When you think that the demands you place on your database are too high, maybe it’s time to think about a solution that won’t keep you up at night and won’t ruin you financially. Today we’re taking a look at Google Cloud Spanner.
On the one hand, a database can be a powerful tool, but also one that will give you a headache. Traditional databases can be difficult to maintain and often expensive, and when you finally manage to adapt them to your needs, they start to resist the need to scale. Have you ever faced the problem of data inconsistency or the ever-increasing cost of maintaining a database?
Google Cloud Spanner – what is it?
Google Cloud Spanner is a global, fully managed relational database, drawing on the structure of relational databases with the ease of horizontal scaling typical of NoSQL (so-called non-relational) databases. This is a solution that provides leading availability of up to 99.999%.
You scale according to your needs. This globally distributed cloud database complies with the ACID standard, automatically supports replicas, and you can scale horizontally without limits. Zero downtime for planned maintenance and schema changes contributes to high database availability, and a simple interface makes both creating and scaling a globally replicable database require only a few clicks, thus reducing the cost of maintenance.
Cloud Spanner Features – What Does This Tool Allow?
Let’s take a look at some of the features of Google Cloud Spanner.
Automatic database sharding
You gain optimal performance by automatically dividing data into fragments (sharding) based on their size and request load. This makes the database scalable without the need to change its architecture in a costly and time-consuming manner.
Full management
The full management feature makes database implementation easy at any stage and for any size. You benefit from built-in synchronous replication and maintenance.
Strong transactional consistency
Google Cloud Spanner is built for external consistency without compromising scaling and availability.
Regional or multi-regional configuration
You don’t have to worry about where users are located, because applications powered by Google Spanner read and write consistent data around the world, and the instance launch process is protected against regional failures.
Supported in the Google Cloud network
By relying on a dedicated Google network, you benefit from low latency, while ensuring security and reliability of service for users around the world.
Connecting Cloud Spanner with other Google services – how to do it and why is it worth it?
Staying in Google Cloud you can combine Cloud Spanner with other services available on the platform, such as: Looker Studio.
To do this:
- Log in to Looker Studio.
- In the upper left corner, click “+” and then select your data source.
- Select the Cloud Spanner connector.
- If necessary, you will be asked to authorize Looker Studio to access the database.
- Now configure your database connection (on the left). You need to enter:
- ID project,
- Instance ID,
- Database ID.
- Enter your SQL query in the text box.
- In the upper right corner, select “Connect”.
After a while, a list of data source fields will appear. Now just click “Create Report” or “Explore” to start visualizing your data.
If you want to learn more about Google Cloud Spanner or need help setting it up Google Cloud, Contact us. Our experts will be happy to help you.
