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Learn GCP/ Introduction

This documentation is minimal. The Open Water Foundation will add to this documentation as experience is gained and time allows.

There is often a need to implement computing services such as file storage, databases, websites, and analysis/modeling tools. A basic decision is whether to buy equipment for on-site installation, or use cloud-hosted services. Cloud platform features are increasing and costs are decreasing, which makes cloud services attractive. Many government entities are now using such services to outsource information technology (IT) services, thereby reducing the need for staff and on-site infrastructure. Using cloud services can also isolate security risk to those services rather than exposing resources in an organization's network.

The Google Cloud Platform (GCP) is one such cloud solution and is discussed in this documentation.

The remainder of this page discusses the following:

Cloud Platform Services Overview

Cloud platforms provide many services to support all of the tasks necessary to implement business solutions. Important services are summarized below.

User Management

User management involves defining users, roles, and permissions. For example, a general account may be set up with administrative privileges to manage an organizations cloud resources. Individual users are set up to allow staff to perform their work. Each user can be granted roles and permissions, for example to be able to read/write files in cloud storage.

The information related to such configuration can become complex. GCP therefore provides Cloud Identify & Access Management tools, which are accessible through the GCP Console.

The level of access to cloud services will determine whether a user has access to IAM. In many cases, users and automated processes will simply operate within the environment and components that have been made available.

Storage

Cloud storage is provided via internet-addressable "buckets", each of which contain folders and files. Files from a local computer can be uploaded and downloaded using the gcloud software. Buckets can be mapped to internet domain addresses to provide static websites.

Computing (Virtual Machines)

Computing resources can be made available via various services including providing virtual machines. Although Microsoft servers may be used, Linux is typically less expensive and may provides other functional benefits. Direct access to a virtual machine is provided though ssh, for example to install and configure software.

Databases

Various database services can be enabled as needed.

Websites

Websites can be hosted in various ways.

Alternatives to GCP

Google Cloud Platform is provided by Google. The choice of a platform may depend on whether an organization has settled on one platform. For example, Google and Microsoft provide integrated applications such as email and file storage. It is also possible to use services from multiple platforms, for example use Amazon Web Services to supplement the services of other vendors. Major platform solution alternatives to GCP include: