Google Cloud database news roundup, September 2024 edition

September was a whirlwind of innovation for Google Cloud databases. From groundbreaking announcements to product updates and inspiring customer stories, we've got it all. So grab your favorite fall beverage and let's dive into the latest from Google Cloud databases.

Key announcements

• Oracle Database is now generally available on Google Cloud. Customers can now run Oracle Exadata Database Service and Oracle Autonomous Database on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) in Google Cloud across - U.S. East (Ashburn), U.S. West (Salt Lake City), U.K. South (London), and Germany Central (Frankfurt), with more regions coming soon.. 

• Spanner editions are now generally available across Standard, Enterprise, and Enterprise Plus editions. This new tiered pricing model offers our customers greater flexibility, better cost transparency, and opportunities for cost savings. 

• Cloud SQL has three new features that further improve the industry-leading availability experience on Cloud SQL Enterprise Plus for PostgreSQL and MySQL:

• Edition upgrade: Upgrading your Enterprise edition instance to Enterprise Plus was already easy with in–place edition upgrade. The edition upgrade will now happen with near-zero downtime. For more, see the release notes for PostgreSQL and MySQL.

• MySQL minor version upgrade: If you’re running a Cloud SQL for MySQL instance with Enterprise Plus edition, you can now upgrade the MySQL minor version with near-zero downtime.

• Zonal (i.e. standalone) instances: Cloud SQL Enterprise Plus offers near-zero downtime for edition upgrades, maintenance and scale-up. All of these benefits are now available for zonal (i.e.standalone / non-HA) primary instances as well. 

• Cloud SQL Extended support offers protection from critical security issues for MySQL and PostgreSQL:  

• Cloud SQL will provide bug fixes and SLA coverage for PostgreSQL and MySQL instances for three years beyond their community end of life.

• Extended support and its pricing will be effective on February 1, 2025. Cloud SQL customers can refer to our database version policies for more details on the extended support timelines and plan their upgrades accordingly. 

• AlloyDB now supports PostgreSQL 16 in preview.

• You now have a choice among PG 14 GA, PG 15 GA and PG 16 (preview) versions in the UI, gCloud, and the API. If you are targeting PG 16 for deployments on AlloyDB, you can start evaluations or POCs with a 30-day AlloyDB free trial instance. 

• Node-level metrics on Memorystore for Redis Cluster is now in preview. 

• The launch of node-level metrics extends observability from the cluster level, to the individual node level, giving you the level of granularity you require. You can observe key metrics, monitor hot shards and nodes, and better scale your instances to serve demand. 

• Memorystore for Valkey, with support for Valkey 7.2, is now in preview.

• This is a managed service for Valkey, giving you an open-source future on Memorystore and a compatible open-source key-value data service.  

• The KNN vector search for Firestore is now generally available. 

• Vector search lets you store vector embeddings and queries using KNN.

• With this GA launch, we’ve added support for returning distance, filtering on distance, support for inequalities, and additional SDK support.

Transforming businesses with Google Cloud databases

Discover how Google Cloud database solutions are driving innovation and success for these customers:

• Gmail silently migrated billions of users, trillions of emails, and exabytes of data to Spanner – without anyone noticing! Check out this video for a deep dive into one of the largest data migrations ever.

• Ford significantly reduced management overhead and has seen a large drop in database-related operational tasks after migrating to fully managed Google Cloud databases like Cloud SQL.

• Flipkart migrated its streaming analytics infrastructure from Apache HBase to Bigtable, improving performance, developer productivity, and responsiveness to big fluctuations in customer demand. 

• By harnessing AlloyDB's advanced features, SEEBURGER successfully fortified its BIS platform, improving security, scalability, and agility.

• Character.AI uses Memorystore for Redis Cluster to optimize performance, improve scalability, and focus on delivering transformative AI experiences to users worldwide.

• Our latest whitepaper highlights how generative AI can transform businesses by extracting value from operational data. It discusses how AI can improve customer interactions, team productivity, and overall business efficiency. 

Upcoming database events 

• Brazil Google Cloud Summit on Oct 2, 2024

  • Join the Google Cloud developer community at the Brazil Summit! This event is packed with content, workshops, and interaction with our experts. Sign up now for this-in person event!

• Databases Connect at the London Summit on Oct 9, 2024

  • Connect with industry leaders and fellow database enthusiasts on Day 1 of the London Summit for an in-depth exploration of the future of databases, led by Google Cloud Databases leadership and other renowned experts. Sign up for this in-person event now!

• Data Cloud Innovation Roadmap Webinar on Oct 16, 2024
  • Join our product management leadership on October 15 for an exclusive Data Cloud Innovation Roadmap series to help you unlock the full potential of your enterprise data with AI. Learn about the latest innovations, strategy and plans for Google Cloud databases including AlloyDB, Cloud SQL, Spanner, Bigtable, Firestore, Memorystore, Database Migration Services (DMS), and Datastream.

• Database Day with Gen AI

  • We’re hosting an in-person series of events in North America called Database Days, showcasing potential ITDMs and practitioners on the possibility of Gen AI app development with Google Cloud databases. Join us at one of our upcoming cities:   

    • October 17: Sunnyvale

    • October 24: Houston

• Modernize your database with Cloud SQL Webinar on Oct 24, 2024
  • Learn how Cloud SQL can help you modernize your database infrastructure for better performance, enhanced security, and increased availability. Join our webinar on October 24 to discover how a fully managed database can free up your IT team to focus on innovation.

Stay tuned for more exciting developments in next month’s roundup! In the meantime, explore our Google Cloud databases homepage to discover how we can help you achieve your goals or contact us today!