Professional Cloud ArchitectDesign and plan a cloud solution architectureMedium
A startup is building a new web application with a microservices architecture. They need a highly available, scalable, and fully managed database for their core transactional data. The database must support relational queries, store up to 10 TB of data, and handle sudden spikes in traffic without manual scaling. Which Google Cloud database service should they choose?
- ABigtable
- BCloud SQL
- CCloud Spanner
- DCloud Firestore
Show answer & explanationAnswer & explanation
Correct answer: C. Cloud Spanner
Cloud Spanner is a globally distributed, strongly consistent, and horizontally scalable relational database service that can handle transactional workloads at petabyte scale. Its automatic sharding and scaling capabilities make it suitable for high-growth applications with unpredictable traffic spikes.
Why the other options are wrong
- A. Bigtable is a NoSQL wide-column database, excellent for analytical and operational workloads with massive throughput but not a relational database for transactional data with complex SQL.
- B. Cloud SQL is a regional relational database that requires some manual scaling and is typically limited to a few TBs per instance, not designed for massive, automatic horizontal scaling like Spanner.
- D. Cloud Firestore is a NoSQL document database, not ideal for relational queries and 10TB scale with strong consistency guarantees across transactions.
Cloud Spanner
A globally distributed, strongly consistent, and horizontally scalable relational database service designed for transactional workloads at petabyte scale and high availability.
- Globally distributed with strong consistency
- Horizontally scalable (automatic sharding)
- Relational model with SQL support
Memory trick: Spanner stretches your relational data across the globe with strong consistency.