Sign up for Google Cloud

Google Cloud is a comprehensive cloud services platform like Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure, it can provide, online real time databases, hosted virtual machines, and my favourite feature of all, hosted serverless functions.

Google Cloud provides a always free tier with generous limits on a range of services, you can find out what's available and what limits are on each service at Google Cloud Free Tier

Google Cloud is one of my favourite cloud services providers because of its always free tier, I have tried other cloud providers such as Microsoft Azure but their free tiers had free services that required other paid services to actually function and this was disappointing, Google Cloud Functions for example provides 2 million monthly function executions with some bandwidth restrictions but it's not dependent on any paid services.

How to sign up for Google Cloud

Signing up for a Google Cloud account is simple and easy, you will require a valid credit card to sign up even if you only plan on using the free tier limits, this enables your applications to keep running even if there are changes to the free tier limits or you exceed the free tier quotas.

The Google Cloud dashboard is transparent and its simple to keep track of the usage of your services on Google Cloud. 

1. Navigate to cloud.google.com
2. Click on Get Started, and sign in with your Google account.
3. You will see the following screen, accept the terms and conditions and click continue.
   
4. Choose your account type and enter the requested information, you will need to enter a card number however you will not be charged unless you agree to pay for additional services or you exceed limits as defined by Google Clouds. These limits would be subject to change so I would encourage you to review the free tier limits from Google Cloud prior to committing.
   
5. Once all the setup has been completed, you will be taken to your new Google Cloud dashboard, a project will be added to your account automatically called "My First Project" you can see this in the top left on the menu bar.
   

How to create a new project in Google Cloud

Once you've signed up you'll have a new project created for you by default called "My First Project" however you may want to create a new project with a name and URL prefix that better identifies your project.

1. Click on the project selector at the top of the screen.
   
2. In the projects popup, click on "New Project"
   
3. You will then be prompted to enter a name for the project, enter a name and then click create.
   
4. A notification display showing you that the project is being created.
   
5. Once the project is created the notification will give you the option to select that project, alternatively you can change projects from the project selector.
   

How to start using Google Cloud Functions

Google Cloud functions is one of my favourite services on the Google Cloud platform, it's incredibly useful for creating your own data APIs and streaming realtime information to your applications.

1. Once your new account is all setup, from the menu bar to the left, you will want to scroll down till you see Google Cloud Functions, and follow the prompts to add that service to your account. You will see a screen similar to below.
   
2. Once Google Cloud Functions has been added you will be able to create your first Google Cloud Function.

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