First Week Learning of GCP
Hi there, the first week of my internship at Cloud Ace has finally come to an end. As a Year 2 business student, my knowledge of IT or cloud service is minimal, so the first task I was assigned here is to have a general overview of the Google Cloud Platform (GCP).
A general overview of GCP
Over the past few days, I have gone through the first three parts of the Coursera online course, Cloud Architecture with GCP Specialization. It includes short videos and hands-on labs in which one perform real-world tasks directly on GCP. This course is aimed at IT professionals who are tasked with building and managing solutions in the Cloud. The slides in Coursera are very self-explanatory and detailed explanation of the narrator.
The first session of the course consists of the introduction of cloud computing, and a brief run-through of the GCP services, covering VPC, cloud storage, Kubernetes, Hybrid Cloud, App Engine… More details would be like: how IAM (Identity and Access Management) can enable members in a hierarchy can perform their duties with minimal privileges; how to interact with the GCP using different methods. This session also includes the billing and fundamental guide for using the service. GCP computing architecture is built to meet whatever requirements the business has. One function (e.g., storage) can further branch into several other options (e.g., Cloud SQL, Cloud Bigtable, Cloud Spanner). In IAM, if the pre-defined/default role setting does not fit the need of the companies, one can customize and fine-grain the access of different roles. In general, this session provides necessary details of how a company can select the most suitable services.
The next two sessions are extensions of the first part. The second is about Virtual Networks and Virtual Machines, the third one about IAM and resources monitoring. They introduce me to the comprehensive and flexible infrastructure and platform services provided GCP, with a focus on hands on labs.
Adoption of different cloud services
Besides the fact the online lecture impressed me with the power of GCP, I also realized that in the cloud industry, companies do not expect to be a monopoly; instead they realize there must often be a hybrid or multi-cloud approach. For instance, GCP is an open platform that allows its customers to leave if they feel Google is not the best anymore; or they can migrate part of the resources on GCP, then some part in AWS or other platforms. GCP also enables third-party vendors to offer applications on their platform to achieve the best performance. Generally, in other industries, like fashion or airline, the cooperations are targeted to take the largest piece of cake. But, the Cloud is about co-existing and cooperating to deliver the best customer experience possible.
What lies ahead then?
Living in an era of technology, it is not unnoticeable that Google is infiltrating around us, from real-time game streaming to G Suite. Presumably, in the future, every company will adopt the IaaS, PaaS, SaaS cloud computing models, hence move their applications online. The rise of the Cloud is going to allow more efficient access, storage, and analysis of data. AI and learning machine will work better and smarter with the accumulation of data. Maybe, Google and other cloud service providers are the fast-pass tickets for countries to transform into smart cities.
In the next week, I will be researching the application of GCP in Singapore.
