GCP Shared VPC and why I needed to buy a domain

Why

  • Most people would probably buy a domain to host a website, but the reason I bought it is to create a Shared VPC (Virtual Private Cloud) in GCP.
  • Google Cloud has a generous limit for $300 for a free trial, but since I signed up with my personal gmail account, they do not belong to any "Organization".
  • I needed it for a quick demo

What are Shared VPC, Organization and why I needed to buy a domain

  • Shared VPC allows an "Organization" to connect resources across multiple GCP projects by sharing the subnets with respective GCP projects.
    • Shared VPC (network) needs to be created in its own GCP project (host project).
    • However, the resources (eg: Virtual Machines) themselves could be created in a separate GCP projects as long as the subnets are shared.
  • An Organizantion is the root node for resources in GCP and represents an organization (a company)
  • An "Organization" is automatically created when a Workspace or Cloud Identity account is created and associated with a domain.
  • While signing up for workspace, there is a need to get your own domain or purchase one.
  • Hence, I needed to buy a domain

Next Steps

  • I was in hurry and went with free trial of workspace and purchased a domain.
  • In a different article, I would share how to sign up free Cloud Identity when You already have Workspace.
  • I still retain the domain and there are other benefits too like using custom domain on hashnode :), create custom email address on the domain etc.

References