With the launch of Blockchain Node Engine in Google Cloud, which hosts and deploys fully managed blockchain nodes in the cloud, Google is making it easier for Web3 developers to start coding distributed blockchain apps. Google claims that one of the advantages of its service is that it is easier to set up a node and faster to deploy. It also includes DDoS protection and the ability to place nodes behind a firewall for added security. Because it is a fully managed service, it also provides service-level agreements.

According to Google, manually deploying a node necessitates provisioning a compute instance, as well as installing an Ethereum client (such as geth) and waiting for the node to sync with the network. It may take several days to sync a complete node from the first block (i.e., "genesis").

Furthermore, because it is a fully managed service, there is no need to be concerned about the availability of Blockchain Node Engine. Google Cloud constantly monitors the nodes and, if anything goes wrong, "restarts them during outages as needed."

Blockchain Node Engine, according to Google Cloud, will allow teams to focus on users rather than infrastructure by "reducing the need for a specialised DevOps team" and "offering Google Cloud's service level agreement (SLA)."

While providing direct node services to businesses is novel, Google has been hosting blockchain nodes for some time. It had a different strategy in the past. In the cases of the Hedera DLT, as well as the Flow and Theta blockchains, it collaborated with the network founders. It also became a member of Hedera's governing council, which requires a financial investment.