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Google Cloud CDN vs Google Cloud Storage: What are the differences?

Introduction

In this article, we will explore the key differences between Google Cloud CDN (Content Delivery Network) and Google Cloud Storage. Both services are provided by Google Cloud Platform (GCP) and are commonly used for storing and delivering content over the internet.

  1. Scalability and Performance: Google Cloud Storage is primarily designed for storing and retrieving data, providing highly durable and available object storage. It offers high scalability, allowing users to store and retrieve any amount of data with low latency. On the other hand, Google Cloud CDN is a content delivery network that caches content at the edge locations worldwide to provide faster delivery to end-users. It improves performance by serving content from the nearest edge location instead of the origin server, reducing latency and improving global availability.

  2. Caching and Content Delivery: Google Cloud Storage doesn't inherently provide caching capabilities. Each request for the stored content is directly served from the storage bucket, requiring the data to be retrieved from the origin server for each request. In contrast, Google Cloud CDN is specifically designed for caching and content delivery. It caches frequently accessed content at edge locations, reducing the load on the origin server and improving response times for subsequent requests.

  3. Content Purging and Invalidation: In Google Cloud Storage, once the content is stored, it cannot be directly invalidated or purged. Any changes or updates to the content require uploading a new version, and the old version will continue to be delivered until all the cached versions are expired. In contrast, Google Cloud CDN provides the ability to easily invalidate or purge content from the cache. This allows for quick updates or removal of content from edge locations, ensuring that the latest versions of the content are delivered to users.

  4. Origin Server Control and Authentication: Google Cloud Storage directly serves content from the storage bucket, and the control over content delivery lies solely with the storage bucket configuration. In comparison, Google Cloud CDN provides more control over content delivery by allowing the use of an origin server. This allows for custom authentication mechanisms, such as verifying request signatures or integrating with identity providers, to control access to the content at the origin server before being served by the CDN.

  5. Pricing Model: Google Cloud Storage has a pricing model based on storage and data egress, i.e., the amount of data sent out of the storage. It doesn't charge separately for content retrieval. On the other hand, Google Cloud CDN has a separate pricing model based on the volume of data transferred and the number of requests served. This means that using Google Cloud CDN for content delivery incurs additional cost on top of the storage and egress charges of Google Cloud Storage.

  6. SSL/TLS Support: Google Cloud Storage supports SSL/TLS encryption for secure communication between clients and the storage bucket. However, the SSL/TLS termination and encryption are handled at the origin server level instead of the edge locations. In contrast, Google Cloud CDN supports SSL/TLS termination at the edge locations, allowing for faster and secure content delivery directly from the edge to the end-users.

In summary, Google Cloud CDN and Google Cloud Storage have significant differences in their primary purposes and functionalities. While Google Cloud Storage is focused on scalable object storage, Google Cloud CDN offers caching and content delivery capabilities to improve performance, control content delivery, and reduce latency through edge locations worldwide.

Decisions about Google Cloud CDN and Google Cloud Storage

We choose Backblaze B2 because it makes more sense for storing static assets.

We admire Backblaze's customer service & transparency, plus, we trust them to maintain fair business practices - including not raising prices in the future.

Lower storage costs means we can keep more data for longer, and lower bandwidth means cache misses don't cost a ton.

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Gabriel Pa

We offer our customer HIPAA compliant storage. After analyzing the market, we decided to go with Google Storage. The Nodejs API is ok, still not ES6 and can be very confusing to use. For each new customer, we created a different bucket so they can have individual data and not have to worry about data loss. After 1000+ customers we started seeing many problems with the creation of new buckets, with saving or retrieving a new file. Many false positive: the Promise returned ok, but in reality, it failed.

That's why we switched to S3 that just works.

See more
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Pros of Google Cloud CDN
Pros of Google Cloud Storage
  • 2
    Extremely Fast
  • 28
    Scalable
  • 19
    Cheap
  • 14
    Reliable
  • 9
    Easy
  • 3
    Chealp
  • 1
    More praticlal and easy

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Cons of Google Cloud CDN
Cons of Google Cloud Storage
  • 2
    Very expensive not for newbies
    Be the first to leave a con

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    What is Google Cloud CDN?

    Google Cloud CDN leverages Google's globally distributed edge caches to accelerate content delivery for websites and applications served out of Google Compute Engine. Cloud CDN lowers network latency, offloads origins, and reduces serving costs. Once you've set up HTTP(S) Load Balancing, simply enable Cloud CDN with a single checkbox.

    What is Google Cloud Storage?

    Google Cloud Storage allows world-wide storing and retrieval of any amount of data and at any time. It provides a simple programming interface which enables developers to take advantage of Google's own reliable and fast networking infrastructure to perform data operations in a secure and cost effective manner. If expansion needs arise, developers can benefit from the scalability provided by Google's infrastructure.

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    What companies use Google Cloud CDN?
    What companies use Google Cloud Storage?
    See which teams inside your own company are using Google Cloud CDN or Google Cloud Storage.
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    What tools integrate with Google Cloud CDN?
    What tools integrate with Google Cloud Storage?

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    What are some alternatives to Google Cloud CDN and Google Cloud Storage?
    Akamai
    If you've ever shopped online, downloaded music, watched a web video or connected to work remotely, you've probably used Akamai's cloud platform. Akamai helps businesses connect the hyperconnected, empowering them to transform and reinvent their business online. We remove the complexities of technology, so you can focus on driving your business faster forward.
    CloudFlare
    Cloudflare speeds up and protects millions of websites, APIs, SaaS services, and other properties connected to the Internet.
    Fastly
    Fastly's real-time content delivery network gives you total control over your content, unprecedented access to performance analytics, and the ability to instantly update content in 150 milliseconds.
    Amazon CloudFront
    Amazon CloudFront can be used to deliver your entire website, including dynamic, static, streaming, and interactive content using a global network of edge locations. Requests for your content are automatically routed to the nearest edge location, so content is delivered with the best possible performance.
    MaxCDN
    The MaxCDN Content Delivery Network efficiently delivers your site’s static file through hundreds of servers instead of slogging through a single host. This "smart route" technology distributes your content to your visitors via the city closest to them.
    See all alternatives