The only reason I didn't try Google cloud is payment. I can't even run a couple of VM, some test db without using the credit card. This means that if someone hacks me, if the documentation isn't clear enough or if I make a mistake I will fully pay for it (and immediately). This is incredibly haunting for beginners and people that cannot afford such scenarios.
With AWS at least I can use a prepaid card: if something bad happens for any reason, at least I know I can afford to eat the day after.
This seems like a particularly strange reason to not try their service and to me is akin to saying "I won't use CarRentalCompany because they require a credit card. What if I'm new to driving and total the car by wrapping it around a tree?"
If anything, this is just AWS being overly generous and forgiving.
I'm shocked that any cloud provider lets you use prepaid cards... all of the major providers have problems with crypto mining and abuse, so it's crazy that AWS would allow prepaid cards that might be laundered, etc.
And IMO, if you're a real customer, all the providers are fairly forgiving, provided you can get in touch with a real human who works there.
While I agree with the automation piece, guessing first.last@google.com is going to get someone a large % of the time. You can reach an engineer or a PM with about 10 minutes of stalking LinkedIn.
I hate google and would NEVER use GCP for anything remotely meaningful (I'd use Azure and even Oracle first). Nevertheless I had a domain issue (through google.Domain ) and I was pleasantly surprised by the customer support. Almost as good as AWs paid support.
Otoh I find AWS quite straightforward, but I've been using it for several years now. Their support is worth their weight in gold.
Also, if you're paying GCP any reasonable amount of money, you have an account manager who will respond in < 24 hours to connect you with the right PM to deal with the issue. Google deals with lots of random humans, GCP mostly deals with actual businesses. As much as I hated the support offshoring Google (and sometimes GCP) did, most actual businesses could get a human fairly quickly.
Answering tickets is partly the kind of support I look for, Azure will get their account managers of my customer connected to me, Both AWS/Azure are okay to come on customer calls with me for a large enough deal. I never got that kind of support from Google.
With AWS at least I can use a prepaid card: if something bad happens for any reason, at least I know I can afford to eat the day after.