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Welcome back for episode 1, wherein we will discuss the whys of Google Cloud, create our Google Cloud Platform Account, and do a little navigation.
Everyone knows AWS and Azure are the top contenders. Google Cloud is a challenger, but it is nowhere near as prevalent or as well-established as those two titans. In fact, I am a certified AWS Solutions Architect and have completed exactly zero Google Cloud trainings or certs.
Well, GCP has one killer feature that no other platform has.
They won’t charge you for overages during the trial period.
Naomi-chan is working hard on her website!
AWS and Azure provide a Free-Tier and/or Credits to get you started, but if you royally screw up and ring up a million dollars on a high-end VM that you forget to shut down overnight, they will expect you to spend the rest of your life paying that off.
GCP on the other hand provides $300 worth of credits to be spent in your first 90 days on the platform. They do ask for a credit card, but it is only used to reduce the number of fake accounts and exploitation of their free resources. The credit card must be manually activated for billing. If you run out of time and credits your account will simply shut down.
<aside> <img src="/icons/warning_red.svg" alt="/icons/warning_red.svg" width="40px" /> The above information is true to the best of my knowledge at time of writing. Always do your own homework and be sure that you understand the terms and conditions and any potential costs associated with cloud usage
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It’s time to actually create the account. I’m sure you can handle this yourself, but I’m happy to provide a little push in that direction.
<aside> <img src="/icons/plus_green.svg" alt="/icons/plus_green.svg" width="40px" /> Pro Tip: Everything is easier if you have a Google account. Everyone has a Google account, right?
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Free Trial and Free Tier Services and Products
I bet you can guess where to click:
Fill out the required Account Information and complete your payment information verification. Voila! You are ready to get started.
The GCP website has one issue that I can’t get over: if your browser is too small, the single most important button disappears:
but make it a touch bigger:
Never fear however! I have a link:
The first place I want to direct your attention to is the hamburger button in the top-left corner:
This is going to be where you access most of the products you use.
APIs & Services
This is where you turn on and off the various modules that allow GCP to do stuff.
Be aware that some of these cost credits (i.e. money 💸) to turn on and use.
Billing
Perhaps the most important section as you reach the end of your trial. Figure out how much this is going to cost once you are actually paying real money for it.
In my case my end of trial spending was about $12/day which was way over my budget. I am now down to about $0.08/day which is a lot easier to stomach. Compute is expensive.
IAM & Admin