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Google Cloud admin accounts

As noted in the checklist for products, development team members who need to administer, deploy or examine Google Cloud resources need to be listed in our team data file and given a Google account of the form {crsid}@gcloudadmin.g.apps.cam.ac.uk.

This document contains specific guidance for team members about this account. We use the term "Google Cloud admin" account in this document to refer to these accounts.

Expectations on you as a developer

Your Google Cloud admin account is powerful. It is expected that you:

  • Ensure that the account is configured with multi-factor authentication.
  • Use a strong password.
  • Limit the number of places you sign in with the account.
  • Do not leave long-lived browser sessions signed in to the account.
  • Only use the account in the browser to access the Google Cloud console.
  • Use the account when authenticating to the gcloud SDK tool.

Do's and don'ts

DO NOT:

  • Use the Google Cloud admin account as the default Google session.
  • Use the Google Cloud admin account to sign in to Chrome.
  • Enable any additional Google Services for the Google Cloud admin account via the Google Workspace preferences app except for the Google Cloud service.
  • Use the Google Cloud admin account to configure a Google developer profile.
  • Use the Google Cloud admin account to "sign-in with Google".

DO:

  • Use the Google Cloud admin account within a private browsing tab when feasible.
  • Use your {crsid}@cam.ac.uk account for day-to-day browsing.
  • Consider using 1password's passkey support or hardware passkeys such as Touch ID to sign in to the account. The use of passkeys is documented on Google's support site.

More information