# Google Cloud

> Google's cloud business: computing, storage, data and AI services rented by the hour.

- Level: Basic
- Topics: Cloud, Tech companies
- URL: https://tidbit.legios.com.ar/google-cloud/
- In Spanish: [Google Cloud](https://tidbit.legios.com.ar/es/google-cloud/)

**Google Cloud**, often called **GCP** (Google Cloud Platform), is the part of Google that rents computing infrastructure and services to other companies, running in the same kind of global data centers that power Google Search and YouTube. It competes with AWS and Microsoft Azure, and is usually counted as the third-largest of the big public clouds.

It offers the usual building blocks: virtual machines (Compute Engine), object storage (Cloud Storage), databases, networking and serverless options like Cloud Run. Its best-known strengths come from technology Google built for itself. **BigQuery** is a serverless data warehouse that can scan huge tables with plain SQL. **GKE** runs Kubernetes, which started at Google before being released as open source. **Vertex AI** and Google's own AI chips, called **TPUs**, are used to train and serve machine learning models, including Google's Gemini models.

Like other clouds, it is organized into regions and zones around the world, and you pay for what you use, with discounts for steady or committed usage. In Google's financial reports, the Google Cloud segment also includes Google Workspace (Gmail, Docs and Drive for businesses), so the name covers both renting infrastructure and selling office software to companies.

## An analogy

Renting space and tools in the same workshop where a famous manufacturer builds its own products. You get access to the machines they designed for themselves, and you pay by the hour for what you use.

## Keep in mind

- Google's public cloud, also called GCP, competing with AWS and Azure.
- Known for BigQuery, Kubernetes (GKE), and AI services with its own TPU chips.
- Pay-as-you-go pricing across regions and zones worldwide.
- As a business segment, it also includes Google Workspace.

## Go deeper

- [Google Cloud overview (official docs)](https://cloud.google.com/docs/overview)
- [Google Cloud Platform on Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Cloud_Platform)

## Related terms

- [Google](https://tidbit.legios.com.ar/google/): The search company that gives most products away and makes its money on ads.
- [Data center](https://tidbit.legios.com.ar/data-center/): A building full of servers where the internet, the cloud and AI actually run.
- [Microsoft](https://tidbit.legios.com.ar/microsoft/): The company of Windows and Office, now just as much a cloud company with Azure.
- [Virtual machine](https://tidbit.legios.com.ar/virtual-machine/): A complete computer made of software, running inside a real one.
- [Object storage](https://tidbit.legios.com.ar/object-storage/): Files stored as whole named objects, reached over the web, almost without limit.
- [Cloud computing](https://tidbit.legios.com.ar/cloud-computing/): Renting computers over the internet instead of buying your own.
- [Database](https://tidbit.legios.com.ar/database/): An organized store of data that programs can search and update safely.
- [Serverless](https://tidbit.legios.com.ar/serverless/): Code that runs only when called; you never see or manage the server.