A virtual workstation is a cloud-based workstation that users can accessfrom anywhere by using an internet connection. The concept of remote computingdates back to the 1960s with so-calleddumb terminals.But a virtual workstation that's built using modern cloud infrastructure is apowerful, economical alternative to an expensive workstation at the user's desk.

With a virtual workstation, there is no capital expense. You can customize thesize and power of the virtual workstation to the exact specifications requiredfor a particular task. You only pay for the resources used, when they're used,and you're billed by the second.

You don't pay for electricity to power the workstation or for theHVAC to keep it cool. You also don't have to pay a staff of IT professionals to buildphysical workstations, upgrade components, add RAM, or swap out disks; all ofthis is managed by Google Cloud.

Choose a virtual workstation

When you create a virtual workstation, you can choose from resourceconfigurations such as number and type of CPUs, amount of RAM, type and size ofdisk, and whether or not to attach GPUs. You can also choose your operatingsystem, like Windows or Linux.

Your intended workload can help you determine how to build your virtualworkstation. The following table lists options for creating a virtualworkstation.

Create a virtual workstation using Google Cloud Marketplace

If you don't want to build your own virtual workstation using one of thetutorials listed earlier, you can use a preconfigured virtual workstationsolution onCloud Marketplace.These solutions offer a quick way to create a virtual workstation that hasfeatures like graphics drivers and remote desktop software already installed.