Google aims cloud compute as Amazon rival

But unlike most providers, Google's Compute Engine ditches support for Microsoft operating systems; clients will only be able to run computing workloads on servers running either Ubuntu 12.04 or CentOS 6.2 Linux platforms.

The service is expected to be particularly beneficial to businesses involved in video transcoding and rendering, large-scale data analysis and high-end grid computing.

Decade to lower the cost of computing

"We worked hard for a decade to lower the cost of computing ... we're passing these savings on to you," said Urs Holzle, Google's senior vice president for technical infrastructure.

At the present stage, the service is only available as a limited preview — only to those businesses requiring more than 100 virtual machines — and some pricing is listed as "promotional", making the service difficult to compare to other IaaS solutions.