Get to Know Cloud SQL: Cloud SQL Glossary
As Global IT, we have shared details about Google Cloud solutions developed for workloads, mobile applications and web platforms to work in the cloud in the articles we have included in our blog so far. But all these applications have tables at their core where data is recorded and processed. In addition to development processes, Google Cloud can also move commonly used databases such as MySQL, PostgreSQL and SQL Server to the cloud with Cloud SQL. In this article, we focus on definitions of concepts that you may need to better understand Cloud SQL.
Many solutions and tools such as App Engine, Cloud Run, Compute Engine, Google Kubernetes Engine, virtual machines and many more are offered within Google’s Cloud family of solutions. Many of these tools allow developer teams to focus solely on their development processes using serverless architectures, without thinking about the infrastructures that applications require. While these solutions, which deliver the operational dimension of the business as a managed service, bring agility and efficiency to development processes, today’s modern applications need the same flexibility in databases.
Today, relational database approaches to relate different database tables and draw meaningful conclusions from these relationships are widely used. Although database management systems such as MySQL, PostgreSQL and SQL Server work successfully on local servers, the way for brands that start using Google services is through Cloud SQL.
Cloud SQL is positioned as a solution that allows businesses to seamlessly transfer databases that are at the heart of all their digital assets to the cloud and derive meaningful insights from that data through the capabilities of the cloud. Cloud SQL, which is seen as a new approach to the concept of database, brings a new terminology in this respect.
As Google’s oldest and only Premier partner in Turkey, Global IT, in this article, we present a compilation of concepts that will make it easier to understand Google’s Cloud SQL solution. Designed like a glossary, it aims to serve as a resource with key terms for businesses that choose Cloud SQL to transform their business processes and databases. Before moving on to the concepts, you can take a look at this article where we explain what Cloud SQL is, how it works and what advantages it offers.
Cloud SQL for MySQL: MySQL is a powerful multi-threaded, multi-user database management system installed on more than 6 million systems. MySQL is the world’s most popular relational database.
Cloud SQL for MySQL is a customized version of Google’s Cloud SQL solution for MySQL. Designed to be compatible with MySQL versions 8.0, 5.7 and 5.6, Cloud SQL for MySQL automates database management tasks such as provisioning, patching, replication, and backup. It can also integrate with other Google Cloud tools such as Google Kubernetes Engine, BigQuery, and Cloud Functions.
Cloud SQL for PostgreSQL: PostgreSQL, or Postgres, is the world’s most advanced open source relational database management system. Actively developed for over 30 years, PostgreSQL is used as the primary data store or data warehouse for many web, mobile, and geospatial applications.
Cloud SQL for PostgreSQL is a customized version of Google’s Cloud SQL solution for PostgreSQL designed to help developer teams spend less time on database operations and more time on applications. This solution, which can work with 14, 13, 12, 11, 10 and 9.6, which are considered important versions of PostgreSQL, adapts all the features of Cloud SQL for PostgreSQL.
Cloud SQL for SQL Server: Microsoft’s product in the enterprise-grade database market, SQL Server is a relational database management system that offers an integrated data platform. Cloud SQL for SQL Server is a service that allows you to use all the capabilities of SQL Server in the cloud, along with Google offerings and other solutions.
Relational database: The relational database, abbreviated as RDB, was developed by Edgar Frank Codd in 1970 and is a digital database based on the relational data model. In this model, the different tables that the database has can be linked to each other through their common properties.
Cloud SQL instance: A Cloud SQL instance is essentially a virtual machine in the Google ecosystem. A virtual machine (VM) contains the database instance and software containers to keep the database instance running.
Database example: An example of a database is the set of software and files that run databases.
Public and private IP: In Cloud SQL, the public IP indicates that the database instance is publicly accessible. A private IP identifies only the database accessed through the private cloud.
High availability: High availability | Cloud SQL instances that use HA are more reliable than non-HA instances. HA in Cloud SQL runs with two concurrent instances, the primary instance and the backup instance. Each instance has a virtual machine, and those instances are located in a different space in the same region.
Failover: Failover is when Cloud SQL fails over the service from its original primary instance to the standby instance. Automatic failover is a mechanism that automatically triggers a failover when a Cloud SQL instance fails at the previous interval. In this way, high accessibility is ensured.
Standby instances: Backup instances are those that are used when a failover condition occurs.
Clone: The cloning process in Cloud SQL is the creation of a copy of a resource, for example, as a completely independent new instance.
Replica: Replication is the ability to create copies of a Cloud SQL instance or on-premises database and delegate work to the copies. The main reason to use replication is to scale the usage of data in a database without degrading performance on the primary instance.
Read replica: A read copy is an exact copy of the primary instance. Data and other changes on the primary instance are updated in real time in the read copy. Write operations are sent to the primary instance, and read requests are sent to the read copy. The read copy reduces the load on the primary instance by processing queries, read requests, and analytics traffic.
Source server: A source server is another name given to a primary instance.
Cloud SQL Auth proxy client: This client is open source software provided by Cloud SQL. A companion process running on a Cloud SQL instance connects to this client. This client runs on businesses’ own servers and can be used to establish a secure SSL/TLS connection to the database instance and/or avoid having to open the firewall.
phpMyAdmin: MySQL is an open source tool developed with PHP language that allows database management over the internet.
SQL Workbench: SQL Workbench is a unified visual tool for database architects and developers. It provides data modeling, SQL development, and comprehensive management tools for server configuration, user management, backup, and much more. It is a desktop application that runs on Windows, Linux and Mac OS X.
Toad Edge: Toad Edge is a simplified database development tool for MySQL and PostgreSQL. It is offered as a desktop application that runs on Windows and Mac operating systems.
pgAdmin.org: pgAdmin is a tool designed to monitor and manage multiple PostgreSQL and EDB Advanced Server database servers, both local and remote, through a single graphical interface.
SQL Server Management Studio: SQL Server Management Studio, introduced with the release of Microsoft SQL Server 2005, is an integrated runtime environment for configuring and managing all components within Microsoft SQL Server.
Database flag: A flag is one or more bits of data that are used to store binary values as indicators of specific program structure.
Datastream: Datastream is a serverless and easy-to-use delta data capture and replication service within the Google Cloud family.
Looker: Looker is business intelligence and big data analytics software that was acquired by Google in 2019 and is available today as a tool that enables real-time business analytics within the Cloud family of solutions.
BigQuery: BigQuery is the serverless, highly scalable, and cost-effective multi-cloud data warehouse of the Google Cloud family. Designed for business agility.
Access Google’s cloud database solutions with Global IT
If you want to transform your business with Google Cloud databases on a trusted platform and in an agile way, rely on Global IT in your database strategy. As Google’s only and oldest Premier partner, Global IT, we help you accelerate your database migration and modernization.
We enable you to leverage the Cloud SQL solution so you can process your MySQL, PostgreSQL or SQL Server relational databases with Google Cloud tools and turn them into meaningful insights. You can contact us by filling out the form below to become a smart business that is at the forefront of digital competition by performing your cloud transformation in the database. As Global IT, we were born in the cloud, and have been growing with the cloud for 16 years, along with our customers.