Google Spanner

Google Spanner is a globally distributed database service offered by Google Cloud that provides strong consistency, global distribution, and SQL semantics with horizontal scaling capabilities. It is designed for applications that require global consistency and high availability.

Key Characteristics

• Globally Distributed: Designed for global distribution
• Strong Consistency: Provides strong consistency across regions
• SQL Interface: Standard SQL interface with extensions
• Horizontal Scaling: Scales horizontally across regions

Advantages

• Global Consistency: Strong consistency across global regions
• High Availability: Designed for high availability
• SQL Compatibility: Standard SQL interface
• Automatic Scaling: Automatic horizontal scaling

Disadvantages

• Cost: Can be expensive for small applications
• Vendor Lock-in: Strong Google Cloud dependency
• Latency: Potential latency for globally distributed writes
• Complexity: Complex for simple applications

Best Practices

• Design for global data distribution
• Optimize for regional data access patterns
• Monitor and optimize costs
• Plan for appropriate instance configurations

Use Cases

• Global applications requiring strong consistency
• Financial applications with global presence
• Applications with multi-region requirements
• Systems requiring high availability across regions