Google Cloud Platform costs are flexible, and in many cases, the total expenditure in the cloud is lower than in physical data centres. Better yet, these costs can be further reduced. Below we present five ways to save on the Google Cloud Platform (GCP).
Many entrepreneurs decide to move their business to the cloud or start a product from scratch using as-s-service solutions. That’s because the cloud has an advantage over legacy infrastructure in terms of scalability, high availability, and costs.
In the case of your data centre or a hosting solution, costs are borne in advance. While in the cloud, you pay for what you use in a per-minute or even per-second charge, which leads to cost flexibility. During periods of decreased demand, the bill is low. And when more computing power is needed, services scale up to ensure high availability. The amount on the invoice enlarges but comes back to normal the second the traffic decreases. By using Google Cloud Platform, you also cut maintenance costs. The workforce can be transferred from infrastructure upkeep to development and optimizations.
Furthermore, you have other GCP saving options at your disposal. Here you’ll find five ways to reduce Google Cloud Platform costs.
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Lower prices for a commitment to consumption
Committed use discount (CUD) is a rebate given for an obligation to use a specific scope of compute power, vCPUs, memory, GPUs, or local SSDs. The discount is available for services based on virtual machines (e.g., Compute Engine, Google Kubernetes Engine, VMware Engine) and for some cloud databases.
It’s an excellent opportunity for projects that notice relatively constant traffic spikes. The cost of resource consumption can be cut down up to 57% for general-purpose machines and up to 70% for high-memory instances. You can take the committed use discount for a period of one or three years.
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Automatic discount for an uninterrupted usage
Sustained use discount (SUD) is another opportunity to lower the Google Cloud Platform cost. The rebate applies automatically when you continuously use GCP computing power. The longer services run, the higher discount you get – up to 30%.
For example, if you use a virtual machine non-stop for half a month, you get a 10% discount on the base price, 20% for ¾ month of usage, and 30% for all month long.
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Spot VMs – preemptible instances on the Google Cloud Platform
Google also uses the GCP compute power to develop its products. The server resources that are not consumed fully are made available to cloud users as Spot VMs. Spot VM is a type of instance with a lifespan of up to 24 hours. They are not recommended for applications that require high availability. Still, they are well suited for running irregular workloads that demand large amounts of computing power, e.g., training ML models or launching Big Data analytics.
You can set up a virtual machine of any specification as a Spot VM. The option can save up to 91% costs while maintaining the same performance as a machine in a non-preemptible model.
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Free Tier – renewable usage quotas
Google Cloud Platform provides free monthly usage lots to over 20 popular services. Free Tier includes, i.a., Compute Engine, App Engine, Google Kubernetes Engine, Cloud Run, Cloud Functions, BigQuery, or various Machine Learning functionalities.
The quotas are enough to run a small-scale application completely free of charge. Free Tier also applies to more developed projects with higher consumption levels that exceed the limits.
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Cooperation with a Google Cloud Partner
Google Cloud runs a global partner program that supports sales, proper operation, and development of the full potential of the offered services, i.a., Google Cloud Platform. Google Cloud Partner is a bridge between a customer and a service provider. Thanks to the locality, a partner company ensures faster support or better savings opportunities.
For example, a European Google Cloud Partner – FOTC – grants a $500 voucher to spend on GCP services, covers part of infrastructure maintenance costs during a cloud migration of PoC building process and offers exclusive discounts in case of long-term cooperation.