Item: Google Cloud SQL
Rating: 8
Author: Verified User

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Google Cloud SQL is the managed database solution in GCP. Google Cloud SQL usage is extensive in our organization and almost all applications using flavours of postgres sql and MySQL use Google Cloud SQL. Google Cloud SQL is our primary database of choice on migrating applications to Google cloud and its generally our main backup db as well. Its single biggest strength is flexiblity with the databse being useful both as a prototyping solution and a production solutions

Pros and Cons

Migration
The Database Migration Service has excellent throughput and supports virtually unlimited amount of data.
Insights
The Cloud Insights dashboard is a great place to analyse query performance and resolve database performance issues through pre-built dashboards.
Excellent Dialects
Google Cloud SQL supports a lot of open-source dialects including MySQL, PostgreSQL and SQL server

No access to the databases logs
System stored procedures are not accessible
Data is not automatically encrypted in transit though Google does AES encryption at rest

Return on Investment

Cost-effective
Google Cloud SQL reduced operational costs for us significantly.
Availability
Google Cloud SQL provides 99.99% uptime.
Improved intelligent insights.
Helps to understand and resolve database performance issues through pre-built dashboards

Usability

Basically on personal experience. Google Cloud SQL is an excellent database for a large number of varied use cases. Often the only necessary change is a single line change in a config file and setup some accesses. It is fast enough almost all the time and a breeze to set up. Lack of stored procedures and in TDE encryption is the only reason which it not a 10/10

Ease of Integration

Google Cloud SQL has a great catalogue of integrations both within Google Cloud and outside as well. Google Cloud SQL has a great advantage in that it supports all native SQL dialects, hence it supports all the newer features that they supports. Postgres recently released PGVector a vector database for model embeddings and Google Cloud SQL already supports.

Alternatives Considered

Google BigQuery and Google Cloud Spanner

BigQuery is a great analytical database and is generally our first choice for large analytical workloads. While its performance and throughput far outperforms Google Cloud SQL but it supports a far limited dialets of SQL. Generally a significant rewrite will be needed for BgQuery but rarely for Google Cloud SQL
Cloud Spanner is a great distributed database that is amazing for ultra large workloads, while Google Cloud SQL does not support distributed compute at all

Key Insights

Do you think Google Cloud SQL delivers good value for the price?

Yes

Are you happy with Google Cloud SQL's feature set?

Yes

Did Google Cloud SQL live up to sales and marketing promises?

I wasn't involved with the selection/purchase process

Did implementation of Google Cloud SQL go as expected?

Yes

Would you buy Google Cloud SQL again?

Yes

Likelihood to Recommend

Google Cloud SQL is a great primary database. It is certainly the first choice that any application developer should try while starting out with GCP. Unless there's an ultra-specific reason Google Cloud SQL should be choice for managed SQL databases.
Google Cloud SQL is not a proper choice for application which needs high or near real-time performance. Its not a good choice for distributed database applications either

The Default GCP database

Overall Satisfaction with Google Cloud SQL