What is Google Compute Engine used for?

Google Compute Engine (GCE) is a component of Google Cloud Platform (GCP) that provides virtual machines (VMs) running in Google's data centers. It is an Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) offering, which allows users to run workloads on virtual machines, similar to Amazon EC2 in AWS or Azure Virtual Machines in Microsoft Azure. Key Uses of Google Compute Engine: Running Virtual Machines: GCE allows you to create and manage virtual machines with different configurations (CPU, memory, and storage) to run workloads such as web applications, databases, or back-end services. Scalable Compute Power: It provides scalable compute resources to run any application, from small websites to large-scale, compute-heavy workloads like machine learning models, big data processing, and simulations. Custom Machine Types: Users can create custom virtual machine types with the exact combination of vCPU and memory they need, optimizing costs. Integration with Google Cloud Services: GCE integrates with other Google Cloud services like Cloud Storage, BigQuery, Kubernetes Engine, and more, allowing for a seamless workflow across different cloud services. Preemptible VMs: GCE offers preemptible VMs, which are lower-cost, short-term virtual machines, useful for fault-tolerant workloads like batch processing and CI/CD jobs. Autoscaling and Load Balancing: It supports autoscaling and load balancing to handle increased traffic or workloads automatically, ensuring high availability and performance. Persistent Disk Storage: GCE VMs can attach persistent disks, allowing users to store data independently of the VM lifecycle. Global Reach: GCE enables you to deploy VMs in data centers across multiple regions and zones globally, providing geographic flexibility and high availability.

Virtual machine implementation in the Cloud