Google Cloud Functions is a serverless computing platform provided by Google Cloud that enables developers to build and deploy applications on cloud infrastructure without having to worry about managing servers or infrastructure. It is a scalable pay-as-you-go function as a service (FaaS) offering to run the code with zero server management. It is one of the Compute services offered by the Google Cloud Platform.
To know more about various tools and services offered by GCP read the blog Google Cloud Tools & Services.
In this blog, we will know more in detail about the Google Cloud Functions, events, triggers, types, and steps to create and deploy a cloud function using Google Cloud Console.
Google Cloud Functions
Google Cloud Function is a serverless execution environment for building and connecting cloud services. With Cloud Functions, users can write simple, single-purpose functions that are attached to events emitted from their cloud infrastructure and services. The Cloud Function is triggered when an event being watched is fired.
Developers may create and publish event-driven functions with Cloud Functions that automatically grow based on usage. The platform enables developers to create serverless apps that react to events like incoming HTTP requests, messages from messaging systems, or changes to database data.
The code executes in a fully managed environment and there is no need to provision any infrastructure or manage servers. Cloud Functions can be written using JavaScript, Python 3, Go, or Java runtimes on the Google Cloud Platform ( integrates with other Google Cloud services such as Cloud Storage, Cloud Pub/Sub, and Cloud Firestore.)
Developers can use Cloud Functions to build a range of applications, including webhooks, chatbots, and data processing pipelines, among others. Cloud Functions provides a flexible and scalable infrastructure for building and deploying serverless applications, allowing developers to focus on writing code and delivering features rather than managing infrastructure.
So, what does serverless actually means?
The serverless framework helps users to develop and deploy serverless applications. It manages the code along with the infrastructure and supports multiple languages. It is like an invisible infrastructure where you write code that runs on the cloud.
Cloud Function Execution Environment
Cloud Functions run in a fully-managed, serverless environment where Google handles infrastructure, operating systems, and runtime environments completely on behalf of the users. Each Cloud Function runs in its own isolated secure execution context, scales automatically, and has a lifecycle independent from other functions. It supports multiple language runtimes like Python 3.7, Java 11, Ruby 2.7, etc.
Key Features of Google Cloud Functions
- Serverless Computing: Google Cloud Functions is a serverless computing platform, which means that developers can write code without worrying about underlying infrastructure management such as servers, operating systems, or virtual machines.
- Event-driven Computing: Google Cloud Functions is event-driven, which means that it automatically runs code in response to events, such as changes to data in a database or messages from a messaging system.
- Scalability: Cloud Functions automatically scale up or down based on the amount of traffic it receives. This means that developers don’t need to worry about overprovisioning resources or paying for unused resources.
- Support for Multiple Languages: Google Cloud Functions supports several programming languages including Node.js, Python, Go, Java, and .NET.
- Integration with other Google Cloud Services: Cloud Functions integrates with other Google Cloud services, such as Cloud Storage, Cloud Pub/Sub, and Cloud Firestore, making it easy to build complex applications that require multiple services.
- Cost-efficient: Google Cloud Functions is a cost-efficient way to run serverless applications as it only charges for the time the code is executed, and there are no upfront costs or minimum fees.
- Easy to deploy: Cloud Functions can be deployed quickly using the Google Cloud Console, the gcloud command-line tool, or even using source code repositories like GitHub.
- Versatile Use Cases: Cloud Functions can be used to build various applications, including webhooks, chatbots, data processing pipelines, and more. Developers can use it to create a wide range of event-driven applications.
- High Availability: Google Cloud Functions offers high availability, which means that functions are automatically replicated across multiple availability zones, providing redundancy and minimizing downtime.
- Security: Google Cloud Functions offers built-in security features such as secure connections and authorization, and developers can also use their own custom security measures to secure their code and data.
Note: Read our Blog Post on Google App Engine.
Use-Case Of Google Cloud Functions
An organization can use Google Cloud Functions in a variety of ways like trigger log analysis. Some of the uses are:
1.) Integrate with third-party services and APIs: Cloud Functions can be used by a customer to surface their own microservices via HTTP APIs or integrate with third-party services that offer webhook integrations to quickly extend the application with powerful capabilities such as sending a confirmation email after a successful Stripe payment or responding to Twilio text message events.
2.) Serverless mobile back ends: It can be used directly from Firebase to extend application functionality without spinning up a server. Customers can run their code in response to user actions, analytics, and authentication events to keep their users engaged with event-based notifications and offload CPU- and networking-intensive tasks to Google Cloud.
3.) Serverless IoT back ends: Google Cloud Functions can be used with Cloud IoT Core and other fully managed services to build back ends for IoT device telemetry data collection, real-time processing, and analysis. It allows users to apply custom logic to each event as it arrives.
4.) Real-time file processing: It can be sued for executing code in response to changes in data. Cloud Functions can respond to events from Google Cloud services such as Cloud Storage, Pub/Sub, and Cloud Firestore to process files immediately after upload and generate thumbnails from image uploads, process logs, validate content, transcode videos, validate aggregate, and filter data in real-time.
5.) Real-time stream processing: Use Cloud Functions to respond to events from Pub/Sub to process, transform, and enrich streaming data in transaction processing, click-stream analysis, application activity tracking, IoT device telemetry, and other types of applications.
6.) Video and image analysis: Use Cloud Functions with Video Intelligence API and Cloud Vision API to retrieve relevant information from videos and images, enabling you to search, discover, and derive insight from your media content.
Events, Triggers & Event Data
- Events: They occur in Google Cloud Platform Services like File Uploaded to Storage, a Message published to a queue, Direct HTTP Invocation, etc. Currently, Google Cloud Functions support events from the following providers- HTTP, Cloud Storage, Cloud Firestore, Pub/Sub, Firebase, and Stackdriver.
- Triggers: Users can choose to respond to events via a Trigger. It can be referred to as an event with the data associated with the event.
- Event Date: This is the data that is passed to the Cloud Function when the event trigger results in function execution.
Types Of Google Cloud Functions
Distinctly there are 2 types of Cloud functions: HTTP functions and Event-driven functions.
1.) HTTP Functions: They are invoked from standard HTTP Requests. These HTTP requests wait for the response and support handling of common HTTP request methods like GET, PUT, POST, DELETE, and OPTIONS. When users use cloud functions, a TLS certificate is automatically provisioned so that all HTTP functions can be invoked via a secure connection.
2.) Event-driven Functions: These functions are used to handle events from the Cloud infrastructure, such as messages on a Pub/Sub topic, or changes in a Cloud Storage bucket. There are 2 sub-types of event-driven functions:
- Background functions: Functions written for the Node.js, Python, Go, and Java Cloud Functions runtimes are known as background functions.
- CloudEvent functions: Functions written for the .NET Cloud Functions runtime are known as CloudEvent functions.
Steps to Create & Deploy a Cloud Function using Google Cloud Console
Now that we have understood what Google Cloud Functions are, let’s look at the steps to create our first cloud function using the GCP console.
Note: To perform the steps you will require a Google Cloud Account. So make sure you create one in case you are a new user.
Step 1: Navigate to Google Cloud Console and log in with your registered Email ID.
Step 2: In the console, click the Navigation menu and click on Cloud Functions.
Step 3: Click on Create Function.
Step 4: Enter the following values and click Save.
- Function Name: GCPFunction
- Region: us-central1
- Trigger: HTTP
Step 5: Click on Next.
Step 6: Next step is to deploy the function. Leave the default details and click on Deploy.
Step 7: You can see the Google Cloud Function is deployed successfully.
Frequently Asked Questions
What kind of relationship exists between cloud functions and event triggers?
When an event triggers the execution of the Cloud Function, data associated with the event is passed via the function's parameters. Event type determines the parameters passed to the function. HTTP request events trigger HTTP functions, and the other event types trigger background functions.
How long can a Google Cloud function run?
Function execution time is limited by the timeout duration, which can be specified at function deployment time by the users. By default, a function times out after 1 minute but can extend up to 9 minutes.
What languages does Google Cloud Functions support?
It supports Java, Python, Ruby, Node.js, Go, and .Net.
Related References
- GCP Associate Cloud Engineer: All You Need To Know About
- GCP Professional Cloud Architect: Everything You Need To Know
- Introduction To Google Cloud Platform
- Google Cloud Services & Tools
- Introduction To Google Compute Engine
- Overview of Google App Engine
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If you are also interested and want to know more about the Google Professional Cloud Architect certification then register for our Free Class.
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