GCP Basics · Module 06

Storage & Databases – Cloud Storage, Cloud SQL and Choosing a Database

Store objects in Cloud Storage with the right location, class and lifecycle rules, secure buckets with uniform access and signed URLs, run Cloud SQL with high availability and backups, choose between Firestore, Bigtable, Spanner, AlloyDB and Memorystore, and move file data with Filestore and Storage Transfer Service.

Practice interactively →

What you will learn

• Create buckets with the right location type and storage class and automate lifecycle rules
• Secure buckets with uniform bucket-level access, public access prevention, signed URLs and retention
• Run Cloud SQL with HA, read replicas, backups and private connectivity
• Choose the right database for a workload
• Use Filestore for shared files and Storage Transfer Service to move data

Lessons

1. Cloud Storage: Buckets, Classes and Lifecycle

   Buckets hold objects in a region, dual-region or multi-region; storage classes trade storage price for access cost, and lifecycle rules move or delete objects automatically.

2. Cloud Storage Security: Uniform Access, Signed URLs, Retention

   Use IAM with uniform bucket-level access, enforce public access prevention, share single objects with time-limited signed URLs, and lock data with retention policies.

3. Cloud SQL: HA, Replicas, Backups and Private IP

   Cloud SQL runs managed MySQL, PostgreSQL and SQL Server; regional HA fails over to a standby in another zone, read replicas scale reads, backups plus point-in-time recovery protect data, and private IP keeps it off the Internet.

4. Choosing a Database: Firestore, Bigtable, Spanner, AlloyDB, Memorystore

   Match the data model and scale to the service: Cloud SQL or AlloyDB for relational apps, Spanner for global relational scale, Firestore for documents, Bigtable for huge key-value time series, Memorystore for caching and BigQuery for analytics.

5. Filestore, Memorystore and Moving Data

   Filestore gives VMs and GKE a managed NFS share, and Storage Transfer Service, Transfer Appliance and gcloud storage move data from other clouds and data centers into Google Cloud.