GCP Migration: What It Is and Why It Is Important

Google Cloud Platform (GCP) powers Google’s search engine and many of its services. It also powers popular websites like PayPal, Twitter, Equifax, and more. Google Cloud has some of the most competitive prices in the market and some of the lowest amount of downtime among cloud providers. It also has a strong built-in cybersecurity system called Cloud Armor that protects applications from cyberattacks.

Google Cloud services started in 2008 with the Google App Engine and now has more than a hundred different services. It covers cloud hosting, machine learning, text-to-speech, SQL and NoSQL database management systems, blockchain services, and so on. Along with Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft Azure, it’s one of the top cloud service providers. Google Cloud provides a wide array of services that you can use to develop, test, deploy, and manage your application whether it’s small scale or large. 

Comparing Google Cloud Platform with Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure

AWS is the current market leader in cloud computing followed by a close tie between Microsoft Azure and GCP. AWS mostly specializes in virtual private computing-based services (VPC), while Microsoft Azure specializes in hybrid cloud-based services. Google Cloud Platform has a wider range of cloud-based AI/ML products. All three of the cloud-based service providers offer competitive rates for shared as well as private cloud hosting. However, GCP provides easy access to scalable application development. It also integrates well with Firebase (another NoSQL-based web hosting product from Google) and comes with $300 free cloud hosting credits for individuals and up to $100,000 in cloud computing and mentoring credits for selected startups. These perks provide easy access to launching scalable secure applications. And you don’t need to worry about planning complex cybersecurity measures or manually adjusting the application for higher scalability since GCP takes care of that automatically for you.

Google Cloud Platform Security and Scalability Features

Features such as managed instance groups (MIGs) offer fully managed load balancing by adding more virtual machines during a high-traffic load instance and deleting virtual machines when the traffic load is lighter.

GCP also provides VPC firewall services and Cloud Armor network security. This helps secure your application from unwanted cyberattacks without you having to implement security monitoring by yourself, saving you time and money. Cloud Armor includes advanced security features such as machine-learning-based DDoS detection and advanced bot detection with features such as reCAPTCHA. 

Also, if you’re developing a finance-based application, you’ll usually have to follow the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) specifications, which include hosting your application on PCI DSS–certified servers. GCP servers are regularly audited against PCI DSS specifications, allowing you to be PCI DSS compliant with ease.

Cloud Armor includes advanced security features such as machine-learning-based DDoS detection and advanced bot detection with features such as reCAPTCHA

Is your application cloud-ready for deployment? You can read more about developing your application to be cloud ready here.

Common Issues with Manual App Migration to Google Cloud Platform 

By now you should be able to see the benefits of migrating your application to GCP. However, migrating your application isn’t exactly straightforward. Migrating all your applications manually means you’ll also have to migrate all the data, the configuration, the security rules, etc. This is an extremely complex process and may open up your application to vulnerabilities and back doors that can then be exploited by malicious actors.

Below are some ways you can migrate your application safely to GCP. 

Discovery Phase

First, analyze your existing cloud solution and why you’re choosing to migrate to a new one. List the benefits of migrating to GCP and ask yourself how those benefits compare with the benefits of continuing with your current platform. Make sure you understand exactly how GCP can benefit and support your application’s scaling and security needs. You can also assess the different microservice requirements for your application and make sure GCP provides the microservices you require.  

Design phase

The design phase is where you plan your migration strategy. Document the key performance indicators for GCP and how they compare to your current cloud computing platform. You may find that a different cloud platform suits your need better than GCP does. You’ll need to carefully plan your migration strategy since reversing a migration or moving to yet another cloud platform because GCP didn’t meet your requirements can cost your company a lot in computing expenses.

Migration phase

Now you’re ready to being the migration process. You’ll need to migrate all your application data and stored data, set up new security and firewall rules, and create new identity access management (IAM) rules. Make sure you have secure key management. 

Going Live

After testing your application in the new environment and after making sure that your keys are secure and that your security, firewall, and identity access management rules are set, you can finally deploy your application to GCP and assess the performance in real time. 

Ongoing Support

You’ll also need to set up log monitoring to monitor the application in real time and create a CI/CD flow so you can debug any crashes that occur in real-time deployment. Also, be sure you have a protocol in place in case you suffer a data breach or a cyberattack.

Migrate to GCP Easily with Control Plane

Migrating to GCP can be an arduous process. If you’re not careful, you can open up your application to exploits and attacks.

Alternatively, you can use Control Plane to migrate your application across multiple cloud platforms in minutes rather than days. 

You can run your application across multiple regions and multiple cloud providers with ease. Your application will be managed as a single Kubernetes cluster across different nodes in different regions and among different cloud providers, which offers the highest amount of uptime and security. It also allows you to set uniform security and identity group rules and a unified interface in the form of API, CLI, and UI, which allows you to develop tests and deploy to the cloud with ease.     

Control Plane helps you to save costs by charging only for the resources you use, which can depend on factors such as traffic load, the number of microservices running, etc., allowing you to get started with a lower overhead cost. Control Plane comes with many CloudOp tools such as software-defined VPN, key management, and more. These can help you manage and debug your application more easily. Control Plane also comes with a built-in audit trail that can help you audit your workload and actions performed by CloudFront, helping you efficiently monitor your application. These are only some of the many benefits you can expect by deploying your application using Control Plane.

Control Plane helps you to save costs by charging only for the resources you use, which can depend on factors such as traffic load, the number of microservices running, etc., allowing you to get started with a lower overhead cost.

A Control Plane migration results in a low-latency application that’s distributed across different nodes around the world. This will ensure that your application loads with high speed and low latency, reducing the bounce rate to your application site. It also allows you to easily manage, debug, and update your application across the globe. All you need is your PC or laptop and a stable internet connection. 

You can start using Control Plane immediately by signing up, or if you aren’t sure, you can schedule a demo. Our support team is always glad to assist you.  

This post was written by Pranav Upadhyaya. Pranav has experience in Python development and data structures. He has built applications in the field of web development, data scraping, analytics, and blockchain.