GCP for DevOps — What is GCP?

What is Google Cloud Platform?

Google Cloud Platform (GCP) is a suite of cloud computing services provided by Google. It runs on the same infrastructure that Google uses internally for products like Search, Gmail, YouTube, and Google Maps.

GCP provides over 200 services, but as a DevOps engineer, you’ll use about 20-30 of them regularly.

Simple Analogy: If Google’s internal infrastructure is a private highway system, GCP is Google opening those highways to the public — same roads, same speed, same reliability.

GCP vs Other Clouds

Feature	GCP	AWS	Azure
Market share	~11%	~32%	~23%
Kubernetes	GKE (born here)	EKS	AKS
Serverless containers	Cloud Run	Fargate	Container Apps
CI/CD	Cloud Build	CodePipeline	Azure Pipelines
IaC	Terraform (recommended)	CloudFormation	ARM/Bicep
Global network	Google’s private fiber	AWS backbone	Microsoft backbone
Billing model	Per-second	Per-second (most)	Per-minute
Free tier	$300 credit + always-free	12-month free tier	$200 credit + free tier

Core GCP Services for DevOps

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                    GCP Services for DevOps                   │
├──────────────────┬──────────────────────────────────────────┤
│  Compute         │ Compute Engine, GKE, Cloud Run           │
│  Networking      │ VPC, Cloud Load Balancing, Cloud NAT     │
│  Storage         │ Cloud Storage, Persistent Disks          │
│  CI/CD           │ Cloud Build, Artifact Registry           │
│  Containers      │ GKE, Cloud Run, Artifact Registry        │
│  Serverless      │ Cloud Functions, Cloud Run, API Gateway  │
│  IaC             │ Terraform, Deployment Manager             │
│  Monitoring      │ Cloud Monitoring, Cloud Logging           │
│  Security        │ IAM, Secret Manager, Security Command Ctr│
│  Cost            │ Billing, Recommender, Labels             │
└──────────────────┴──────────────────────────────────────────┘

GCP Account Structure

Every interaction with GCP starts with a project. A project is the basic organizational unit:

Organization (optional)
├── Folder: "Production"
│   ├── Project: my-app-prod
│   └── Project: my-data-prod
├── Folder: "Development"
│   ├── Project: my-app-dev
│   └── Project: my-data-dev
└── Folder: "Shared Services"
    ├── Project: shared-networking
    └── Project: shared-monitoring

Key concept: In GCP, a project is roughly equivalent to an AWS account. All resources live inside a project, and billing is tracked per project.

Setting Up Your First GCP Account

Step 1 — Create a Google Account

If you don’t have one, create a Google Account at accounts.google.com.

Step 2 — Enable Google Cloud

Go to console.cloud.google.com and activate your account. New accounts get $300 in free credits valid for 90 days.

Step 3 — Create Your First Project

# After installing gcloud CLI (covered later in this chapter)
$ gcloud projects create my-first-project --name="My First Project"

Create in progress for [https://cloudresourcemanager.googleapis.com/v1/projects/my-first-project].
Waiting for [operations/cp.123456789] to finish...done.

$ gcloud config set project my-first-project

Updated property [core/project].

Step 4 — Enable Billing

Link a billing account to your project. Without billing enabled, you cannot create most resources — even with free tier credits.

$ gcloud billing accounts list

ACCOUNT_ID            NAME                OPEN  MASTER_ACCOUNT_ID
0X0X0X-0X0X0X-0X0X0X My Billing Account  True

$ gcloud billing projects link my-first-project \
    --billing-account=0X0X0X-0X0X0X-0X0X0X

billingAccountName: billingAccounts/0X0X0X-0X0X0X-0X0X0X
billingEnabled: true
name: projects/my-first-project/billingInfo
projectId: my-first-project

Cloud Console vs gcloud CLI

Approach	Best For
Cloud Console (web UI)	Learning, exploring, visualizing resources
gcloud CLI	Automation, scripting, daily DevOps work
Cloud Shell	Quick commands without local setup
Terraform	Production infrastructure management

As a DevOps engineer, you’ll primarily use the gcloud CLI and Terraform. But always use the Console to verify what your commands create — it builds mental models.

Common Mistakes

Mistake	Fix
Forgetting to enable APIs	Run gcloud services enable <api> before using a service
Not setting a default project	Run gcloud config set project <project-id>
Leaving resources running	Always clean up after practice — use gcloud or Terraform destroy
Using Owner role for everything	Follow least privilege — use predefined roles

Quick Reference

Item	Value
Console URL	console.cloud.google.com
CLI tool	gcloud
Project creation	gcloud projects create <id>
Set default project	gcloud config set project <id>
List projects	gcloud projects list
Enable an API	gcloud services enable <api>

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Next → GCP Global Infrastructure