What advantages does it have to use Google's Cloud DNS on a domain purchased on other domain sellers?

Question

I'm now hosting my web app over VM in Google Compute Engine, and thus I learned that GCP also provides a DNS service called Cloud DNS. However, it seems that this service lets you add a DNS record on your domain, which is exactly what you can do in a popular domain seller's (e.g. namecheap) console.

I also think that most domain sellers also provide the interface to add records to the domain. So I wonder whether people have any chance to use Google's Cloud DNS on a domain purchased in another domain seller, which I assume is the standard in current web hosting.

Note that Google hasn't selling domains until recently, which makes me confused further.

What is the point of using Cloud DNS and what kind of advantages does it have over just configurating it on the domain seller's website? I use namecheap for your information.

Answer 1

So I wonder whether people have any chance to use Google's Cloud DNS on a domain purchased in another domain seller, which I assume is the standard in current web hosting.

Yes, this is a very prevalent practice.

What is the point of using Cloud DNS and what kind of advantages does it have over just configurating it on the domain seller's website?

Well, one big reason is that if you're using any type of HA and/or automated infrastructure in Google Cloud, you'll likely be needing to create, modify, and delete DNS records programmatically as your infrastructure changes. If you use Google's DNS, this is much easier to do than to sort out how to create DNS records programmatically with the interface provided by Jimbob's DNS Emporium.

Second reason is that perhaps you trust Google (or AWS, or Azure) to provide a more highly-performing, reliable DNS service than your registrar, which is likely a belief that is founded in reality.

If you're running a small, relatively static DNS infrastructure that is unlikely to be subject to DDoS or similar, there is likely no technical benefit of any one particular DNS provider - in this case, it just comes down to personal preference.

Another point I always consider when putting together infrastructure is to avoid putting all of your eggs in one basket. Sometimes this is unavoidable, but if you have the option, don't have your domain registrar also host your DNS. Doing this does slightly increase management overhead, but it's worth it in terms of hedging against temporary loss of access to your registrar account, for instance.