Google launched a new Cloud Launcher feature for its Cloud Platform today that lets developers easily set up popular open source packages. The tool drastically reduces the amount of time that it takes for someone to get up and running after they decide to use Google Cloud Platform.
When setting up an application that relies on a virtual machine, developers have to configure package and runtime components properly before their application even gets off the ground. With Cloud Launcher, they can pick out a deployment package for more than 120 applications like WordPress, Cassandra, Drupal and Redis that’s built by either Google or Bitnami and get it running quickly.
Many of the packages are tuned to run specifically on Google Cloud Platform, and the company is working to integrate them closely with its Cloud Monitoring program.
By allowing developers to quickly set up services through Cloud Launcher, Google may convince more people to at least give its Cloud Platform a fair shake when choosing a cloud provider. Google faces heavy competition from Amazon and Microsoft in the public cloud market, and it’s important for the company to offer a streamlined path to using GCP.
Cloud Launcher also seems to lay the foundation for Google to build a marketplace for companies that want to provide services on top of its Cloud Platform, much like offerings from both Amazon and Microsoft. Doing that would make GCP a more appealing option for both cloud software makers and businesses that need to install and run software packages.
