If you are running this client on Google Compute Engine, we handle authentication for you with no configuration. You just need to make sure that when you set up the GCE instance, you add the correct scopes for the APIs you want to access.
If you are not running this client on Google Compute Engine, you need a Google Developers service account. To create a service account, please see our Authentication guide.
Our library uses some native libraries, which must be recompiled against the platform running your application. For AWS Lambda, we recommend using lambda-packager prior to deploying your code.
Reference Issues: #1287, #1297
Does this replace Cloud Node.js Client?
Cloud Node.js Client is a client library for using the broad set of Google APIs. This module is built specifically for the Google Cloud Platform and is the recommended way to integrate Cloud APIs into your Node.js applications. If your application requires both Google Cloud Platform and other Google APIs, the 2 libraries may be used together.