fraction of a Space Shuttle, thank you.

~~~
rurounijones
Condescending tone aside: They have matched Amazon - As far as I am concerned
"meeting the standard set by a competitor" is not something worth gushing
about for someone like Google.

Maybe I still have the veneer of "Google have the best in the world" in my
thinking, but Google "setting a high bar" is beating the competition, not
matching it.

~~~
chaz
Like Amazon.com and AWS, Google.com doesn't share the same infrastructure as
GCE. So while the employee experience and expertise may carry over, the
infrastructure doesn't. EC2 had serious outages even though Amazon.com stayed
up and running. And GCE only offers 3 data centers compared to the 13 that
they have for their core. I'm not even sure the 3 they offer intersect with
the 13.

It's a new line of business, and expect some serious rough patches. Google's
brand will immediately step it up to a top-tier provider, but how they handle
outages and deliver innovation will really dictate how well it plays out in
the marketplace.

~~~
packetslave
_Google.com doesn 't share the same infrastructure as GCE._

This is not true

~~~
Lewisham
Can confirm; I'm a developer on the Cloud SQL team, which is in the same
Product Area as GCE. When it says "Google Compute Engine is a service that
provides virtual machines that run on Google infrastructure" it means it. The
VMs run in the same data centers on the same hardware as other Google
projects.

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mnml_
Expensive, and good luck getting client trust back after what they did with
App Engine.

~~~
tiziano88
What's wrong with GAE? Honest question, I was considering deploying my next
project there

~~~
ma2rten
Nothing, but there was a steep price increase when App Engine went "out of
beta". This upset some people. Especially because there is a lock-in effect if
you build on top of App Engine's proprietary APIs.

~~~
rbanffy
> there is a lock-in effect if you build on top of App Engine's proprietary
> APIs.

No. There hasn't been for quite some time.

[http://www.appscale.com/](http://www.appscale.com/) provides hosting services
on top of an open-source codebase you can (with some effort) deploy on your
own.

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anvarik
It would be really cool if they provide a free trial account as Amazon though.

