If you have decided to use Google Cloud Platform for your data, you will need to consider various options for data storage. The best storage and database solutions can be determined by the type of applications and workflows you are running. But before we dive into the business storage solutions, it is worth mentioning one of the most popular Google cloud storage solution - Google Drive.
Google Drive is known for its integration with Google Apps, such as Gmail, Sheets or Docs. It offers free standard storage up to 15GB and can be upgraded up to 10 TB for a fixed monthly fee. Google Drive is mostly used for personal storage as it does not support a solid business application nor data management.
Cloud Storage is one of the many storages available on Google Cloud Platform. This highly scalable service can manage an unlimited amount of objects up to 5 TB each, such as images and content files. Using a single API, it is the most economical storage offering four different solutions for each data intensity.
For backup and archive data that is accessed less than once a year there is Coldline storage which is also the cheapest option. Data used less than once a month can be best stored in Nearline. For high-frequency data access, such as website content, streaming videos, gaming and mobile applications it is possible to use multi-regional storage. Last but not least, regional high-frequency storage is meant for local applications that require low end-to-end latency, such as data analytics or machine learning jobs.
This fast and compatible storage service allows managing relational MySQL and PostgreSQL databases in the cloud. It is accessible from just about any application, anywhere, as long as it’s compatible with MySQL or PostgreSQL. Google takes care of all the database management for you including backups and server updates. It is popular with blogs and content management systems, CRM, ERP, eCommerce applications, SaaS platform and BI tools.
Cloud Spanner combines the benefits of a relational database structure with non-relational horizontal scale. What makes it a unique service is the combination of performance with strong external consistency across rows, regions, and continents, high availability, and scalability to enormous database size. It is used mostly in financial services, global supply chain or retail.
Cloud Bigtable is a fully-managed non-relational database that is suitable for both real-time access and analytics workloads. It is an excellent solution for large-scale, low-latency applications as well as intensive data analytics such as IoT, personalisation, recommendations, monitoring and geospatial datasets.
Cloud Datastore is a NoSQL document database that scales from zero to global scale without configuration or downtime. This fully-managed service is ideal for fast, flexible web and mobile development and for applications that start out small but have the potential to grow to a massive scale as you pay for the amount of data stored not the time spent. The typical use cases are user profiles, product catalogues and mobile games.
Cloud Firestore is a flexible, scalable NoSQL cloud database to store and sync data for a client- and server-side development. Ideal for a rapid web and mobile development, designed for direct access from mobile devices.
Still not sure which storage service to go for? Feel free to contact us for advice.
About Crystalloids
Crystalloids helps companies improve their customer experiences and build marketing technology. Founded in 2006 in the Netherlands, Crystalloids builds crystal-clear solutions that turn customer data into information and knowledge into wisdom. As a leading Google Cloud Partner, Crystalloids combines experience in software development, data science and marketing making them one of a kind IT company. Using the Agile approach Crystalloids ensures that use cases show immediate value to their clients and make their job focus more on decision making and less on programming.
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