Google Cloud is set to launch a new tool that will enable users to create and manage
certain resources and services directly, as well as conferring a performance advantage.
The cloud giant claims the tool, dubbed “gcloud storage CLI”, will enable up to 94% faster data transfers when using its cloud storage.
Users were previously able to tweak their Google Cloud resources on the command line or via scripts via Google Cloud CLI, but the new tool is supposedly set to modernize the experience.
How does it work?
Google claims the faster transfer rates are a result of two primary innovations within gcloud storage.
Firstly, gcloud storage apparently uses faster hashing tools for CRC32C data integrity checking that skip the complicated setup required for gsutil, the tool’s Python-based predecessor.
Second, the new tool utilizes a new parallelization strategy that treats task management as a graph problem, which is said to allow “more work to be done in parallel with far less overhead”.
When transferring 100 files that were 100MB in size, Google claims gcloud storage is 79% faster than gsutil on download and 33% faster on upload using a parallel composite upload strategy.
In addition to the performance improvements, Google also pitches the new tool as a “consistent way” to manage all Google Cloud resources like Cloud Storage buckets, Compute Engine VMs, and Google Kubernetes Engine clusters.
For example, gcloud storage reportedly significantly reduces the number of top level commands that users have to use to manage their Cloud Storage resources, by grouping commands under common headers.
gcloud storage CLI is currently available and ready to use without any additional charges. You can install or upgrade to the latest version of the Google Cloud SDK here (opens in new tab) to get access to the new CLI.
If you’d like to learn more about how gcloud storage CLI works, you can refer to the documentation here (opens in new tab).
