Google Cloud Fundamentals

Google Cloud is a cloud computing platform. It exposes infrastructure and managed capabilities as services. You use those services to run applications, store data, connect systems, analyze information, manage access, and observe workloads.

Do not begin by memorizing product names. Begin with the operating model. A project contains resources and connects usage to billing. A service exposes capabilities through an API. A principal requests an action. Identity and Access Management decides whether the action is allowed. A location determines where a regional or zonal resource runs.

This course gives you that map. It stays broad because compute, identity, networking, and storage each have their own follow-on course.

What the cloud changes

You can create Google Cloud resources through the console, the Google Cloud CLI, client libraries, or service APIs. Provisioning is quick and repeatable. It can also create cost, exposure, and operational work in minutes.

Google operates the physical infrastructure and the managed service platform. You remain responsible for your data, identities, access choices, workload configuration, and application behavior. The exact division changes with the service. A virtual machine leaves more work with you than a fully managed application service.

This division is the shared responsibility model. Treat it as a design input. A managed service reduces some operational tasks. It does not make access, data protection, reliability, or cost someone else's problem.

The resource model