Compute Engine

Google Compute Engine (GCE) is an Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) offering that allows users to launch and manage virtual machines (VMs) on Google's global infrastructure. It provides scalable, high-performance compute resources, enabling users to run applications, databases, and workloads…

Key facts

First appeared
2012
Category
technology
Problem solved
Google Compute Engine was created to solve the challenge of provisioning, managing, and scaling compute resources for applications and workloads in a flexible, on-demand, and cost-effective manner. Before GCE, organizations struggled with the significant capital expenditure, operational overhead, and scalability limitations of maintaining their own physical data centers and server hardware.
Platforms
Google's global data centers (underlying infrastructure), Supports guest operating systems such as Linux distributions (Debian, CentOS, Ubuntu, Red Hat, SLES), Windows Server, and custom images.

Related technologies

Notable users

  • PayPal
  • Target
  • Khan Academy
  • Spotify
  • The New York Times
  • Snapchat