Fully managed relational database service: Cloud SQL
Computers, smartphones, smart watches, wearable devices and industrial vehicles that can communicate with each other… Have you ever thought about the size of the data recorded by the internet-connected digital devices that we come into contact with or make use of every day? When we do a brief research on big data, we see that 2.5 quintillion (19 digits) of bytes of data are produced every day. In the process of storing this data in an orderly manner, cloud platforms are also used.
When we searched Google for big data statistics or big data statistics, the first results immediately came up with the following information: “Approximately 2.5 quintillion bytes of data are produced per day. When the year is hit, this value reaches 900 quintillion.” When we see that the quintillion is a 19-digit number, we can’t help but think about how this data is organized, where it is kept, how it is stored.
This data needs to be retained and processed because many platforms and companies, regardless of industry, can provide us with personalized experiences if they process this data correctly. As competition between companies increases in the digital environment, database architectures are changing, just as there are development approaches and workload running infrastructures. The proliferation of cloud platforms, which run the majority of workloads and are increasingly adopted every year, brings about the emergence of cloud-based solutions developed for the database.
As the oldest and only Premier partner of Google Cloud in Turkey, in today’s article, we will focus on Cloud SQL, the managed relational database service offered by Google Cloud. We will first try to understand the concept of relational database and its importance, and then we will touch on the features and advantages of Cloud SQL.
What Is a Relational Database?
Relational database, abbreviated as RDB, referred to as relational database in English; A table is a way to structure information in rows and columns. An RDB stands out for having the ability to establish connections or relationships between information by joining tables.
Simply keeping data in an organized format isn’t enough to ensure consistency and improvement in services. Businesses need to properly process each piece of data they hold, correlate it with each other, and turn it into meaningful insights. This is where the concept of a relational database comes to the fore, making it easier to understand and gain insight into the relationship between data points.
Relational databases allowed users to easily understand interrelated data points in one or more tables. Structured query language | SQL), it is among the popular databases because it provides relational operators such as SQL. Relational databases are typically used for a well-structured data model or for transactional queries in which the data structure does not change frequently.
The relational database model, developed by E. F. Codd of IBM in the 1970s, allows any table to be related to another table using a common attribute. Instead of using hierarchical structures to organize data, this structure uses a data model in which data is stored, accessed, and related in tables.
This simple graph from Google gives you an idea of how relational databases work. On an e-commerce site, when an order is placed by a customer, the customer ID is positioned as the primary key that determines who the order belongs to.
By using a foreign key, the corresponding order can be linked to that customer. These two database tables are now classified as related based on the shared customer ID. This makes both tables queryable to generate reports and use the data for other applications.
What is Google Cloud SQL?
Google Cloud SQL is a fully managed relational database service that can run database management systems such as MySQL, PostgreSQL, and SQL Server, with rich collections of extensions, configuration options, and developer ecosystems. Cloud SQL enables developer teams to manage database instances in the cloud, saving them maintenance costs.
Cloud SQL provides options for businesses such as backup, high availability and failover, network connectivity, import and export, maintenance and update, monitoring and logging. In other words, Cloud SQL is positioned as a cloud-based alternative to native MySQL, PostgreSQL, and SQL Server databases. Many applications running on Compute Engine, App Engine, and other services in Google Cloud within Google’s family of cloud solutions use Cloud SQL for database storage.
What are the Features of Google Cloud SQL?
By moving and digitizing the three most common native database solutions to the cloud, Google Cloud SQL gives developers more of a chance to use databases for efficient work rather than building and dealing with databases. The solution stands out for the following features:
● Fully managed service: Delivered as a managed service, Cloud SQL automatically ensures that databases are reliable, secure, and scalable to keep businesses up and running. Cloud SQL enables over 99.95% availability worldwide. All backups, replicas, and capacity increases are handled automatically by Cloud SQL.
● Integrated: Cloud SQL comes with availability from almost any application. Users of solutions such as App Engine, Compute Engine or Google Kubernetes Engine on Google Cloud can easily connect to their data in Cloud SQL. Cloud SQL can access comprehensive analytics by querying tables in databases via Google Cloud BigQuery.
● Reliable: Cloud SQL users can easily configure replication and backups to protect the information they hold in their databases. With automatic failover, Cloud SQL also helps make the database highly available. Data is automatically encrypted in Cloud SQL in compliance with standards such as SSAE16, ISO 27001, PCI DSS, and HIPAA.
● Easy migration: Businesses that want to move their local databases to the cloud can easily do so with minimal downtime thanks to Database Migration Service (DMS). Cloud SQL, a serverless solution, leverages the native replication capabilities of MySQL and PostgreSQL to improve the speed and maximize the reliability of the migration process.
What are the benefits of Google Cloud SQL?
Google Cloud SQL offers all the possibilities of serverless architecture and all the advantages of cloud platforms. The most important benefits of businesses using Cloud SQL to store, organize, and manage their databases can be grouped under three headings:
● Secure and compliant: Meeting high-level security standards, Cloud SQL offers one of the most secure database capabilities with data encryption at rest and in transit. Data stored in the virtual private cloud maximizes security and compliance with a firewall and user access controlled infrastructure.
● Scalable: As a serverless solution, Cloud SQL is charged on a pay-as-you-go model. Businesses pay only for what they use for Cloud SQL, which they can use with simple tests or the highest performance, and the system can automatically scale according to all needs.
● Installed in minutes: Cloud SQL’s standard connection drivers and built-in migration tools allow you to create and connect to the first database in just a few minutes.
Cloud SQL Use Case
Spain-based financial services company BBVA stands out among multinational businesses that are taking advantage of Cloud SQL opportunities in database management. BBVA, which operates in an industry where information security and data storage are critical, such as finance, runs its transformed database architecture on Cloud SQL. Noting that the managed relational database service offered by Cloud SQL fits perfectly into its internal strategies, the bank prefers to move its MySQL and PostgreSQL databases, which it prefers for different geographies and business processes, to the cloud using the Cloud SQL solution.
Google’s cloud-based database solutions in Global IT
As Global IT, we believe that in this era of data management and business analytics, using an easy-to-manage and modern database infrastructure to unlock innovation and gain real-time insights is essential for businesses of all sizes.
For 16 years, we’ve positioned ourselves as Google’s provider of solutions that respond to the diverse digital needs of businesses. While guiding businesses in the process of creating a reliable and agile database strategy with our database solutions, we help companies reduce operational loads due to databases and reduce costs with fully compatible and configurable private virtual machines. With our data cloud solutions, we respond to the needs of businesses for data warehouse modernization, repository modernization, release analytics, business intelligence, and marketing analytics. And by connecting solutions like BigQuery to Cloud SQL, we’re empowering our partners to turn data into powerful decisions.
If you would like to explore the data-driven solutions and Google technologies we offer as Global IT, you can contact us through the form at the bottom of this page.
