Google Associate Cloud EngineerPlanning and configuring a cloud solutionMedium
A global gaming company needs to store user profile data that is frequently updated and accessed from various regions worldwide. The database must offer strong transactional consistency, horizontal scalability across continents, and high availability with automatic failover. Which Google Cloud database service is most appropriate?
- ACloud Spanner
- BCloud SQL
- CFirestore
- DCloud Bigtable
Show answer & explanationAnswer & explanation
Correct answer: A. Cloud Spanner
Cloud Spanner is a globally distributed, strongly consistent, and horizontally scalable relational database service. It provides transactional consistency across regions, high availability, and automatic failover, making it ideal for global applications like gaming that require both relational consistency and global scale.
Why the other options are wrong
- B. Cloud SQL is a regional relational database, not designed for global horizontal scalability with strong consistency across continents.
- C. Firestore is a NoSQL document database, suitable for web/mobile apps but not providing the strong transactional consistency and global relational model of Spanner.
- D. Cloud Bigtable is a NoSQL wide-column store, offering high throughput but not strong transactional consistency across regions like Spanner.
Cloud Spanner
A globally distributed, strongly consistent, and horizontally scalable relational database service that combines the benefits of relational databases with the scalability of NoSQL.
- Globally distributed
- Strong transactional consistency (ACID)
- Horizontal scalability across continents
- High availability with automatic failover
- Relational model (SQL interface)
Memory trick: Spanner spans the globe with strong, consistent data.