Google Cloud Platform for Architects

Advantages of GKE over Docker on VMs or App Engine Flex

Now, there are several different ways of deploying Docker containers on the GCP. We could use App Engine Flex, or even simply deploy them on VMs. But choosing either of these options would cause us to lose out on the power of Kubernetes. That is a pretty big loss, because we'd need to manage creating, managing, and scaling our deployments ourselves. It would also tie us to a specific platform—neither Docker on GCP VMs, nor App Engine Flex, would generalize easily to a non-GCP cloud, or to on-premise. Following are the parameters to keep in mind while making a choice between GKE or App Engine Flex.

• Control: The argument is simple here. Containers give a LOT more control and portability. ...