Google Cloud cloud storage operation costs

Question

I am looking into using Google Cloud cloud storage buckets as a cheaper alternative to compute engine snapshots to store backups.

However, I am a bit confused about the costs per operation. Specifically the insert operation. If I understand the documentation correctly, it doesn't seem that it matters how large the file is that you want to insert is, it always counts as 1 operation.

So if I upload a single 20 TB file using one insert to a standard storage class bucket, wait 14 days, then retrieve it again, and all this within the same region, I practically only pay for storing it for 14 days?

Doesn't that mean that even the standard storage class bucket is a more cost effective option for storing backups compared to snapshots, as long as you can get your whole thing into a single file?

Answer 1

It's not fully accurate, and all depends on what cost for you.

Firstly, the max size of an object in Cloud Storage is 4Tb, so you can't store 1 file of 20Tb, but 5, at the end, it's the same principle.

The persistent disk snapshot is a very powerful feature:

• The snapshot doesn't need CPUs to be done, compare to your solution.
• The snapshot doesn't need network bandwidth to be done, compare to your solution.
• The snapshot can be done anytime, on the fly
• The snapshot can be restore, in the current VM, or you can create a new VM with a snapshot to investigate on it for example
• You can perform incremental snapshot and same money
• You don't need additional space on your persistent disk to be done (compare to your solution where you need to create an archive before sending it to Cloud Storage)

So, it's simple with snapshot, it requires overhead with your solution. What is the cost of the overhead? Is it really cheaper than snapshots? not sure...