What is Cloud Asset Inventory?
Cloud Asset Inventory is a global metadata inventory service from Google Cloud that provides an overview of resources, their configurations, IAM policies, and relationships between resources in your organization. Changes are captured in near real time.
Create, update, and delete history for resources is available via the API for up to 35 days, retrievable at the project or organization level. For longer retention or more complex analysis, the asset inventory can be exported regularly to BigQuery or Cloud Storage.
Core Features
- Near real-time inventory of Google Cloud resources
- Change history via the API for up to 35 days
- Search API with its own query syntax, plus BigQuery SQL support after export
- Export to BigQuery or Cloud Storage for advanced and long-term analysis
- IAM policy analysis to review effective permissions across resources
Typical Use Cases
Compliance Audits: Demonstrating resource configuration at a given point in time within the 35-day window, or based on exported historical data, for regulatory requirements.
Security Posture Management: Identifying resources with insecure configurations, such as publicly accessible storage buckets or excessive permissions.
Cost Optimization: Analyzing unused or oversized resources by combining asset data with billing data.
Benefits
- No installation or agent deployment required
- Automatic capture of new and changed resources
- BigQuery integration for complex, long-term analysis
- Support for custom compliance queries
Integration with innFactory
As a certified Google Cloud partner, innFactory supports you with Cloud Asset Inventory: architecture, migration, operations, and cost optimization.
Available Tiers & Options
Standard
- Fully managed, no agent deployment required
- Near real-time updates
- Historical change tracking
- API change history limited to 35 days
Typical Use Cases
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Cloud Asset Inventory?
Cloud Asset Inventory is a global metadata inventory service for viewing, searching, exporting, monitoring, and analyzing Google Cloud resource metadata and IAM policies, including change tracking.
Which resource types are supported?
The service supports a wide range of Google Cloud resources such as Compute Engine, GKE, Cloud Storage, and BigQuery, as well as IAM policies and organization policies.
How long is historical change data retained?
Create, update, and delete history for resources is available via the API for up to 35 days and can only be retrieved at the project or organization level. For longer-term history, regularly exporting to BigQuery or Cloud Storage is recommended.
Can I search for compliance violations?
Yes, using the Search API or after an export, you can identify resources that do not meet specific criteria, such as missing labels or publicly accessible storage buckets.
Note: All product information on this page has been compiled with care, but is provided without guarantee and may be outdated or incomplete. Cloud services evolve rapidly — features, pricing, SLAs, and availability change frequently. Authoritative and up-to-date information can only be found on the official product page of Google Cloud (official documentation). This page does not represent an offer by Google Cloud.
