No matter how odd it may sound to you as a general viewer, this is definitely good news for developers who deploy a mixture of Linux and Windows applications on Google’s Compute Engine space. Announcing today, Google says that Windows Server for its Compute Engine has now hit general availability.
Compute Engine offers Windows Server 2012 R2 and Windows Server 2008 R2 customers benefits of speedy deployments, increased uptime due to transparent maintenance, cheap and predictable block storage, and Google Cloud Storage’s impressive Nearline backup.
Sharepoint, SQL and Exchange Server, and other Microsoft applications are also available to Compute Engine customers via the Microsoft License Mobility program.
Since its beta launch to its public release today, Google has added a whole set og new features to Windows Server on its Compute Engine. Several Windows-specific improvements have been made to the Compute Engine virtualization stack in order to bring the full benefits of Google network to Windows Server users.
With multi queue (MQ) and generic receive offload (GRO) support, Windows Server running on Compute Engine can reach up to 7.5Gbps of throughput. This reduces the number of Windows Server instances required to serve web based applications and helps our customers more effectively contain their infrastructure and operational costs.
With its graduation to General Availability, Windows Server instances are now covered by the Compute Engine SLA. Windows Server users can now easily deploy a server running Active Directory or ASP.NET using the Cloud Launcher, and can securely extend their existing infrastructure into Google Cloud Platform using VPN.
Also, customers who purchase Google Cloud Platform support packages can get architectural and operational support for their Windows Server deployments on Compute Engine.
