For a long time, Google Cloud Platform has been a Linux-only affair. Now that has changed. Recognizing that many of its customers work in mixed platform environments, Google has added Windows Server support into the mix.
Specifically, Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows Server 2012 R2 are now supported, after seven months of beta support. During the beta period, Google made a number of Windows-specific tweaks to the Compute Engine virtualization stack.
The company says that Windows Server running on Compute Engine can reach up to 7.5Gbps of throughput thanks to multi queue and generic receive offload support. Microsoft's flexible licensing terms means that existing licenses can be used to run applications in the cloud. Google's Cloud Launcher can be used to deploy servers using ASP.NET or Active Directory and turn to VPN to expand existing systems.
Introducing Windows Server support, Google says:
Making sure Google Cloud Platform is the best place to run your workloads is our top priority, so we’re happy that today Windows Server on Google Compute Engine graduates to General Availability, joining the growing list OSes we support.
Looking to the future, Google also says that it is working with Microsoft to bring support for Windows Server 2016 and Nano Server to Google Compute Engine.