Google Associate Cloud EngineerDeploying and implementing a cloud solutionHard

A company is developing a new mobile application that requires a globally distributed, highly scalable, and strongly consistent database to store user profiles and real-time game state. The database must support SQL queries and have a 99.999% availability SLA. Which Google Cloud database solution is best suited for this application?

  1. ACloud Bigtable
  2. BCloud Spanner
  3. CCloud SQL for MySQL
  4. DFirestore in Native mode
Show answer & explanation

Correct answer: B. Cloud Spanner

Cloud Spanner is a globally distributed NewSQL database that offers strong consistency, horizontal scalability, and a 99.999% availability SLA. It supports SQL queries and is designed for mission-critical applications requiring high availability and global reach, perfectly matching the requirements.

Why the other options are wrong

  • A. Cloud Bigtable is a NoSQL wide-column database, designed for analytical workloads and not for strong consistency with SQL queries on transactional data.
  • C. Cloud SQL is a regional relational database, not globally distributed with strong consistency across regions, and does not offer 99.999% SLA.
  • D. Firestore is a NoSQL document database, not a relational database, and does not offer the same global strong consistency or 99.999% SLA as Spanner.

Cloud Spanner

A globally distributed, strongly consistent, and highly available relational database service built for mission-critical applications.

  • Combines the benefits of relational databases (SQL, transactions) with NoSQL scalability.
  • Offers 99.999% availability SLA for multi-region instances.
  • Provides strong global consistency for all transactions.
  • Horizontally scalable across geographic regions.

Memory trick: Spanner stretches your database across the globe, strong and always there.

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