What should you check before scaling services in Google Cloud?

Before scaling services in Google Cloud, it's essential to check the quota limits for resources in each region. Quotas are essential because they ensure that there are sufficient resources available for scaling without causing problems such as resource contention or inability to provision needed resources effectively. Each Google Cloud service has a predefined quota based on factors like the type of service, region, and resource category, which may limit how much you can scale your project.

By verifying the quota limits, you can understand whether you have reached, exceeded, or have room to increase capacity which is critical when you need to scale out to handle increased demand or scale up for better performance. It prevents encountering service interruptions or failures due to over-utilization of resources or exceeding allowed limits.

While current traffic loads, internal load balancer capacity, and performance metrics from Cloud Monitoring are important metrics to consider when planning for scaling services, they do not directly address the prerequisites of scaling related to available resources and limits imposed by Google Cloud. Each of these factors also plays a role in overall performance and decision-making but does not substitute the necessity of adhering to the quota limits.