Google on Thursday rolled out a series of updates across its cloud database portfolio aimed at strengthening security and easing database migration efforts.
Among the key updates is a preview of fine-grained access control for the Google Cloud Spanner relational database service that will provide security controls for table and column level access in the database.
Rounding out Google's updates is new support, also in preview, for the cloud provider's Database Migration Service (DMS), including the ability to more easily move from PostgreSQL to Google's recently introduced AlloyDB database.
Google's moves with Datastream and DMS are intended to let different pieces of the data stack and work together more easily, said Gartner analyst Merv Adrian.
"When you introduce a new database like AlloyDB, you need to make sure your other stuff works with it," he said. " They are rolling things out as quickly as they can and connecting other pieces of the infrastructure when the work is done."
Datastream connects more cloud databases
When you introduce a new database like AlloyDB, you need to make sure your other stuff works with it. They are rolling things out as quickly as they can and connecting other pieces of the infrastructure when the work is done.
Merv AdrianAnalyst, Gartner
Datastream is focused on CDC capabilities for near real-time replication of data that has changed from a source location to a target destination, said Andi Gutmans, VP and GM for databases at Google.
Currently Datastream is focused on data replication from operational databases into BigQuery for analytics. But the service also enables a variety of other applications, such as low-downtime migrations and event streaming capabilities, Gutmans noted.
Datastream handles all CDC operations from connectivity to the source -- by capturing changes at the source and data type transformation -- to data consolidation.
Before the new preview service, Datastream supported BigQuery as a destination through integration with the Google Dataflow service but not as a native integration, Gutmans said.
Previously Datastream wrote that change stream data to cloud storage, then Dataflow picked up and processed the data and loaded into BigQuery. The new preview services for Datastream also introduce support for PostgreSQL as a source, which Datastream did not support until now.
DMS looks to ease migration to AlloyDB
Google launched the AlloyDB cloud database in May, stating from the onset that the tech giant designed it to be compatible with the open source PostgreSQL database
AlloyDB is drop-in compatible with PostgreSQL, and Google has supported self-managed migrations via the pglogical extension to date, Gutmans said. Google's goal with DMS is to simplify the user experience as much as possible, he said.
"Our investment has gone into creating a strong end-to-end user experience, while leveraging native PostgreSQL replication for the underlying migration," Gutmans said. "The migration path and steps are identical to the flow that customers are running when performing a PostgreSQL-to-PostgreSQL migration, other than creating an AlloyDB cluster rather than PostgreSQL instance."
