Google Cloud Console Projects, Advantage To Have Different Elements Under Same Project?

Question

I have two parts of a Project that I think predate Google Cloud Console and now show up in Google Cloud Console separately:

1. An App Engine Project
2. A Google APIs and Google Cloud Storage Project

These two "Projects" are part of the same real-life software project.

Should I try to eventually migrate my API and Storage Project into the App Engine Cloud Project? Would there be any benefits?

Answer 1

There really isn't any easy way to do this, and the benefits will probably not outweigh the costs. Unless you're merging two app engine apps into one (that can result in significant cost benefits) it probably doesn't make a difference.

Answer 2

You should definitely try to migrate your API and Storage Project into the App Engine Cloud Project (by enabling the API in the associated Cloud Project, copying your resources and re-creating your credentials).

This will make it easier for you to use Google Cloud Datastore and other Cloud APIs in association with your App Engine application.

Answer 3

I think the question you should ask yourself is if these two components are distinct parts of your infrastructure or if they're effectively the same. It's kind of a subjective and abstract question, but ideally you want your software stack broken into logically cohesive portions.

There's also a more practical consideration related to the size of your organization. If you're working with a small organization with one or two teams, it's likely that you'll want to have a more "monolithic" infrastructure. Larger organizations will likely want an infrastructure based more on "microservices" where individual pieces of the pie are broken down into smaller pieces.

I suppose a good general rule of thumb you could use is that the number of projects you have should be on the order of the number of teams you have working on different components of your software stack. In other words, if you have a handful of teams working on a handful of components, you should have a handful of projects. If you have hundreds of teams working on hundreds of components, you should have hundreds of projects.