Introduction

Google Cloud Platform (GCP) is a suite of cloud computing services provided by Google. It is a public cloud computing platform consisting of a variety of services like compute, storage, networking, application development, Big Data, and more, which run on the same cloud infrastructure that Google uses internally for its end-user products, such as Google Search, Photos, Gmail and YouTube, etc.

The services of GCP can be accessed by software developers, cloud administrators and IT professionals over the Internet or through a dedicated network connection.

Google Cloud Platform is known as one of the leading cloud providers in the IT field. The services and features can be easily accessed and used by the software developers and users with little technical knowledge. Google has been on top amongst its competitors, offering the highly scalable and most reliable platform for building, testing and deploying the applications in the real-time environment.

Apart from this, GCP was announced as the leading cloud platform in the Gartner’s IaaS Magic Quadrant in 2018. Gartner is one of the leading research and advisory company. Gartner organized a campaign where Google Cloud Platform was compared with other cloud providers, and GCP was selected as one of the top three providers in the market.

Explore a comprehensive set of intermediate Google Cloud Platform interview questions and expert answers designed to test and enhance your knowledge of GCP services, architecture, and best practices.

Intermediate Google Cloud Platform Interview Questions

The platforms that are used for large-scale cloud computing are Amazon Web Services, Azure, Google Cloud Platform, and more.

 

Utility computing is the service wherein you get pay-as-you-go and on-demand services in which the provider offers to manage and operate the computing services and you can choose which services to access which are all deployed in the cloud.

To ensure that the data which is being transported is secure, you should check the implemented encryption key and that there is no leak in the data.

Some of the important security aspects that the cloud offers are as below:

  • Access control: it offers control to the users who can control the access to other users who are entering the cloud ecosystem
  • Identity management: this provides the authorization for the application services
  • Authorization and authentication: this security feature lets only the authenticated and authorized users access the applications and data.

The various GCP components are:

  • Google Compute Engine
  • Google Cloud Container Engine
  • Google Cloud Storage
  • Google Cloud App Engine
  • Google Cloud Dataflow
  • Google Cloud Machine Learning Engine
  • Google BigQuery Service
  • Google Cloud Job Discovery
  • Google Cloud Endpoints
  • Google Cloud Test Lab

The different layers that constitute the cloud architecture are:

  • Physical layer:This constitutes the physical servers, network, and other aspects
  • Infrastructure layer:This layer includes storage, virtualized layers, and so on
  • Platform layer: This includes the operating system, apps, and other aspects
  • Application layer: This is the layer that the end-user directly interacts with.

JSON API and XML API are at the core level for the cloud storage on Google Cloud Platform. But along with these, Google also provides the following to interact with the cloud storage.

  • Google Cloud Platform Consoleto perform basic operations on objects and buckets
  • Cloud Storage Client Librariesthat provides programming support for various languages 
  • Gsutil Command-line Toolprovides a CLI for the cloud storage

There are also a number of third-party libraries and tools like Boto Library.

Google Cloud Engine is the basic component of the Google Cloud Platform. It is an IaaS that provides flexible Windows and Linux-based virtual machines that are self-managed and hosted on the Google infrastructure. The virtual machines can run on local, durable storage options, and KVM.

For the purpose of control and configuration, Google Cloud Engine also includes REST-based API. It integrates with other GCP technologies (Google Cloud Storage, Google App Engine, Google BigQuery, etc.) that help extend its computational ability thus creating more complex and sophisticated applications.

There are different methods for the authentication of Google Compute Engine API. They are:

  • Through client library
  • Using OAuth 2.0
  • Directly using an access token

Virtualization lets you create virtual versions of the storage, operating systems, applications, networks, and so on. If you use the right virtualization then it helps you to augment your existing infrastructure. You are able to run multiple apps and operating systems on existing servers.

Some of the important open-source cloud computing platforms are as below

  • OpenStack
  • Cloud Foundry
  • Docker
  • Apache Mesos
  • KVM

  • Single multi-tenancy: In this type of SaaSyou have your own independent resources that you don’t share with anybody
  • Fine grain multi-tenancy: In this type of SaaS deployment the resources are shared between multiple tenants even though the functionalities remain the same.

Here we list the important benefits of API with respect to the cloud domain:

  • You don’t have to write the complete program
  • You can easily communicate between one application and another
  • You can easily create applications and link them to the cloud services
  • It seamlessly connects two applications in a secure manner.

Every single one of GCP’s customers is provided with a comprehensive arsenal of preventative and detective safeguards. Information, Computer Science, and the Provision of Services Customers of Google Cloud Platform (GCP) are granted access to resources, such as Virtual Private Clouds (VPC), Identity and Access Management (IAM), Firewall Rules, and so on, that are compliant with GCP best practises. This ensures the security of all services.

Recovery of unintentionally overwritten or destroyed data is made feasible through object versioning. To secure the safety of objects when they are rewritten or removed, versioning them incurs additional storage expenses. When object versioning is set on in a GCP bucket, anytime an object is removed or replaced, a unique version of the object is created. Generation and meta-generation attributes are used to determine the specific iteration of an object. A generation recognises the production of new content, whereas a metageneration recognises the production of new metadata.

One of the most important aspects of cloud computing is its scalability, which enables it to boost the number of resources it can provide in reaction to an increase in demand for those resources. When there is an increase in the demand for traffic, the design can be scaled up to provide the additional resources that are required. Elasticity, on the other hand, is a property that enables the instantaneous assembly and disassembly of enormous amounts of available resources. It is contingent on the quantity and duration of the resources that are accessible.

The Google App Engine and the Google Compute Engine each have a great deal to contribute to one another. Google Application Engine is a Platform as a Service (PaaS), whereas Google Compute Engine (GCE) offers computing resources. GAE is frequently used to operate a wide variety of applications, the most typical of which are mobile backends, online apps, and bespoke business software. 

Compute Engine is an excellent option to go with if we want to have a greater influence over the underlying infrastructure. For example, we could leverage Google Compute Engine to build our very own storage system or to supply specialized business logic.

A Computing Architecture for Elastic Utility Computing that connects your application to Valuable Systems (or EUCALYPTUS for short). The construction of cloud computing farms is accomplished with the help of this open-source platform. It provides hybrid solutions in addition to public and private cloud choices for users to choose from.

Because there are so many moving pieces, understanding clouds can be difficult at times. The system integrator is the overarching strategy that enables different cloud-related tasks, such as cloud design and the assembly of necessary elements for a public, private, or hybrid cloud infrastructure. In the cloud, the system integrator is the strategy that enables these tasks.

The projects act as containers for all of Google Compute’s resources and are responsible for their management. They operate as independent domains that are not designed to share resources with one another. There is the potential for a diverse group of stakeholders and owners of the project.

Elasticity is the quality that enables a material body to return to its original shape and size after being distorted by external forces and then having those forces removed.

Since it was first introduced, cloud computing has caused something like a revolution in the world of business. The overarching goal of the transformation brought on by cloud computing is not simply to rethink the ways in which we carry out our daily activities, but rather to make those activities more productive and less expensive overall.

The field of cloud computing is making leaps and bounds forward on a daily basis, which promises an exciting future for the information technology industry.

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