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We offer paid support for Cloud (http://cloud.google.com/support http://cloud.google.com/support) that let you trade off responsive time (e.g., 4 hours vs 1) fo

by boulos 11y ago

We offer paid support for Cloud (http://cloud.google.com/support http://cloud.google.com/support) that let you trade off responsive time (e.g., 4 hours vs 1) for price. The support personnel (and engineering!) also do best effort scanning of Stack Overflow, Server Fault, and per-product mailing lists. You can get links to those here: https://cloud.google.com/support/#community https://cloud.google.com/support/#community. Disclaimer: I work on Compute Engine, but not in Support (though I do jump in and support customers!)

voltagex_ 11y ago
What kind of support am I going to get if I'm just tinkering with the platform? Maybe I'm just used to AWS but I always found the GCE interface (at least for launching VMs) a lot more difficult to use.
- boulos 11y ago
  Sorry to hear that. Is there something specific about our current console you find hard to use? Perhaps I'm used to both (and I'm biased) but I like our create instance page just fine. Like I mentioned above, we do have active communities on Stack Overflow, per-product mailing lists (in this case https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/gce-discussion https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/gce-discussion) and Server Fault.
  - voltagex_ 11y ago
    I'll have to try again. The last time I tried to use GCE I had to create some kind of linked project before I could even start to create a VM.
seanp2k2 11y ago
Did not know about this. To me, Google has a terrible reputation when it comes to support and keeping products with large numbers of users running. Edit: (posted too soon) my main concerns with putting anything on GC are around support, continued support / long-term commitment to the platform, ease of switching (App Engine was a very bad on boarding experience for me when I tried it a few years ago and required lots of GCE-specific ways of doing things in the code), and pricing differences that might make it cost way more in subtle ways to run a thing on GC. I think it'd be good for Google to start fixing their story around support and commitment to products with everything else under the Google brand before people will be wanting to risk their infrastructure with that brand.
kuschku 11y ago
So, you ask your paying customers to pay extra – not to get support, but to increase the chance of getting support in time? That’s... an interesting business model.
- boulos 11y ago
  Paying more for more support cases or more urgent responses is standard practice for support plans. For example, here's the AWS Support comparison page: https://aws.amazon.com/premiumsupport/compare-plans/ https://aws.amazon.com/premiumsupport/compare-plans/ which has similar tiers of support.
  - Someone1234 11y ago
    I agree that Google Cloud offering different response times for different support tiers is consistent with the industry at large. That being said, Google Cloud support is overly expensive. $150/month Vs. $49/month for AWS Vs. $29/month ($174 minimum commitment over six months) for Azure. I wish all them had a "per issue" tier. I want to pay for a single ticket/resolution. But at least Google Cloud and AWS don't have a minimum commitment period like Azure (even if Azure is cheap per month). I'd likely rank them: - AWS is best (alright price with no commitment). - Azure is next (amazing price but lame commitment). - Google Cloud is worst (high price, almost as much as six months at Azure!). And before you tell me that they offer different things at those price points I DON'T CARE. All I care about is the minimum amount of money I have to pay someone to look at a technical support ticket for me. I don't care if it takes 1 or 48 hours, I just don't want to pay a lot. If I cared about responsiveness I'd be buying the gold plated support with telephone agents. Google Cloud's $150 to look at one ticket thing really puts me off the entire platform.
    - obulpathi 11y ago
      > That being said, Google Cloud support is overly expensive. $150/month Vs. $49/month for AWS Vs. $29/month Your basis for ordering is their support prices which is just a tiny tiny fraction of Cloud infrastructure pricing. Google Cloud is 50% cheaper compared to AWS. Which is huge. Also, thanks to ease of use (Cloud Shell, SSH from browser ..), Google Cloud will save you lot of man hours. Also talking about commitment, you need to commit for 1-year / 3-year usage of resources and pay partial or full bill in upfront for discounts. Google beats those prices without any commitment. Let's compare the Cloud providers on these factors.

by boulos 11y ago

voltagex_ 11y ago

What kind of support am I going to get if I'm just tinkering with the platform? Maybe I'm just used to AWS but I always found the GCE interface (at least for launching VMs) a lot more difficult to use.

boulos 11y ago
Sorry to hear that. Is there something specific about our current console you find hard to use? Perhaps I'm used to both (and I'm biased) but I like our create instance page just fine. Like I mentioned above, we do have active communities on Stack Overflow, per-product mailing lists (in this case https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/gce-discussion https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/gce-discussion) and Server Fault.
- voltagex_ 11y ago
  I'll have to try again. The last time I tried to use GCE I had to create some kind of linked project before I could even start to create a VM.

seanp2k2 11y ago

Did not know about this. To me, Google has a terrible reputation when it comes to support and keeping products with large numbers of users running. Edit: (posted too soon) my main concerns with putting anything on GC are around support, continued support / long-term commitment to the platform, ease of switching (App Engine was a very bad on boarding experience for me when I tried it a few years ago and required lots of GCE-specific ways of doing things in the code), and pricing differences that might make it cost way more in subtle ways to run a thing on GC. I think it'd be good for Google to start fixing their story around support and commitment to products with everything else under the Google brand before people will be wanting to risk their infrastructure with that brand.

kuschku 11y ago

So, you ask your paying customers to pay extra – not to get support, but to increase the chance of getting support in time? That’s... an interesting business model.

boulos 11y ago
Paying more for more support cases or more urgent responses is standard practice for support plans. For example, here's the AWS Support comparison page: https://aws.amazon.com/premiumsupport/compare-plans/ https://aws.amazon.com/premiumsupport/compare-plans/ which has similar tiers of support.
- Someone1234 11y ago
  I agree that Google Cloud offering different response times for different support tiers is consistent with the industry at large. That being said, Google Cloud support is overly expensive. $150/month Vs. $49/month for AWS Vs. $29/month ($174 minimum commitment over six months) for Azure. I wish all them had a "per issue" tier. I want to pay for a single ticket/resolution. But at least Google Cloud and AWS don't have a minimum commitment period like Azure (even if Azure is cheap per month). I'd likely rank them: - AWS is best (alright price with no commitment). - Azure is next (amazing price but lame commitment). - Google Cloud is worst (high price, almost as much as six months at Azure!). And before you tell me that they offer different things at those price points I DON'T CARE. All I care about is the minimum amount of money I have to pay someone to look at a technical support ticket for me. I don't care if it takes 1 or 48 hours, I just don't want to pay a lot. If I cared about responsiveness I'd be buying the gold plated support with telephone agents. Google Cloud's $150 to look at one ticket thing really puts me off the entire platform.
  - obulpathi 11y ago
    > That being said, Google Cloud support is overly expensive. $150/month Vs. $49/month for AWS Vs. $29/month Your basis for ordering is their support prices which is just a tiny tiny fraction of Cloud infrastructure pricing. Google Cloud is 50% cheaper compared to AWS. Which is huge. Also, thanks to ease of use (Cloud Shell, SSH from browser ..), Google Cloud will save you lot of man hours. Also talking about commitment, you need to commit for 1-year / 3-year usage of resources and pay partial or full bill in upfront for discounts. Google beats those prices without any commitment. Let's compare the Cloud providers on these factors.