What is Active Assist?
Active Assist is Google’s intelligent recommendation platform that uses machine learning to identify optimization opportunities in your Google Cloud environment. The platform continuously analyzes your resource usage and delivers concrete, actionable recommendations.
The recommendations cover three main areas: cost optimization, security improvement, and performance tuning. Each recommendation includes a clear description of the issue, the recommended action, and the expected benefit.
Core Features
- Over 20 specialized recommenders for various GCP services
- Automatic detection of unused or oversized resources
- Security recommendations based on best practices
- IAM policy insights for least-privilege optimization
- Committed use discount recommendations for cost savings
Typical Use Cases
Cost Optimization: Active Assist identifies unused VMs, oversized disks, unassigned IP addresses, and recommends committed use discounts based on your usage profile.
Security Improvement: The platform detects overly broad IAM permissions, open firewall rules, and other security risks and recommends specific corrections.
Performance Tuning: Recommendations for better VM types, optimized network configurations, and more efficient storage options improve application performance.
Benefits
- Free and available without additional configuration
- AI-powered, data-driven recommendations
- Seamless integration with Cloud Console and CLI
- API for automation and CI/CD integration
Integration with innFactory
As a Google Cloud partner, innFactory supports you with Active Assist: recommendation evaluation, automation, FinOps strategies, and continuous cost optimization.
Available Tiers & Options
Standard
- Available for free
- Automatic recommendations
- Integration with Cloud Console
- Coverage of all GCP services
- Recommendations require manual implementation
- Learning phase for new resources
Typical Use Cases
Technical Specifications
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Active Assist?
Active Assist is Google's AI-powered recommendation platform for cloud optimization. It analyzes your resource usage and provides concrete recommendations for cost savings, security improvements, and performance optimization. The recommendations are based on machine learning and Google best practices.
What types of recommendations does Active Assist provide?
Active Assist includes over 20 specialized recommenders for different areas. These include VM rightsizing, idle resource detection, security recommendations, IAM policy insights, committed use discount recommendations, and many more. Each recommender specializes in a specific optimization area.
What does Active Assist cost?
Active Assist is free and available in the Google Cloud Console. There are no additional fees. The recommendations themselves cost nothing; only implementing the recommendations may lead to resource changes that are billed as usual.
How accurate are the cost recommendations?
Cost estimates are based on historical usage data and are typically very accurate. Google shows the expected savings for each recommendation. After a learning phase of about 30 days for new resources, recommendations are most precise.
Can I implement recommendations automatically?
Yes, the Recommender API allows recommendations to be retrieved and implemented programmatically. Terraform and other infrastructure-as-code tools can integrate with the API to implement recommendations in CI/CD pipelines.
