6 ms·

Google Cloud Platform free for 60 days

69 points by stickhandle 12y ago

rey12rey 12y ago
This has been around for quite sometime[1]. It's also cool to note that there are usually free credits involved in most Google Cloud competitions and some Google Udacity courses. Off the top of my head, I think I might have enjoyed a total of about $3000 since 2013. Oh and there's the $100000 for Startups[2] that'd be cool to get at some point in time. 1: [http://googlecloudplatform.blogspot.com/2014/11/google-cloud-platform-live-introducing-container-engine-cloud-networking-and-much-more.html?m=1 http://googlecloudplatform.blogspot.com/2014/11/google-cloud...] 2: [https://cloud.google.com/developers/startups/ https://cloud.google.com/developers/startups/]
forgottenacc56 12y ago
Google has to do something extraordinary to prove it can provide adequate support. It's support reputation is absolutely abysmal - why would I build a business on system of a company that tries to not have human contact?
- kjksf 12y ago
  https://cloud.google.com/support/ https://cloud.google.com/support/ https://support.google.com/cloud/answer/3420056?hl=en&ref_topic=3473162 https://support.google.com/cloud/answer/3420056?hl=en&ref_to... https://support.google.com/cloud/answer/3466163?hl=en&ref_topic=3340599 https://support.google.com/cloud/answer/3466163?hl=en&ref_to... Google's support for GCE is no different than Amazon's for EC2 - the more you pay, the more support you get.
  - forgottenacc56 12y ago
    This is not doing something extraordinary. My greatest hesitation with Google is being left high and dry in the event of a problem and having to pay big money to MAYBE get a response through God knows what support channel in God knows how much time. Google has to do something fuckin amazing to dispel cynicsm about their support. Your links do nothing like that. Google thinks it just has to be a clone of amAzon in all ways.
    - jpatokal 12y ago
      And what would qualify as "fuckin amazing" in your book? Seeing as you apparently have not even tried it out.
- rando289 12y ago
  Last month, I noticed their whole cloud domain returned 503 for several hours. Google gce uptime, google has nothing except a page of legalese. Yaaa....
- nulltype 12y ago
  I use GCP and the support I've gotten with a silver plan (their lowest) has been surprisingly good. Low priority stuff like bug reports have been forwarded to developers and occasionally fixed. High priority tickets I've seen a very good response time on (far better than the minimum guaranteed), though I am going to upgrade to the next level plan to get better response times on the weekend. I have not used AWS support so I can't compare, but GCP support has been pretty good in my experience. Merely being a customer is not enough though, without a paid support plan you're basically on your own. This might be standard for cloud providers though from what I can tell.
  - tapirl 12y ago
    AWS has a good community. Google cloud hasn't.
- downandout 12y ago
  Agreed. I was once wronged by Google Checkout (before it closed, obviously). I couldn't get any response at all from the company, so I called a few numbers and eventually a random developer at Google looked up and gave me the name and phone number for the director of Google Checkout. I posted the number in a few forums where other incredibly frustrated merchants were looking for help. Instead of getting some people to respond to the messages these people apparently left, within a day, the number was disconnected. That is how they tend to deal with customer service issues.
  - riobard 12y ago
    Not to defend Google's attitude towards customer service, but you do realize it's inappropriate to post someone's work phone number as a public-facing custom support line, right?
    - deleted 12y ago
      [deleted]
  - skj 12y ago
    How can you possibly think that was the right thing to do here?
    - downandout 12y ago
      When you see countless stories about small businesses being seriously damaged by a service, it's hard to not want to try to help them.
      - skj 12y ago
        In no world would what you did help them. Poor judgement.
        deleted 12y ago
        [deleted]
- jpatokal 12y ago
  Google's support for business customers are entirely different from those for free customers. Which isn't really particularly surprising, given the vastly different scales at which they operate.
- dholowiski 12y ago
  I've used Google support in 3 different areas: 1 Google apps (paid), there is a phone number to call. I spent several hours on the phone with a very knowledgeable person helping me troubleshoot a sync issue. 2 Hardware, my android watch died. I called the Google play support number, again talked to a very knowledgeable person who gave me a couple of troubleshooting steps, and then promptly replaced the watch. 3 Google adwords. We regularly talk to people at Google adwords, regarding billing and support issues. I also work with people who speak with support people for Google places (or my business or whatever they're calling it today) In my experience, Google tech support is great when it's for a product you're paying for. That would be my concern getting 60 days free here... If I was using this for business (and not just messing around) I'd rather just pay for it and know I can get support.
  - RedSocks112 12y ago
    Even paying for Google Cloud is no guarantee of a reliable, robust service. Previous thread on this at: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8784356 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8784356
- BIair 12y ago
  I use Google's Pagespeed Service, which is free and in beta. They say they may charge some day. But the support... I have "proxy errors" reported, which would appear to be an error on their end. Contacted support via email and was told to expect a response within 3 business days. So that was Thursday morning, it'll be at least 96 hours before I get a reply. Maybe up to 120 hours. Glad I moved the site instead of waiting.
teraflop 12y ago
For new customers only, apparently. I've signed up for some of Google's cloud services in the past, but not their IaaS stuff, and never as a paid account. I wonder if it's safe to create a new account to get this free trial, or will that just risk getting my account banned?
imaginenore 12y ago
I find Google Cloud ridiculously expensive. I can get a VPS for $1.5 per month and it will have 50GB SSD, 1GB RAM, 2 CPU cores, 1 Gbps link. Google Cloud's cheapest server, f1-micro, costs $7.3/month, comes with 0.6GB RAM, a shared CPU, and zero storage.
- tapirl 12y ago
  which VPS provider?
  - imaginenore 12y ago
    http://lowendbox.com/blog/boltvm-18year-1gb-and-36year-2gb-openvz-vps-in-piscataway-or-los-angeles/ http://lowendbox.com/blog/boltvm-18year-1gb-and-36year-2gb-o... That's just an example. There are even cheaper ones out there.
    - jauer 12y ago
      That's actually pretty big apples and oranges, not including the difference between a relatively static VM and on-demand instances (GCE, EC2). It's OpenVZ, not KVM so you're getting a container, not a VM. That might be better for some people, or make no difference, but it's a important distinction. You're stuck with the host's kernel. This can make distro choice/upgrade interesting. RAM overcommit on the host side is easier, etc. You aren't buying 50GB of SSD storage. You're buying 50GB of RAID10 spinning disk with SSD cache. No mention if 1Gbps uplink is the host's uplink or if you get 1Gbps uplink out of a link bundle on the server. Given the other things, I'd suspect host has 1 or 2 GigE connections that you're sharing. That could be a big deal if one VM can saturate a significant portion of the server's network capacity. I'm sure it's fine for a normal blog, secondary DNS server, or something like that but once you go below ~$5/mo on low-end VM/container hosting there tend to be gotchas.
- Thiz 12y ago
  > I can get a VPS for $1.5 per month and it will have 50GB SSD, 1GB RAM, 2 CPU cores, 1 Gbps link. Please share.
frostmatthew 12y ago
The submission's title is somewhat misleading, it's $300 in credit to use for 60 days. Comparing to other IaaS trials this is better than Azure[1], the same amount but less time as vCloud Air[2], and difficult to compare directly with AWS[3]. [N.B. I work on vCloud Air] [1] http://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/pricing/free-trial/ http://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/pricing/free-trial/ [2] http://vcloud.vmware.com/service-offering/special-offer http://vcloud.vmware.com/service-offering/special-offer [3] http://aws.amazon.com/cloudsearch/free-trial/ http://aws.amazon.com/cloudsearch/free-trial/
- mark_l_watson 12y ago
  If you apply to BizSpark and are accepted then you get up to $150/month Azure credit for 3 years. Amazing deal, and it induced me to become a Microsoft customer (I bought a Windows 8.1 laptop, subscribed to Office 365). Seriously, if you have a business idea that you want to develop apply to BizSpark. They have good support for Linux VPSs as well as useful APIs.
- simonebrunozzi 12y ago
  I work for vCloud Air too. Nice to see you on HN Matthew :)
ridruejo 12y ago
If you are getting started with Google cloud and looking for apps (WordPress, Drupal, etc) or dev environments (Rails, Node.js, PHP, etc.) give a try to the free Google Cloud Launchpad http://google.bitnami.com http://google.bitnami.com (Disclaimer, I am one of the founders)
bla2 12y ago
I signed up for this last month. Apparently only most things are free, as I got a bill for $4 after one month. I tried contacting support to figure out what's up with that. I haven't heard back yet.

69 points by stickhandle 12y ago

This has been around for quite sometime[1]. It's also cool to note that there are usually free credits involved in most Google Cloud competitions and some Google Udacity courses. Off the top of my head, I think I might have enjoyed a total of about $3000 since 2013. Oh and there's the $100000 for Startups[2] that'd be cool to get at some point in time. 1: [http://googlecloudplatform.blogspot.com/2014/11/google-cloud-platform-live-introducing-container-engine-cloud-networking-and-much-more.html?m=1 http://googlecloudplatform.blogspot.com/2014/11/google-cloud...] 2: [https://cloud.google.com/developers/startups/ https://cloud.google.com/developers/startups/]

forgottenacc56 12y ago

Google has to do something extraordinary to prove it can provide adequate support. It's support reputation is absolutely abysmal - why would I build a business on system of a company that tries to not have human contact?

kjksf 12y ago
https://cloud.google.com/support/ https://cloud.google.com/support/ https://support.google.com/cloud/answer/3420056?hl=en&ref_topic=3473162 https://support.google.com/cloud/answer/3420056?hl=en&ref_to... https://support.google.com/cloud/answer/3466163?hl=en&ref_topic=3340599 https://support.google.com/cloud/answer/3466163?hl=en&ref_to... Google's support for GCE is no different than Amazon's for EC2 - the more you pay, the more support you get.
- forgottenacc56 12y ago
  This is not doing something extraordinary. My greatest hesitation with Google is being left high and dry in the event of a problem and having to pay big money to MAYBE get a response through God knows what support channel in God knows how much time. Google has to do something fuckin amazing to dispel cynicsm about their support. Your links do nothing like that. Google thinks it just has to be a clone of amAzon in all ways.
  - jpatokal 12y ago
    And what would qualify as "fuckin amazing" in your book? Seeing as you apparently have not even tried it out.
rando289 12y ago
Last month, I noticed their whole cloud domain returned 503 for several hours. Google gce uptime, google has nothing except a page of legalese. Yaaa....
nulltype 12y ago
I use GCP and the support I've gotten with a silver plan (their lowest) has been surprisingly good. Low priority stuff like bug reports have been forwarded to developers and occasionally fixed. High priority tickets I've seen a very good response time on (far better than the minimum guaranteed), though I am going to upgrade to the next level plan to get better response times on the weekend. I have not used AWS support so I can't compare, but GCP support has been pretty good in my experience. Merely being a customer is not enough though, without a paid support plan you're basically on your own. This might be standard for cloud providers though from what I can tell.
- tapirl 12y ago
  AWS has a good community. Google cloud hasn't.
downandout 12y ago
Agreed. I was once wronged by Google Checkout (before it closed, obviously). I couldn't get any response at all from the company, so I called a few numbers and eventually a random developer at Google looked up and gave me the name and phone number for the director of Google Checkout. I posted the number in a few forums where other incredibly frustrated merchants were looking for help. Instead of getting some people to respond to the messages these people apparently left, within a day, the number was disconnected. That is how they tend to deal with customer service issues.
- riobard 12y ago
  Not to defend Google's attitude towards customer service, but you do realize it's inappropriate to post someone's work phone number as a public-facing custom support line, right?
  - deleted 12y ago
    [deleted]
- skj 12y ago
  How can you possibly think that was the right thing to do here?
  - downandout 12y ago
    When you see countless stories about small businesses being seriously damaged by a service, it's hard to not want to try to help them.
    - skj 12y ago
      In no world would what you did help them. Poor judgement.
      - deleted 12y ago
        [deleted]
jpatokal 12y ago
Google's support for business customers are entirely different from those for free customers. Which isn't really particularly surprising, given the vastly different scales at which they operate.
dholowiski 12y ago
I've used Google support in 3 different areas: 1 Google apps (paid), there is a phone number to call. I spent several hours on the phone with a very knowledgeable person helping me troubleshoot a sync issue. 2 Hardware, my android watch died. I called the Google play support number, again talked to a very knowledgeable person who gave me a couple of troubleshooting steps, and then promptly replaced the watch. 3 Google adwords. We regularly talk to people at Google adwords, regarding billing and support issues. I also work with people who speak with support people for Google places (or my business or whatever they're calling it today) In my experience, Google tech support is great when it's for a product you're paying for. That would be my concern getting 60 days free here... If I was using this for business (and not just messing around) I'd rather just pay for it and know I can get support.
- RedSocks112 12y ago
  Even paying for Google Cloud is no guarantee of a reliable, robust service. Previous thread on this at: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8784356 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8784356
BIair 12y ago
I use Google's Pagespeed Service, which is free and in beta. They say they may charge some day. But the support... I have "proxy errors" reported, which would appear to be an error on their end. Contacted support via email and was told to expect a response within 3 business days. So that was Thursday morning, it'll be at least 96 hours before I get a reply. Maybe up to 120 hours. Glad I moved the site instead of waiting.

teraflop 12y ago

For new customers only, apparently. I've signed up for some of Google's cloud services in the past, but not their IaaS stuff, and never as a paid account. I wonder if it's safe to create a new account to get this free trial, or will that just risk getting my account banned?

imaginenore 12y ago

I find Google Cloud ridiculously expensive. I can get a VPS for $1.5 per month and it will have 50GB SSD, 1GB RAM, 2 CPU cores, 1 Gbps link. Google Cloud's cheapest server, f1-micro, costs $7.3/month, comes with 0.6GB RAM, a shared CPU, and zero storage.

tapirl 12y ago
which VPS provider?
- imaginenore 12y ago
  http://lowendbox.com/blog/boltvm-18year-1gb-and-36year-2gb-openvz-vps-in-piscataway-or-los-angeles/ http://lowendbox.com/blog/boltvm-18year-1gb-and-36year-2gb-o... That's just an example. There are even cheaper ones out there.
  - jauer 12y ago
    That's actually pretty big apples and oranges, not including the difference between a relatively static VM and on-demand instances (GCE, EC2). It's OpenVZ, not KVM so you're getting a container, not a VM. That might be better for some people, or make no difference, but it's a important distinction. You're stuck with the host's kernel. This can make distro choice/upgrade interesting. RAM overcommit on the host side is easier, etc. You aren't buying 50GB of SSD storage. You're buying 50GB of RAID10 spinning disk with SSD cache. No mention if 1Gbps uplink is the host's uplink or if you get 1Gbps uplink out of a link bundle on the server. Given the other things, I'd suspect host has 1 or 2 GigE connections that you're sharing. That could be a big deal if one VM can saturate a significant portion of the server's network capacity. I'm sure it's fine for a normal blog, secondary DNS server, or something like that but once you go below ~$5/mo on low-end VM/container hosting there tend to be gotchas.
Thiz 12y ago
> I can get a VPS for $1.5 per month and it will have 50GB SSD, 1GB RAM, 2 CPU cores, 1 Gbps link. Please share.

frostmatthew 12y ago

The submission's title is somewhat misleading, it's $300 in credit to use for 60 days. Comparing to other IaaS trials this is better than Azure[1], the same amount but less time as vCloud Air[2], and difficult to compare directly with AWS[3]. [N.B. I work on vCloud Air] [1] http://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/pricing/free-trial/ http://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/pricing/free-trial/ [2] http://vcloud.vmware.com/service-offering/special-offer http://vcloud.vmware.com/service-offering/special-offer [3] http://aws.amazon.com/cloudsearch/free-trial/ http://aws.amazon.com/cloudsearch/free-trial/

mark_l_watson 12y ago
If you apply to BizSpark and are accepted then you get up to $150/month Azure credit for 3 years. Amazing deal, and it induced me to become a Microsoft customer (I bought a Windows 8.1 laptop, subscribed to Office 365). Seriously, if you have a business idea that you want to develop apply to BizSpark. They have good support for Linux VPSs as well as useful APIs.
simonebrunozzi 12y ago
I work for vCloud Air too. Nice to see you on HN Matthew :)

ridruejo 12y ago

If you are getting started with Google cloud and looking for apps (WordPress, Drupal, etc) or dev environments (Rails, Node.js, PHP, etc.) give a try to the free Google Cloud Launchpad http://google.bitnami.com http://google.bitnami.com (Disclaimer, I am one of the founders)

bla2 12y ago

I signed up for this last month. Apparently only most things are free, as I got a bill for $4 after one month. I tried contacting support to figure out what's up with that. I haven't heard back yet.