In Google Cloud Platform (GCP), virtual machines (VMs) are referred to as “Compute Engine instances.” Compute Engine is the service that allows you to create and manage virtual machine instances in the cloud. Here are some key points about Google Cloud VMs:

1. Compute Engine Instances: Compute Engine provides the infrastructure to create virtual machine instances, which are scalable, customizable, and isolated compute resources. You can choose from a wide range of predefined machine types or create custom machine types tailored to your specific needs.

2. Operating Systems: Google Cloud VMs support a variety of operating systems, including various Linux distributions (such as Debian, Ubuntu, CentOS, and Red Hat Enterprise Linux) and Windows Server. You can select your preferred operating system when creating a VM instance.

3. Persistent Disks: VM instances in GCP can be attached to persistent disks for storage. Persistent disks are durable and provide block storage that retains data even if the instance is stopped or restarted. You can choose between standard hard disk drives (HDD) or solid-state drives (SSD) based on your performance requirements.

4. Networking and Connectivity: Google Cloud VMs are associated with networking options, including virtual private cloud (VPC) networks, subnets, and firewall rules. You can configure internal and external IP addresses for communication and set up networking policies to control traffic to and from your VM instances.

5. Scalability and Autoscaling: Google Cloud VMs can be scaled up or down based on your workload requirements. You can manually adjust the number of instances or set up autoscaling based on predefined metrics or load patterns. Autoscaling allows your VM fleet to automatically scale to meet demand while optimizing resource usage.

6. Preemptible VMs: GCP offers “preemptible” VM instances at a significantly lower price point. These instances can be terminated by Google at any time with short notice, but they are useful for workloads that can tolerate interruptions and offer cost savings.

7. Instance Templates and Images: GCP provides the ability to create instance templates, which define the configuration settings for VM instances. You can also create custom images to capture specific configurations or use public images provided by Google Cloud.

8. Integration with GCP Services: Compute Engine instances integrate seamlessly with other services within the Google Cloud ecosystem. For example, you can easily integrate VMs with Google Cloud Storage for data storage, Cloud Load Balancing for traffic distribution, or Cloud Pub/Sub for messaging and event-driven architectures.

Managing Google Cloud VMs can be done through the Google Cloud Console, command-line tools (such as gcloud), or using APIs and SDKs provided by Google Cloud. Additionally, GCP offers tools for automation and infrastructure-as-code, such as Deployment Manager and Terraform, to simplify VM provisioning and management.

Overall, Google Cloud VMs offer flexible and scalable compute resources in the cloud, allowing you to run and manage your applications with ease on Google Cloud Platform.