Why should you choose Google Cloud?

There are many reasons why I would recommend you choose Google Cloud, not only to run your code but also to take your organization to the next level, because I picture us, developers, as main actors in any digital transformation process.

Summarizing all the topics previously covered in this chapter, these are the six key factors I would consider when choosing a cloud provider, in no particular order:

• Compatibility with Agile practices and app modernization
• Capabilities for data democratization
• People connections
• Protection and security
• Level of freedom and use of open software
• Cost-effectiveness

Note

Apart from my personal opinion, which I have shared during this chapter, to put together a more objective list of reasons why you should choose Google Cloud, let’s review each of these factors and summarize all the information about these topics, all of which can be found on Google Cloud’s website (https://cloud.google.com/why-google-cloud).

Thinking about app modernization and agility, Google Cloud is the first cloud provider to release a platform, Anthos (https://cloud.google.com/anthos), that empowers you to quickly build new apps and modernize existing ones to increase your agility and enjoy all the benefits of the multi-cloud. Also, the managed Kubernetes service seamlessly allows you to implement DevOps and SRE practices with cloud-native tools so that you can deploy your code with agility.

From the data democratization point of view, Google Cloud offers the ability to manage every stage of the data life cycle, whether running operational transactions, managing analytical applications across data warehouses and data lakes, or breaking down rich data-driven experiences. Besides, the key differentiator is that artificial intelligence/machine learning is a core component of the data cloud solution, which helps organizations not only build improved insights available to all members but also automate core business processes using data as the core.

Speaking about bringing people together, in Google Cloud, you can integrate video calling, email, chat, and document collaboration in one place with Google Workspace, which already connects more than 3 billion users. Google Workspace is built with a zero-trust approach and comes with enterprise-grade access management, data protection, encryption, and endpoint protections built in.

Protection is a key element of digital transformation, and Google Cloud can help you defend your data and apps against threats and fraudulent activity with the same security technology Google uses. Google keeps more people safe online than anyone else in the world: billions of users and millions of websites globally. Google pioneered the zero-trust model at the core of its services and operations and enables its customers to do the same. Besides, data is encrypted in transit between their facilities and at rest, ensuring that it can only be accessed by authorized roles and services with audited access to the encryption keys.

And if freedom is important for your organization, you should take into account that Google Cloud is the only cloud provider with a clear multi-cloud strategy. In Google Cloud, you can deploy and run each of your applications wherever you want: on-premises, on Google Cloud, or with other cloud providers. Google is also one of the largest contributors to the open source ecosystem, working with the open-source community to develop well-known open-source technologies such as Kubernetes, then roll these out as managed services in Google Cloud to give users maximum choice and increase their IT investments’ longevity and survivability.

Another important point is that Google Cloud is open and standards-based and offers best-in-class integration with open-source standards and APIs, which ensures portability and extensibility to prevent lock-in, with easy interoperability with existing partner solutions and investments.

From a financial point of view, organizations can see significant savings when building on or migrating to a cloud-native architecture on Google Cloud. In addition, a reliable platform with 99.99% availability reduces risk and increases operational efficiency.

In summary, if you choose Google Cloud for your digital transformation, the result will be an organization and its workers being able to take advantage of all of the benefits of cloud computing to drive innovation.