Database Engineer at a retailer with 10,001+ employees
Real User
Our databases have never been affected by an outage, but it could use some better migration and backup tools
Pros and Cons
  • "I haven't had any trouble setting up Google Cloud."
  • "Google Cloud lacks some tools for database migration. I've only used MySQL and AWS in my career, so those are the only ones I can compare. AWS has a database migration tool that you can integrate with a cloud backup, so can take that backup and restore it in the AWS public cloud, but it's not the same with Google Cloud."

What is our primary use case?

We're using Google Cloud as infrastructure for hosting MySQL, but don't use Google's Database as a Service. We manage our database ourselves. 

What needs improvement?

Google Cloud lacks some tools for database migration. I've only used MySQL and AWS in my career, so those are the only ones I can compare. AWS has a database migration tool that you can integrate with a cloud backup, so can take that backup and restore it in the AWS public cloud, but it's not the same with Google Cloud. We have to use a utility called mysqldump, which takes a long time to restore. That's a big shortcoming of Google Cloud. I don't know why they haven't thought of it.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've been using Google Cloud Platform for about a year.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

We weren't affected during the last major Google Cloud outage. We weren't in the availability zone that was affected. We haven't used it like Infrastructure as a Service. It doesn't provide you a lot unless all your services are in that particular cloud.

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Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

I've used all three major public cloud platforms that offer infrastructure as a service. It's hard to compare. If you're a bigger enterprise, it's better to use multiple public clouds so that you are not putting all your eggs in one basket.

For example, you might have an outage in Google Cloud but not in Azure or vice versa. It's the same for AWS. I can't say it won't ever happen, but all three major public clouds haven't gone down at the same time. 

How was the initial setup?

I haven't had any trouble setting up Google Cloud.

What other advice do I have?

I rate Google Cloud seven out of 10. 

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
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CDO at Viento de popa
Real User
A public cloud platform providing good analytics feature for moving and transforming data
Pros and Cons
  • "Regarding Google Cloud's data analytics features, I find the presentation of information and the ability to move and transform data to be the most valuable. As for machine learning capabilities, they are helpful, especially in detecting anomalies or outliers in our data. For instance, Google Cloud can identify unusual network behavior and provide recommendations on how to address or leverage these findings effectively."
  • "I think one area that could be improved in Google Cloud is the customer support. Sometimes the integration process can be a bit complex due to format errors.Also having clearer documentation or a larger support team could really help users like me understand and resolve issues more effectively."

What is our primary use case?

I primarily use Google Cloud for analytics purposes. The data originates from our on-premise cloud system but is transferred to Google Cloud for analysis.

What is most valuable?

Regarding Google Cloud's data analytics features, I find the presentation of information and the ability to move and transform data to be the most valuable. As for machine learning capabilities, they are helpful, especially in detecting anomalies or outliers in our data. For instance, Google Cloud can identify unusual network behavior and provide recommendations on how to address or leverage these findings effectively.

What needs improvement?

I think one area that could be improved in Google Cloud is the customer support. Sometimes the integration process can be a bit complex due to format errors. Also having clearer documentation or a larger support team could really help users like me understand and resolve issues more effectively.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Google Cloud for the past four years. 

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

In terms of stability, I'd give Google Cloud a nine out of ten as it's very stable.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Google Cloud is scalable, which serves our organization's scaling needs well. We have multiple users directly interacting with the technology, and while we don't have immediate plans to increase usage, we would consider extending it in the future. 

As for scalability, I'd rate it a ten out of ten as it's more than enough for our needs.

How was the initial setup?

Integrating Google Cloud with our existing systems has been. Deployment is super fast, and takes a couple of minutes.

What was our ROI?

Google Cloud has helped us save time, approximately around thirty to forty percent.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

Google Cloud is on the expensive side for us. I don't have exact figures on the cost per year or month.

What other advice do I have?

I haven't used Google Cloud for AI projects personally. But I have utilized Google AI for optimizing Google Ads campaigns. It's an automated machine learning model that uses data from websites to understand customer behavior and improve marketing strategies for better results like increasing clicks or purchases. 

My advice for those considering Google Cloud is to have a technical advisor due to its complexity. It's data-driven, stable, and scalable, which are strong advantages.

Overall, I would give it a rating of around an eight out of ten. 

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Public Cloud
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
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Head of .NET Department at Evozon
MSP
Top 5Leaderboard
A scalable and secure solution that enables users to increase storage based on their needs
Pros and Cons
  • "We can increase the storage as we need."
  • "The price can be lowered significantly."

What is our primary use case?

The solution is used for storage for disaster recovery. It is used to store all the company data outside the company premises. It is also used for backups, AI processing, and database storage.

How has it helped my organization?

Some services use AI, and we use those services from Google.

What is most valuable?

The protection is good enough. We can increase the storage as we need. The global infrastructure impacts our service availability and latency positively. Some customers want their data stored in Europe. Others need it closer to where the users operate to minimize the latency and lag for accessing the data.

What needs improvement?

The price can be lowered significantly.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using the solution for ten years. I am using the latest version of the solution.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The tool is stable. I rate the stability a ten out of ten.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The tool is scalable. I rate the scalability a ten out of ten. We have five users in our organization. The users configure and deploy the tool for our customers. It is not for our internal use.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is simple enough if we know what we are doing. After the right amount of training, it's simple. There is a learning curve, but it is not very high or steep. The time taken for deployment depends on the architecture we are deploying.

What about the implementation team?

The deployment was done in-house. We are a software development company. We have in-house personnel for deployments.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

It's not an upfront cost. It grows when we need it to grow and comes down when we need to scale it down. We pay per use monthly.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We also use AWS and Azure. We adapt to products based on our customers’ needs.

What other advice do I have?

People who want to use the tool must analyze their specific case before they commit to a cloud platform. In some cases, one of them might be better than the other. It is not generic. It depends on the use case. Our goal is to help our customers use the service. So, the scalability doesn't help us directly. It helps our customers grow.

There are different use cases. The value for us is that we can offer cloud-agnostic services. Regardless of the customer preference, we can help them configure their cloud systems. Overall, I rate the solution an eight or nine out of ten.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
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Real User
Offers free storage, stability and reliable product
Pros and Cons
  • "I like that it is free. It's easy to use, and it's reliable."
  • "The Notes application could be better."

What is our primary use case?

It's mostly for storage of personal documents, some photos, and emails.

How has it helped my organization?

It's purely for personal use.

What is most valuable?

I like that it is free. It's easy to use, and it's reliable.

What needs improvement?

The Notes application could be better. Some of the email portal features can be tricky, but my mom uses it just fine, so it's probably intuitive enough.

And some of the email portal features. My mom sometimes has trouble with them, but she's not very tech-savvy, so that's understandable. The fact that she can use it at all shows that it's pretty user-friendly.

For how long have I used the solution?

I started using Google around 2012. I've been using the cloud version.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

I've never had a problem with stability so I would rate the stability a ten out of ten. 

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

I have a free business account, and my family uses it as well. It's easy to use, it works, and it is free, and we all have our own domain email addresses. It's absolutely awesome.

I'm good with the free Google account I have. It allows ten users, but I only need four or five, so it's plenty for now.

If we ever need more storage or users, it's easy to upgrade by paying a small monthly fee. It is really simple. 

How are customer service and support?

Never needed it. It's always just worked perfectly.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

Google Cloud was the first one I signed up for. It's always worked, it's always been free, and I haven't had a reason to look elsewhere. I don't see a need to at this point.

How was the initial setup?

I've been using it for so long; it just always worked. There was no setup; it just worked.

What was our ROI?

I can stay connected with others. I have free email, free storage, free notes, and free Google apps, and I use it in conjunction with the free Linux operating system on my computer.

I don't need to pay for licensing for anything. 

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

I don't pay for the license. For me, it's completely free. 

What other advice do I have?

Just try it out. If you like it, stick with it. If not, then look around for something else. But in my experience, if you find something that works, don't overthink it. Just use it.

It's been a great service for my needs. Overall, I would rate the product an eight out of ten because there is room for improvement. 

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Public Cloud

If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?

Google
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
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Director at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
Real User
Top 20
Scalable solution with good technical support services
Pros and Cons
  • "It is a stable solution."
  • "Its integration with one of the third-party platforms could be better."

What is most valuable?

The solution's most valuable feature is BigQuery. We can train models for forecasting and predictions by just writing SQL queries with it. Also, GKE features work best, along with integrating Istio for monitoring purposes.

What needs improvement?

The solution's integration with Oracle could be better. We encounter issues while migrating the database from Oracle to another SQL server.

For how long have I used the solution?

We have been using the solution for two and a half years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The solution is stable.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The solution is scalable and has automatic features for it. I rate its scalability a nine or ten.

How are customer service and support?

The solution's technical support is good. We also contact other vendors trained in Google Cloud support in case of queries.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

How was the initial setup?

I rate the solution's initial setup process a seven out of ten. We need to understand its complete landscape for more straightforward implementation. Although, its deployment is faster and takes over a month to complete.

What about the implementation team?


What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

The solution has OpEx and CapEx, pricing models. Thus, the cost depends on specific use cases.

What other advice do I have?

I rate the solution an eight out of ten.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
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Neetu Majumdar - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Quality Assurance Analyst at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees
Real User
Hosts and allows us to access all of our necessary applications
Pros and Cons
  • "The performance is a valuable feature."
  • "The price of the license could be cheaper."

What is our primary use case?

We're using this solution to host all of our applications. Currently, we're in the process of migrating all the SAP servers to GCP.

There are about 2,000 people using this solution in our organization.

What is most valuable?

The performance is a valuable feature.

What needs improvement?

The price of the license could be cheaper.

For how long have I used the solution?

We have been using this solution for a few months.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It's stable.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The scalability is good.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

We pay for a monthly license.

What other advice do I have?

I would rate this solution 8 out of 10.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
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Application Development Analyst at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees
Real User
Has good security and is user friendly and reliable
Pros and Cons
  • "Google Cloud is user friendly and reliable. The most valuable feature is the security of Google Cloud."
  • "Google Cloud would benefit from more detailed practical hands-on training especially in your mother tongue, not just English."

What is our primary use case?

I use Google Cloud for security purposes when sending files or any important document to others.

What is most valuable?

Google Cloud is user friendly and reliable. The most valuable feature is the security of Google Cloud.

What needs improvement?

Google Cloud would benefit from more detailed practical hands-on training especially in your mother tongue, not just English.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been working with Google Cloud for the past four to five months.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

I am satisfied with the stability of Google Cloud.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

It is easy to scale Google Cloud.

How are customer service and support?

To maintain Google Cloud you have to maintain the servers as well. Sending files to a particular person, the server to server connection is mandatory. If a server is down then the file will come written back or stopped there.

How was the initial setup?

Deployment of Google Cloud is straightforward and quick and does not take much time.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

Pricing is high compared to other solutions. 

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

Comparing it to AWS Cloud, I thought Google Cloud has a better structure of cloud computing.

AWS is also a bit tricky. Google Cloud provides many different options on how to do tasks, such as sending a file. I also looked at how Google Cloud will be unstructured and structured to the different kinds of Cloud structures when sent to a particular receiver.

What other advice do I have?

Prior to using Google Cloud, I was unaware of how it exactly worked. They provide you with all the information you need, including how it works, how it is structured, and how the tasks are done.

I have already recommended Google Cloud to others because they will know how their files are transferred, how their security is maintained, and what exactly the servers do in the background.

I would rate Google Cloud an 8 out of 10.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Public Cloud
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
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Technology Competency and Solution Head at LearningMate
Real User
Easy to learn, stable, and auto-scalable
Pros and Cons
  • "It is stable. It is easy to learn and very straightforward."
  • "They need to improve the costing for predictive analytics, which is mainly related to the tools that come with AI. They also need to improve the BigQuery cost optimization and the visualization."

What is our primary use case?

We build solutions based on the Google platform. We don't create solutions for ourselves. We create them for our customers.

We are using it specifically for our machine learning and data analytics. We are building our data solutions by using Google Cloud services. We are building the analytics dashboards and coming out with predictive analytics for education.

What is most valuable?

It is stable. It is easy to learn and very straightforward.

What needs improvement?

They need to improve the costing for predictive analytics, which is mainly related to the tools that come with AI. They also need to improve the BigQuery cost optimization and the visualization.

Their support could be faster.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using this solution for the last one year.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It is stable.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

It is auto-scalable. We have around 30 to 40 associates on this.

At the moment, we have around three customers who are using this particular product.

How are customer service and technical support?

Their tech support is not so great. It takes more than 48 hours to get a response from the Google team. Their support could be faster.

How was the initial setup?

It is a cloud-based solution, so there is no installation.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

It has a monthly subscription. The customers pay based on the usage.

What other advice do I have?

We are getting into a partnership with Google very soon. Almost our whole organization will be a Google partner. We recommend Google for every educational institution.

I would rate Google Cloud a nine out of 10.

Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner
PeerSpot user
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Updated: June 2024
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Download our free Google Cloud Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.