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Kay Kleinvogel
Kay Kleinvogel

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3 Key Insights From Developing on Google Cloud, to Save Time, Money, and Have a Better Product

Ever wondered how cloud technology can give your projects a significant boost? Let me share my recent experience with you.

Over the past month, I've been working on my new AI-driven content tool, ai-headline. I've been astounded by the benefits of using Google Cloud Platform during its development. In this article, I'll walk you through three realizations I had during this process, highlighting how the cloud can supercharge your projects, save time, and make your journey much smoother.

So, buckle up and join me as we explore the fantastic world of cloud technology!

Using Managed Services Gives You Time To Focus On Your Application

Managed Services are the way to go if you want to start as quickly as possible.

With traditional infrastructure (and even infrastructure as a service), you need to take care of many details for the system to be up and running. On the other hand, using a managed service takes care of everything and provides a ready-to-use environment for you. A wide range of services can be used, from Cloud Run to fully automated scale and run your container to managed databases you can connect to and use.

So if you don't need specialized solutions or minute control over everything, use a managed service to save time; no one likes to set up and maintain hardware.

Involve Your Users Early To Get Valuable Feedback

You are building for a user, so involve them as early as possible.

I wanted to test my application with users as early as possible. They will have a new view and different ideas and might break the application in a way I did not expect. For this, I had a regular exchange with my testers, asked for their experience, and had some calls to discuss the tool.

Since I was using Google Cloud Run, I could provide them with a public link to the instance of my application, allowing them to connect easily to the application. Cloud Run then started and scaled the application to meet demand.

The tester's feedback allowed me to identify problems quickly, gather new ideas, and improve the application.

The Cloud Allows You To Change Things Up Easily

Most of the time, things will go differently than planned, but the cloud allows you to make changes quickly.

After my prototype, the testers and I identified many bugs, problems, and possibly new features. In the old world, I have to add new servers, install software and spend days setting up everything to implement these new features. But with the cloud, I can start a new cloud-run instance and a managed DB within minutes. And when I didn't need it anymore, I could delete it, and it was gone in seconds, nothing more to worry about.

Ultimately, it's fast to create and destroy infrastructure in the cloud; use this to iterate, test, and explore to find the best fit for your idea.

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