Cloud Database Comparison: MariaDB vs. Google Cloud SQL

No more compromises

SkySQL is a cloud database service without the usual cloud compromises. It makes running MySQL-compatible databases in Google Cloud easy, but unlike Google Cloud SQL, it doesn’t impose artificial limitations and downtime in the name of automation. It takes advantage of powerful database features rather than removing them for simplicity, and because it deploys the same enterprise open source database platform as on premises customers, it doesn’t have to implement missing features (e.g., high availability) with subpar, inefficient and proprietary infrastructure solutions.

Optimized for Google Cloud

SkySQL takes full advantage of the infrastructure and services provided by GCP to provide customers with the best security, high availability and performance available in the cloud, leveraging the Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) for orchestration, Persistent Disks for durability and Google Cloud Storage (GCS) for recovery and analytics.

Google Cloud logo

Google Kubernetes Engine

SkySQL databases are deployed to GKE regional clusters via an advanced Kubernetes operator, providing enterprise customers with maximum security and high availability.

Google Persistent Disks

SkySQL transactional databases use SSD persistent disks for maximum performance and durability, enabling the SkySQL operator to automatically recover failed instances.

Google Cloud Storage

SkySQL analytical databases use parallel processing to query data stored in a columnar format on GCS, lowering the storage costs of large data warehouses in the cloud.

Key benefits over Google Cloud SQL

Unlimited scalability

Deploy distributed SQL databases for unlimited read, write and storage – scale out when needed, as far as needed.

Controlled upgrades

Decide when to upgrade (or not), and eliminate the random disruption caused by automatic minor upgrades.

Managed maintenance

Delay database maintenance as long as needed, and request a SkyDBA to perform scheduled, zero-downtime operations.

Continuous availability

Eliminate downtime during automatic failover – connections remain open and all in-flight transactions are completed.

Easier development

Use a single connection with built-in read/write splitting and load balancing to simplify data access and reduce code.

Integrated analytics

Launch hybrid transactional/analytical databases with row + columnar storage to build applications with real-time insight.

Cloud SQL + BigQuery + Spanner

SkySQL can deploy standard transactional databases like Google Cloud SQL, data warehouses like Google BigQuery and distributed SQL databases like Google Spanner – all with the click of a button. However, unlike the disparate technologies used by Google Cloud for its database and data analytics services, all SkySQL databases and data warehouses are powered by MariaDB Platform, a multi-purpose database with optional distributed SQL and columnar storage engines. As a result, all transactional, analytical and hybrid transactional/analytical applications can use MySQL-compatible clients and standard SQL.

Diagram of MariaDB Enterprise Server for transactional, analytical, and hybrid (HTAP) workloads

SkySQL advantages and innovation

SkySQL brings the advanced capabilities of MariaDB Platform to the cloud, going above and beyond Google Cloud SQL with the world’s most powerful open source (and MySQL-compatible) database – adding distributed SQL for scaling reads, writes and storage, extending automatic failover with transaction replay for continuous availability, combining row and columnar storage for hybrid transactions/analytics and implementing both standard SQL and Oracle PL/SQL.

	Cloud SQL	SkySQL
Multi-cloud	No	Yes
Distributed SQL	No	Yes
Multi-master clustering	No	Yes
Row and columnar storage	No	Yes
Transaction replay	No	Yes
Session restore	No	Yes
Connection migration	No	Yes
Read/writes splitting	No	Yes
Load balancing	No	Yes
Custom configuration templates	No	Yes
Sequences	No	Yes
Oracle Database compatibility	No	Yes
Temporal tables	No	Yes

SkySQL Resources

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SkySQL vs. Google Cloud SQL