At Server Density, we process over 30TB of time series data points each month, so I’m always experimenting with different technologies to see if we can do things more efficiently or cheaply. Our current environment is across x2 SoftLayer data centers, both dedicated and cloud. But recently I’ve been playing around with Google Cloud.

I think Google is currently in the best position to challenge Amazon because they have the engineering culture and technical abilities to release some really innovative features. IBM has bought into some excellent infrastructure at Softlayer but still has to prove its cloud engineering capabilities.

Amazon has set the standard for how we expect cloud infrastructure to behave, but Google doesn’t conform to these standards in some surprising ways. So, if you’re looking at Google Cloud, here are some things you need to be aware of.

1. Google Compute Engine Zones are probably in Ireland and…