After being more than a year in beta, Google has graduated the Windows Server running on Compute Engine (GCE) to General Availability. The versions supported are Windows Server 2008 R2 and 2012 R2 Datacenter Edition, and they plan to add support for Windows Server 2016 and Nano in the future.
From the Microsoft stack users can also deploy Windows Active Directory and the ASP.NET Framework via Cloud Launcher, the later including IIS and SQL Express.
Users covered by Microsoft License Mobility can deploy Windows Server and a number of enterprise workloads - SQL Server, Exchange, SharePoint, Lync, System Center, Dynamics CRM - on GCE without purchasing any additional license. While the Windows Server and previously mentioned applications are deployed in the cloud, their licenses remain attached to the on-premises hardware.
Windows users can benefit from using Local SSD for fast disk access, Chrome RDP to create remote desktop sessions to their Windows installations from Chrome, and Cloud Storage Nearline, a backup and recovery solution. Google has also mentioned improving the Windows virtualization stack to be able to reach 7.5Gbps of throughput through their network.
Google’s support for Windows Server is backed by the Compute Engine SLA which provides monthly bill discounts if the service has an uptime lower than 99.95%.
