VMs for Everyone on the Google Cloud Platform

Back in April this year, Google announced the arrival of new expanded virtual machine options for GCP users. According to the cloud giant, the expanded VMs would give businesses the flexibility they needed to choose the correct machine type for any workload, without having to compromise on performance or price. 

Now, there are even more updates appearing on Google Compute Engine, with the launch of the first set of general-purpose VMs arriving at the beginning of August 2019, as well as new compute-optimized and memory-enhanced VMs. 

General Purpose VMs on the GCP 

The General purpose VMs are designed to bring even more flexibility to companies that want reliable, dependable VMs within the Google cloud environment. You can use these VMs to create custom machines, add more storage to a custom VM, or access your VM from a range of CPU solutions. 

In August, Google announced that it is adding 2nd Generation scalable processors to the general-purpose machine types on Compute Engine, as part of a beta release run. These new general-purpose machine types will provide 20% better price-performance value for the majority of typical workloads, while supporting as much as 25% more memory per vCPU when compared against the first generation of machines. 

The N2 options provide a unique blend of storage, memory, and computing functionality for the modern business, making them a fantastic option for workloads from all backgrounds. For instance, you can use the general-purpose VMs for application and web servers, gaming servers, collaboration systems, enterprise applications, and the majority of basic databases too. 

Compute Optimized VMs for Demanding Apps

General-purpose VMs aren't the only new addition to the VM options from Google Cloud this year. If you run a lot of demanding applications in Compute Engine, then you're going to need VMs that can handle that kind of pressure. Fortunately, Google now provides a selection of enhanced compute-optimized VMs, under the 'C2' label. 

These upgraded VMs provide the highest level of performance functionality per core currently in the Google cloud. For demanding applications like video encoding and multi-player game development, these VMs are a must-have. They're generally available across four regions as of this summer (2019), including US-Central, Europe-West, Asia-East, and Asia-NorthEast. Google is planning to roll out support for additional regions later this year and in 2020. 

Though it's still early days for the Compute-Optimized VMs on Google, the cloud giant has announced that existing customers are thrilled with the cost-efficiency and performance of the C2 solutions. The Founder and CTO of WP Engine, Jason Cohen noted that they're thrilled to see a 40% increase in performance after moving to the C2 VM environment. One of the company's most critical processes is currently operating at a rate that takes 82% less time to complete, and costs 42% less too. 

Memory-Optimized VMs in Beta

The last recent addition to the new VMs on Google is the memory-optimized virtual machine types, named 'M2'. With these solutions, SAP customers will be able to run larger SAP Hana databases easily on the GCP. Although they're only in beta mode for now, the M2 machines are the largest SAP-certified offerings currently available from a public cloud provider, which makes them very appealing to countless companies. 

M2 machine types in the Google Cloud environment will support some of the most highly demanding SAP applications for modern brands, while delivering GCP features too. For instance, you can use live migration through the Google cloud to keep SAP systems running efficiently, even when your system is in the middle of scheduled downtime or maintenance. Google Cloud's committed use discounts also apply to the memory-optimized VMs, so you can migrate from a smaller memory instance to a larger VM while still taking advantage of your discount strategy. 

Businesses will be able to configure and provision their new chosen machine types easily with the help of the Google support team. You can also learn more about the available machine types from Google on this page.