Google Cloud Platform

Northwestern provides access to Google Cloud Platform (GCP) via the Internet2 NET+ GCP offering. NET+ GCP offers the following benefits:

• Single sign-on with Northwestern credentials
• Direct billing to chart strings in NUFinancials
• 5% discount on GCP services
• A waiver of GCP data egress fees for most applications
• Access to the Burwood Group billing portal for billing reports and alerts

Alternatively, NIH-funded researchers may use GCP under the terms of the NIH STRIDES program, which includes all of the above benefits, access to Google Cloud training materials and resources for researchers, and offers more significant discounts:

• 25% off compute and standard storage
• 10% off coldline and archive storage
• 19% off managed services such as BigTable and BigQuery

In order to realize these benefits, GCP projects and billing IDs must be created via the Public Cloud Account Request (for new accounts) or moved into the Northwestern GCP org structure (for existing accounts).

Accessing Google Cloud

To access the Google Cloud console, log in at https://console.cloud.google.com/ with your Northwestern email address.

GCP Access Management and Project Permissions

To facilitate access to Northwestern GCP projects, Northwestern IT recommends the following best practices:

• Manage permissions at the project level via the granting of roles
• Grant roles to Google Groups where possible rather than individual users
• Transition personal Google accounts with @northwestern.edu email addresses to become "managed" accounts to allow authentication with Northwestern credentials (NetID and password).

Note: only GCP projects designated as research projects allow for the granting of access to non-Northwestern accounts. If you will need to grant access to non-Northwestern collaborators, be sure to specify this when requesting a new project.

Managing Google Groups

To request a new Google Group for access to a GCP project, open a service request by emailing servicedesk@northwestern.edu with #cloudops in the subject and include the following information:

• Group name following this format: "gcp-<project name>-<role name>@northwestern.edu", e.g. "gcp-wcas-rsch-myproj-students@northwestern.edu"
• Email address of group administrator (must be a northwestern.edu Google account)

Northwestern IT will create the group and set up the designated administrator as owner. To manage the group (add/remove users), log in to https://admin.google.com/ with the administrator email address and go to Groups, then click on the group name to manage it.

Once your group has been created, you can grant access for members of the group to your GCP project by assigning it a role (such as Project Editor) to the group in the IAM console. See the GCP IAM documentation for details.

northwestern.edu Google accounts

In order to log in to GCP with Northwestern credentials, you must have a Google account that is part of the Northwestern domain (Note: this does not apply to @kellogg.northwestern.edu and @u.northwestern.edu accounts, which can log in using their normal credentials).

If you already have a personal Google account with a @northwestern.edu email address: Open a service request by emailing servicedesk@northwestern.edu with #cloudops in the subject and ask for your account to be invited to become a managed Google account. Northwestern IT will send you an invitation to transition your account to the Northwestern organization. You will be prompted to export your data first, as data from some Google services will be lost in the transition such as Adsense, Google Analytics, Google Finance, Google Maps, Google My Business, Google Nest, Google Pay/Wallet, Google Play apps, and YouTube. (Note: Google Drive data is not affected by this transition.)

If you do not already have a personal Google account with a @northwestern.edu email address: Open a service request by emailing servicedesk@northwestern.edu with #cloudops in the subject and ask for a Google account to be created for you with your @northwestern.edu email address.

Northwestern Virtual Private Cloud (VPC)

Northwestern IT provides a shared networking offering for private connectivity from Google Cloud to University networks. Learn more about this service and how to request access: Google Cloud Platform - Shared VPC

Getting Support

Northwestern IT does not provide direct support for Google Cloud Platform, but does facilitate access to support from Google.

Google maintains a list of community support resources within the GCP console, including Stack Overflow and Server Fault tags, Google bug trackers, and official Google groups.

Additionally, members of the Northwestern Cloud Community of Practice may be able to answer your questions. See below for information about joining the Cloud Community of Practice.

The Northwestern IT GCP operations team has the ability to create support tickets within the GCP console. If you require support from Google, email gcpcloudops@northwestern.edu and include:

• The name of the GCP Project where the issue is occurring
• Description of the issue
• Severity level (High, Medium, or Low)

Resources

The following are resources available to Northwestern community members using or considering Google Cloud Platform.

Northwestern Cloud Communities of Practice

All IT practitioners across Northwestern with an interest in cloud computing are invited to join the Cloud Community of Practice. Staff members currently working with cloud resources or responsible for workloads in the public cloud (AWS, Azure, Google Cloud Platform) are especially welcome to share their experiences, questions, and challenges with the group. The primary channel for this community is the The primary channel for this community is the Teams space: CoP -Cloud. Membership is open to anyone with a Northwestern NetID.

Education and Training Opportunities

The Northwestern Cloud Community of Practice maintains a list of in-person and online training opportunities and resources. Learn More