Social app needs users to upload 2 MB–1 GB images while minimizing infra operations. Which approach minimizes ops?

Generating signed URLs for Cloud Storage is the most operationally efficient solution. Signed URLs allow clients to directly upload large files to Cloud Storage without your application server acting as an intermediary, significantly reducing the server's load and operational overhead. Cloud Storage automatically handles scalability, durability, and availability. Storing images directly in the database is inefficient for large files and can quickly exhaust database resources, leading to performance issues and complex scaling. Running a GCP web server to accept uploads and store files on a file server adds an unnecessary layer of infrastructure to manage and scale. Creating a separate Cloud Storage bucket and service account per user is overly complex, difficult to manage at scale, and introduces unnecessary security risks by distributing service account credentials.