Understanding Compute Engine

Put simply, Google Compute Engine (GCE) allows developers to run self-managed virtual machines on Google's infrastructure. This includes many tools and features that make it possible to effectively deploy and manage large numbers of VMs. Google released Compute Engine to Google Cloud Platform (GCP), making it generally available in December, 2013.

IaaS

Compute Engine is generally referred to as Google's IaaS offering. By exposing direct control over the underlying infrastructure, IaaS provides an unparalleled level of control and flexibility for building cloud solutions. Although most IaaS services are generally considered low-level, in reality these services provide a fairly high level of abstraction. For example, users request Compute Engine VMs run a given image with a set amount of vCPUs and RAM, and Google Cloud abstracts away the process of securing these resources and creating virtual machines that runs the given image. This level of abstraction over the...