Introduction to Google Cloud Eventarc | Generated by AI
Question: What is an introduction to Eventarc in Google Cloud?
Answer:
Eventarc is Google Cloud’s fully managed service for building event-driven architectures. It simplifies connecting event sources to event consumers (such as Cloud Run services, Cloud Functions, Workflows, or custom applications) without requiring you to manage the underlying infrastructure, message queues, or complex routing logic.
Core Purpose
Eventarc provides a unified eventing experience across Google Cloud. Instead of using different mechanisms for each service (Pub/Sub, Audit Logs, Storage notifications, etc.), Eventarc standardizes event delivery using the open CloudEvents specification.
Main Components
- Triggers — The central resource you create. A trigger defines:
- Which events to receive (filters on event type, source, attributes, etc.)
- Where to send them (destination: Cloud Run, Cloud Functions 2nd gen, Workflows, App Engine, GKE services, Pub/Sub topic, etc.)
- Sources — Anything that generates events. Eventarc supports two main categories:
- Google events (managed by Google): Audit Logs, Pub/Sub topics, Cloud Storage object changes, Firebase, IoT Core, etc. — more than 60+ Google Cloud services.
- Custom / third-party events (via Publish API): You can send your own events in CloudEvents format (supported in Eventarc Advanced).
- Destinations — Common targets include:
- Cloud Run services (most popular use case)
- 2nd generation Cloud Functions
- Workflows
- Pub/Sub topics
- GKE services (via direct delivery)
- Custom HTTP endpoints (with authentication)
Key Features (as of late 2025 / early 2026)
- Fully serverless — no servers or clusters to manage
- At-least-once delivery with retries and dead-letter handling
- Filtering at trigger level (by event type, service name, resource name, etc.)
- Support for CloudEvents 1.0 format
- Eventarc Advanced (higher-tier offering) adds:
- Publish API for ingesting custom/third-party events
- More advanced routing and enrichment capabilities
- Better support for complex microservices orchestration
- IAM-based security for triggers and destinations
- Global availability (multi-region triggers in some configurations)
Common Use Cases
- Trigger a Cloud Run service whenever:
- A file is uploaded to Cloud Storage
- A Pub/Sub message arrives
- A Compute Engine VM changes state (via Audit Logs)
- A new user signs up in Firebase Authentication
- Build event-driven workflows (e.g., image processing → resize → analyze → store metadata)
- Replace legacy Pub/Sub push subscriptions with more flexible routing
- React to Google Cloud operations in real time (audit log events, resource changes)
Simple Example Flow
- A file is uploaded to a Cloud Storage bucket → generates an event
- Eventarc trigger filters for
google.cloud.storage.object.v1.finalized - Eventarc delivers the CloudEvent (HTTP POST) to your Cloud Run service
- Your service processes the event (e.g., creates a thumbnail)
Eventarc has become the recommended way to handle most event-driven patterns in Google Cloud (especially when targeting Cloud Run or modern serverless workloads), replacing many older point-to-point integrations.
For the most up-to-date details, check the official documentation.
References:
- Eventarc overview
- Eventarc documentation
- Eventarc Advanced announcement (2025)
- Eventarc: A unified eventing experience (original 2021 announcement)