Getting started with Google Cloud Platform(GCP)

Google provides the same cloud services as other cloud providers such as Amazon Web Services(AWS) and Microsoft (Azure). It refers it as Google Cloud Platform or GCP. You can easily get started by signing up for free – https://cloud.google.com/free/

List of all products provided in GCP – https://cloud.google.com/products/

Google provides several ways to interact with its services-

1. GCP console (web ui)
GCP console is a web user interface which lets you interact with GCP resources. You can view, create, update and delete cloud resources from this page.

How to create a Linux vm(instance) using the console – https://cloud.google.com/compute/docs/quickstart-linux

2. Command Line Interface (gcloud cli toolset)
Install gcloud : https://cloud.google.com/sdk/gcloud/

The gcloud toolkit is a command line interface tool to interact with GCP resources. Very useful in automating cloud tasks, with its command completion and help pages, it is almost a necessity to familiarize yourself with this tool.

How to create an instance using gcloud cli – https://cloud.google.com/sdk/gcloud/reference/compute/instances/create

3. Cloud deployment manager
GCP deployment manager allows you to create, delete and update GCP resources in parallel by declaring a set of templates written in jinja2 or python. Templates can be shared with other teams and can be re-used with little modification.

What deployment manager is and how it works – https://cloud.google.com/deployment-manager/

How to deploy an a GCP instance using deployment manager – https://cloud.google.com/deployment-manager/docs/quickstart

4. APIs
Google provides application programming interface(APIs) to interact with its GCP services. Google recommends using the client libraries over directly calling the RESTful apis.

a. Client libraries

List of client libraries for different programming languages – https://cloud.google.com/apis/docs/cloud-client-libraries

How to interact with Google Compute Engine(GCE) using the Python client library – https://cloud.google.com/compute/docs/tutorials/python-guide#addinganinstance

b. RESTful or raw APIs

API Reference – https://cloud.google.com/compute/docs/reference/beta/

Method for creating an instance – https://cloud.google.com/compute/docs/reference/beta/instances/insert

References –
Google Cloud Platform Services overview