On: Compute Engine machine types with up to 96 vCPUs and 624GB of memory

[bogomipz]

>"Why would you use that instead of bare metal?"

I would think lead time. To get the quote from your hardware vendor, get the PO approved from finance, get the box built and shipped, getting it racked and stacked in DC. This whole sequence can easily take longer than a month.

[Animats → bogomipz]

You can rent a bare metal server from Codero and get it provisioned in about an hour. Prices from about $100 to $1000 a month. At the high end, you get roughly what Google is offering here.