What is Core Compute — Compute Engine & MIGs in Google Cloud?

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Google Cloud

Core Compute — Compute Engine & MIGs

Run VMs on Google's infrastructure and scale them with Managed Instance Groups.

Google Compute Engine provides virtual machines with distinctive flexibility: predefined machine types (E2, N2, C2, etc.) plus custom machine types where you pick exactly the vCPU and memory you need, avoiding waste. VMs launch from images into a VPC, in a specific zone within a region. Live migration moves running VMs off hosts during maintenance without rebooting them — a Google differentiator.

A car-rental depot that lets you order a vehicle with exactly the engine and seats you want (custom machine types), keeps a fleet spread across several garages so one closing never strands you, and quietly moves you to another running car during servicing without interrupting your trip (live migration).

Key Concepts

Elastic, resilient fleets use Managed Instance Groups (MIGs): an instance template defines the VM, and the MIG maintains a target size, autoscales on metrics or schedule, spreads instances regionally across zones, and auto-heals by recreating failed instances (with health checks). A global or regional Load Balancer fronts them. Cost is cut with Committed Use Discounts for steady baseline, automatic Sustained Use Discounts for VMs that run most of the month, and Spot VMs for interruptible work at deep discounts.