Google has gone under the radar with the beta launch of a private Git repository hosting service on its Google Cloud Platform that looks set to rival the popular GitHub service.

Known as Cloud Source Repositories, the service was first spotted by VentureBeat, which notes Google hasn’t yet made any official announcement. It provides beta users with free hosting of up to 500MB, and requires Git and the Google Cloud SDK. Users can set up Cloud Source Repository as a remote Git repository using the Git command line tool. It’s also possible to connect a Cloud Source Repository to a hosted repository such as GitHub or Bitbucket that will automatically sync with it.

Cloud Source Repositories also integrates with the Google Developers Console, giving users a source code editor to view repository files and make quick edits. The service also links with Google Cloud Debugger to provide insights into Java apps running on Google App Engine or Compute Engine.

VentureBeat correctly points out that it’ll be difficult for Google to surpass popular repositories like GitHub and Bitbucket, which dominate the open-source code hosting landscape. However, the service will be useful for Google Cloud developers who wish to satisfy their needs without leaving Google’s ecosystem.

“Google Cloud Source Repositories provides a crucial part of our end-to-end cloud tooling story,” said Google Cloud Platform product manager Chris Sells in an emailed response to VentureBeat. “By allowing you to manage your source in your cloud projects along with your other cloud resources, you’ve got a one-stop shop for everything you’re doing in Google Cloud Platform. The Cloud Source Repositories service provides a private Git repository that works with your existing tools while providing a high degree of replication and encryption to make sure that your code is as safe and secure as you’d expect from Google’s cloud infrastructure.”

With Google Cloud Source Repositories, Google is clearly pursuing a tried and tested strategy for cloud providers to attract and keep developers in its own ecosystem, simply by providing everything they could ever need. Amazon Web Services has already done so with its own CodeCommit Git repository, while Microsoft Azure offers the Visual Studio Online repository.

It’s not clear what price Google will demand for Cloud Source Repositories once it hits general availability. GitHub offers public repositories for free, but is planning to add private repositories starting at $7 a month for individual developers, and $25 a month for organizations.

Google’s Cloud Source Repositories comes into beta just months after the company said it was discontinuing Google Code, a project hosting service that was a more direct equivalent of GitHub. But by integrating Cloud Source Repositories with the Google Cloud Platform, it at least stands a good change of becoming the default developer’s tool in Google’s ecosystem.

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