GCE networking was always equivalent to AWS VPC, but there's new functionality in stuff like Cloud Router, subnetworks, and other beta features to expand that even more. Here's the Network Services section from a guide explaining GCP for people who are used to AWS:
> The differences between AWS networking and Google Cloud networking are significant. This due to the nature of how these services were designed. Google Cloud Platform treats networking as something that spans all services, not just compute services. It is based on Google’s Andromeda software-defined networking architecture, which allows for creating networking elements at any level with software. As a result, Cloud Platform can create a network that fits Google's needs exactly—for example, create secure firewalls for virtual machines in Google Compute Engine, allow for fast connections between database nodes in Cloud Bigtable, or deliver query results quickly in BigQuery.
> To create an instance in Google Compute Engine, you need a network. In Google Cloud Platform, we create a default network for you automatically, and you can create more as needed. Unlike AWS, there is no choice of a public network like Elastic Compute Cloud-Classic. In all cases, you create a private network, much like Elastic Compute Cloud-VPC. Unlike Elastic Compute Cloud-VPC, Google Networking does not have sub-networking, but it does have firewall rules, routing, and VPN. These prerequisites are not necessarily required for all Google Cloud Platform services. Google BigQuery, for example, does not require a network because it is a managed service.
> Most of the networking entities in Google Cloud Platform, such as load balancers, firewall rules and routing tables, have global scope. More importantly, networks themselves have a global scope. This means that you can create a single private IP space that is global, without having to connect multiple private networks, with the operational overhead of having to manage those spaces separately. Due to this single, global network, all of your instances are addressable within your network by both IP address and name.
> Another major difference between Google Cloud Platform networking and Elastic Compute Cloud-VPC is the concept of Live Migration. Under normal circumstances, all hardware in any data center—including Google—will eventually need either maintenance or replacement. There are also unforeseen circumstances that can happen to hardware that can cause it to fail in any number of ways. When these events happen at Google, Cloud Platform has the ability to transparently move virtual machines from affected hardware to hardware that is working normally. This is done without any interaction from the customer.
> The differences between AWS networking and Google Cloud networking are significant. This due to the nature of how these services were designed. Google Cloud Platform treats networking as something that spans all services, not just compute services. It is based on Google’s Andromeda software-defined networking architecture, which allows for creating networking elements at any level with software. As a result, Cloud Platform can create a network that fits Google's needs exactly—for example, create secure firewalls for virtual machines in Google Compute Engine, allow for fast connections between database nodes in Cloud Bigtable, or deliver query results quickly in BigQuery.
> To create an instance in Google Compute Engine, you need a network. In Google Cloud Platform, we create a default network for you automatically, and you can create more as needed. Unlike AWS, there is no choice of a public network like Elastic Compute Cloud-Classic. In all cases, you create a private network, much like Elastic Compute Cloud-VPC. Unlike Elastic Compute Cloud-VPC, Google Networking does not have sub-networking, but it does have firewall rules, routing, and VPN. These prerequisites are not necessarily required for all Google Cloud Platform services. Google BigQuery, for example, does not require a network because it is a managed service.
> Most of the networking entities in Google Cloud Platform, such as load balancers, firewall rules and routing tables, have global scope. More importantly, networks themselves have a global scope. This means that you can create a single private IP space that is global, without having to connect multiple private networks, with the operational overhead of having to manage those spaces separately. Due to this single, global network, all of your instances are addressable within your network by both IP address and name.
> Another major difference between Google Cloud Platform networking and Elastic Compute Cloud-VPC is the concept of Live Migration. Under normal circumstances, all hardware in any data center—including Google—will eventually need either maintenance or replacement. There are also unforeseen circumstances that can happen to hardware that can cause it to fail in any number of ways. When these events happen at Google, Cloud Platform has the ability to transparently move virtual machines from affected hardware to hardware that is working normally. This is done without any interaction from the customer.
From: https://cloud.google.com/docs/google-cloud-platform-for-aws-...