Here is a quick one for you today. Google just released a nifty feature on September 11, 2025. You can now use Privileged Access Manager (PAM) to accelerate the deletion of “soft deleted” private clouds.

The Problem

Usually, when you delete a Private Cloud, it goes into a “soft delete” state. This is a safety net to prevent accidental data loss. But sometimes, you know you want it gone immediately—maybe to free up quota or stop billing on a test environment right now.

The Solution

By elevating your privileges via PAM, you can bypass the standard retention period.

1. Navigate to PAM in the Google Cloud Console.
2. Request elevation for VMware Engine Administrator.
3. Execute the hard delete on the pending cloud.

Summary

It’s a small feature, but for those of us managing ephemeral labs or CI/CD environments, it saves waiting days for resources to clean up.