Simply put, GCE is a service that lets you create and run VMs on Google infrastructure. The GCE allows you to launch spin up VMs with the right operating system, size, RAM, and the appropriate number of CPUs or GPUs for your needs. It is the equivalent of AWS EC2.
The GCE was announced on June 28, 2012, at Google I/O 2012 and made available to the general public on May 15, 2013. Compared to AWS EC2, an equivalent product, the GCE is a rather new service:
The following extracts from the release notes timeline illustrate the rapid evolution of the GCE service from a simple contender to a fully fledged player in the Cloud computing domain:
- May 15, 2013: GCE is available for everyone.
- August 6, 2013: GCE launches load balancing.
- December 3, 2013: GCE is announced as being production ready. Users can now feel confident using Compute Engine to support mission...