What action should you take to enhance network throughput performance for a service relying on n2-standard-2 Compute Engine instances?

To enhance network throughput performance for a service relying on n2-standard-2 Compute Engine instances, altering the machine type to n2-standard-8 is the most effective approach.

This is because Google Cloud's Compute Engine assigns resources such as CPU and memory based on the selected machine type. The n2-standard-2 machine type provides a defined level of network resources and throughput, which may not be sufficient for high-demand applications. Switching to a n2-standard-8 machine type increases the number of virtual CPUs and memory available to the instance, which can significantly boost not only overall compute performance but also the network throughput capabilities associated with that instance.

Increasing the machine type takes advantage of Google Cloud’s infrastructure, which can offer more network bandwidth as the resources increase, thereby improving the throughput for your service. This is particularly important for workloads that are sensitive to network performance, such as data-intensive applications or microservices requiring substantial communication across instances.

Other strategies, such as adding additional Network Interface Controllers or implementing Cloud NAT, may help under certain conditions but do not fundamentally change the resource limitations of a specific VM’s capability. Similarly, deploying the Ops Agent would provide better monitoring insights but wouldn't inherently improve throughput performance for network traffic. Therefore, changing the machine