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This section identifies some of the key benefits of using Google Cloud. It’s here that we introduce the components of the Google network infrastructure, and explore the differences between infrastructure as a service (IaaS) and platform as a service (PaaS).

Learning Objectives

  • Identify the benefits of Google Cloud.
  • Define the components of the Google network infrastructure, including points of presence, data centers, regions, and zones.
  • Identify the difference between infrastructure as a service (IaaS) and platform as a service (PaaS).

Video: Course Introduction

This is an introduction to the Google Cloud Fundamentals Core Infrastructure training course. The course aims to provide an overview of Google Cloud and its various services, including compute, storage, big data, machine learning, and application services. The course is intended for solutions developers, systems operations professionals, solution architects, and business decision makers who want to deploy applications and create application environments on Google Cloud. The course has no prerequisites, but familiarity with application development, Linux operating systems, systems operations, and data analytics and machine learning is helpful. The course has six key learning objectives, including identifying the purpose and value of Google Cloud products and services, defining how infrastructure is organized and controlled in Google Cloud, and explaining how to create a basic infrastructure in Google Cloud.

Hi, and welcome to the Google Cloud
Fundamentals Core Infrastructure training course. The goal of this course is to provide
you with an overview of Google Cloud. Google Cloud offerings can be broadly
categorized as compute, storage, big data, machine learning, and
application services for web, mobile, analytics, and backend solutions. Through a combination of video, quizzes,
and hands on labs, you’ll learn the value of Google Cloud and how cloud solutions
factor into business strategies. The intended target audience of today’s
course consists of solutions developers, systems, operations professionals. And solution architects planning
to deploy applications and create application
environments on Google Cloud. This course will also be useful for business decision makers
evaluating Google Cloud. While you should be happy to hear that
we’ll be finding out about services and concepts that are specific to
Google Cloud in this course. Do keep in mind that as a fundamentals
level course, some content will be geared towards learners who
are entirely new to cloud technologies. This course has no prerequisites,
although it’s helpful to be familiar with application development, Linux operating
systems, systems operations, and data analytics and machine learning to
best understand the technologies covered. There are six key learning objectives
that we’re hoping to achieve. By the end of this course, you should
be able to, identify the purpose and value of Google Cloud products and
services. Define how infrastructure is organized and
controlled in Google Cloud. Explain how to create a basic
infrastructure in Google Cloud, select and
use Google Cloud storage options. Describe the purpose and
value of Google Kubernetes engine, and identify the use cases for
serverless Google Cloud services. Okay, all set, let’s begin.

Video: Cloud computing overview

Here is a summary of the text:

The text provides an overview of cloud computing, defining it as a way of using information technology (IT) that has five key characteristics: on-demand and self-service, accessible over the internet, resource pooling, elasticity, and pay-as-you-go pricing. The text also provides a brief history of cloud computing, tracing its evolution from colocation (renting physical space) to virtualized data centers (sharing physical infrastructure) to container-based architecture (fully automated and elastic). The text suggests that Google Cloud is a third-wave cloud that makes this technology available to customers, and that every company will eventually become a data company, with great software based on high-quality data.

Let’s start at the beginning with an overview
of cloud computing. The cloud is a hot topic these days, but what
exactly is it? The US National Institute of Standards and
Technology created the term cloud computing, although there is nothing
US-specific about it. Cloud computing is a way of using information
technology (IT) that has these five equally important traits
First, customers get computing resources that are
on-demand and self-service. Through a web interface, users get the processing
power, storage, and network they need with no need for human intervention. Second, customers get access to those resources
over the internet, from anywhere they have a connection. Third, the cloud provider has a big pool of
those resources and allocates them to users out of that pool. That allows the provider to buy in bulk and
pass the savings on to the customers. Customers don’t have to know or care about
the exact physical location of those resources. Fourth, the resources are elastic–which
means they’re flexible, so customers can be. If they need more resources they can get more,
and quickly. If they need less, they can scale back. And finally, customers pay only for what they
use, or reserve as they go. If they stop using resources, they stop paying. That’s it. That’s the definition of cloud. But why is the cloud model so compelling now? To understand why, we need to look
at some history. The trend towards cloud computing started
with a first wave known as
colocation Colocation gave users the financial efficiency
of renting physical space, instead of investing in data center real estate. Virtualized data centers of today,
which is the second wave, share similarities with the private data centers and colocation
facilities of decades past. The components of virtualized data centers
match the physical building blocks of hosted computing—servers, CPUs, disks, load balancers,
and so on—but now they’re virtual devices. With virtualization, enterprises still maintain
the infrastructure; but it also remains
a user-controlled and user-configured environment. Several years ago, Google realized that its
business couldn’t move fast enough within the confines of the virtualization model. So Google switched to a
container-based architecture—a fully automated, elastic third-wave cloud that consists of
a combination of automated services and scalable data. Services automatically provision and configure
the infrastructure used to run applications. Today, Google Cloud makes this third-wave
cloud available to Google customers. Google believes that, in the
future, every company—regardless of size or industry—
will differentiate itself from its competitors through technology. Increasingly, that technology will be in the
form of software. Great software is based on high-quality data. This means that every company is, or will
eventually become, a data company.