Google Cloud Storage for Firebase

What do you like best?

The SDK is really simple and well documented, the setup is quite straightforward since the console UI is uncluttered.

Starting a new Firebase project requires just a few steps and then the store is ready to use, you even have its documentation at hand to get understanding on what a storage service is and how to use it properly.

One of the features that I like best is the resuming of transfers via its API in case of connectivity issues, it actually lets you retry exactly where you left off and continue from there.

Another key aspect of the Firebase Storage is that it integrates perfectly with Firebase Authentication, that way you can grant specific access to you content through roles management.

Since data is saved on GC Storage buckets, you can also perform server side operations like transcoding or reformatting (cropping, trimming, etc) the content at the server side, as it is stored. A classic use case would be to generate a thumbnail for an image or video that was uploaded to the storage.

Many times you need to remove some old data, and there are different approaches to doing so, but in this case it's super easy since you can take advantage of the out of the box Object Lifecycle Management feature that will allow you to do just that by setting up a lifecycle policy for your bucket. They're easy to configure, you'll just indicate the action to perform, and under which condition it should be performed. I.e. "remove" the object "when 30 days old".

What do you dislike?

I have to say that I like everything about it. As I mentioned earlier the SDK is great, the UI is super easy, it's integrated with CGP and other Firebase services, and more important, it works flawlessly.

Recommendations to others considering the product:

If you are a developer, just give it a try to this product in order to compare it with others. Soon you'll realize the difference in how easy to use and well documented it is.

What problems are you solving with the product? What benefits have you realized?

I'm using it for storing static data, mostly images, videos and audios that are consumed by different applications. You could for example use it for letting users of your application share media content with other users.

I'm also using it for scaling images to required sizes after they get uploaded to the bucket.