Google Cloud Preemptible VMs
Google Cloud Preemptible VMs are short-lived, low-cost virtual machine instances on Google Cloud Platform (GCP) that can be terminated by Google at any time with a 30-second warning. They offer significant cost savings (up to 80% less than regular VMs) but are not suitable for long-running or fault-intolerant workloads. These VMs are ideal for batch processing, data analysis, and other interruptible tasks where cost efficiency is prioritized over availability.
Developers should use Preemptible VMs for fault-tolerant, stateless workloads like batch jobs, rendering, scientific simulations, or CI/CD pipelines where interruptions are acceptable. They are cost-effective for large-scale, parallelizable tasks that can checkpoint progress and restart if terminated. Avoid them for production databases, web servers, or any application requiring high availability, as they can be preempted with minimal notice.