Building Google Cloud Platform Solutions

Updates and patches

As mentioned earlier in this chapter, one of the downsides to using Compute Engine as opposed to a more managed environment is the relatively high operational costs. One source of the higher operational costs is the increased burden of responsibility in terms of security.

Google Cloud has put a number of tools and mechanisms in place to establish a high level of security when using Compute Engine. This includes the detection of suspicious activity, secure default configurations, and maintaining the physical infrastructure and hypervisor layer of Compute Engine. The onus of keeping individual VMs up to date with latest security patches falls on the customer.

Many of the Google Cloud-provided Compute Engine images are preconfigured ...