Google creates cloud code cache

With an uncharacteristic lack of fanfare, Google has decided to hang around the kitchen at the code repository party.

With Microsoft, AWS, and Atlassian and BitBucket already eyeing off the popularity of GitHub, it's probably no surprise that the Chocolate Factory would also like a piece of the action.

Google has been quietly working on the project since at least February, the date given on a page archived by the Wayback Machine.

Its Cloud Code Repository – beta now, but it probably won't have to spend six years in that status like Gmail “Undo Send” did – was fired up earlier this year without any announcement.

The service, offering free registrations at the moment, can support Git repositories hosted on Google Cloud, or can connect to repos on GitHub or Bitbucket, with the Chocolate Factory handling synch between the internal and external repos.

“From a local repository, you can use the standard set of Git commands to interact with the repository in the Cloud, including push, pull, clone and log. Connected repositories on GitHub or Bitbucket are synchronized with the Cloud Source Repository automatically and vice-versa,” Google explains.

There's also (of course) a source code editor IDE and cloud live code debugger, and Google touts its around-the-world storage for reliability.

Google explains:

“Each project you create in the Google Developers Console has an associated Cloud Source Repository. You can use this repository for collaborative development of any application or service, including those that run on Google App Engine and Google Compute Engine.”

The beta release gives registrants 500 MB of code storage on the platform. ®