Google Associate Cloud EngineerPlanning and configuring a cloud solutionMedium
A development team is building a new microservices-based application. Each microservice will be deployed as a Docker container. The team requires a platform that offers automatic scaling, service discovery, load balancing, and self-healing capabilities for their containerized workloads. They prefer a managed service to reduce operational burden. Which Google Cloud compute service should they choose?
- AApp Engine Standard environment
- BGoogle Kubernetes Engine (GKE)
- CCloud Functions
- DCompute Engine (with Docker installed)
Show answer & explanationAnswer & explanation
Correct answer: B. Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE)
Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) is a managed service for deploying and managing containerized applications using Kubernetes. It inherently provides automatic scaling, service discovery, load balancing, and self-healing for microservices, reducing operational burden compared to self-managing Kubernetes.
Why the other options are wrong
- A. While serverless and managed, App Engine Standard is not specifically designed for general-purpose container orchestration with the full suite of Kubernetes features like service discovery and self-healing for complex microservice deployments.
- C. Cloud Functions is for event-driven, stateless functions, not for deploying and managing containerized microservices with complex orchestration needs.
- D. Requires manual setup and management of Docker, Kubernetes, scaling, and networking, contradicting the 'managed service' and 'reduced operational burden' requirements.
Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE)
A managed service for deploying, managing, and scaling containerized applications using Kubernetes on Google Cloud. It automates much of the infrastructure management for container orchestration.
- Managed Kubernetes service
- Container orchestration
- Automatic scaling, load balancing, self-healing
- Service discovery built-in
- Supports microservices architectures
Memory trick: Containers: If your 'fleet' needs a 'Captain', GKE is the clear choice!