Cloud Spanner

Question 1

Cloud Spanner description

Answer 1

Globally distributed relational database

Question 2

Key points of Cloud Spanner (6)

Answer 2

1. combines benefits of relational database with NoSQL database - strong consistency, transactions and horizontal scaling.
2. High availability
3. Enterprise-grade security with encryption at rest and in transit
4. ANSI 2011 standard SQL
5. Much more expensive than other databases
6. Regional or multi-regional

Question 3

When is Cloud Spanner used?

Answer 3

when there are extremely large volumes of relational data or data that needs to be globally distributed while ensuring consistency and transaction integrity across all servers

Question 4

2 examples of where to use Cloud Spanner

Answer 4

1. Global supply chains.

2. Financial services applications

Question 5

What is important to know about importing or exporting data to/from Cloud Spanner? (2)

Answer 5

1. The import/export will incur Cloud Dataflow charges.
2. There may be additional charges if the region the job is run in does not overlap the region in which the instance resides.
3. You cannot import/export via shell