Google Cloud Platform provides a home for cloud code

The Google Cloud Source Repositories, quietly released in beta this month, provides up to 500MB of space to store source code for projects running on the Google App Engine or the Google Compute Engine.

While there is no shortage of online code repositories, with GitHub and BitBucket being among the two most popular services, Google's built-in repository could save developers a few steps when uploading, debugging and running an application on the company's cloud services.

Whenever a user starts a new project on the Google Developers Console, a corresponding repository is automatically set up. Users can establish a link with another working repository, such as GitHub or BitBucket. The service features the same architecture as the open source Git code management software, and recognizes many basic Git commands, such as push, pull, clone and log.

The service sounds similar to Google Code, which Google is discontinuing next January. The Google Cloud Source Repositories, however, isn't designed to be a general use repository, as was Google Code. Rather, its purpose is to streamline workflow for Google Cloud Platform users.

The source code repository is one of the latest new features for the Google Cloud Platform, which the company continues to vigorously expand.

Earlier in the week, Google added the PHP language to the stable of languages supported by Google App Engine. It also launched a new service for managing containers. Containers provide a portable environment to package applications so they can be run in the cloud.

Google also introduced a service for analyzing log files, which could come in handy when troubleshooting performance issues.

Joab Jackson covers enterprise software and general technology breaking news for The IDG News Service. Follow Joab on Twitter at @Joab_Jackson. Joab's e-mail address is Joab_Jackson@idg.com