From Bare Metal to Cloud: Optimize Your Databases on Cloud SQL

Providing database management services is essential to meet the needs of mission-critical applications. oXya addresses your challenges with solid experience in Cloud SQL database migration and proactive managed services. Find out more about our best practices.

DB-as-a-Service with Cloud SQL: Operation and Benefits

Transform the way you manage your databases with DB-as-a-Service (DBaaS). Instead of managing the entire technology stack (hardware, operating system, database engine), they can now concentrate on the essential: their data and application development.

Cloud SQL, Google Cloud’s DBaaS solution, supports three popular database families: MySQL, PostgreSQL and Microsoft SQL Server. Cloud SQL represents a practical and robust solution for using databases without having to manage the complexities, offering benefits such as:

• • • Full automated management (installation, updates, backups and scalability)
    • Automatic data backup, allowing recovery in the event of problems
    • Scalability according to your needs, ensuring you have the right resources at all times
    • Integrated security mechanisms, such as encryption and access controls
    • Monitoring with detailed information

Other considerable advantages of Cloud SQL are its resilience (in high availability, HA) and its integration with all other native Google Cloud services.

It is important to note, however, that DBaaS on the cloud involves certain compromises compared to traditional on-premises deployments, including restrictions on configuration control and advanced functionality. Our experts are here to help you weigh up the pros and cons transparently.

oXya Best Practices for Cloud SQL

Best Practice nº 1 – The Ideal Migration Method

Thanks to our extensive experience in database migration to Cloud SQL, oXya can offer you a methodical, tailor-made approach.

The choice of migration method depends on the size, type and location of the database, as well as the type of migration. Whether using Google tools (Database Migration Service, DMS) or a simple restore and backup, we can help you find the solution that will optimize database downtime.

Best Practice nº 2 – Automated and Industrialized Deployment

oXya bases all its cloud deployments on its DevSecOps methodology to follow a set of standards and compliance points. Our teams have automated the deployment process based on Terraform code for Infrastructure-as-Code.

Best Practice nº 3 – Our Managed Services for Cloud SQL: Monitoring and Proactivity

Cloud SQL environments are monitored on two complementary levels:

• • • At OS level, oXya has adapted specific commands for Cloud SQL, in order to integrate them into its monitoring portal on ITSM Cockpit, centralizing alerts, tickets and the various escalations of our customers.
    • At database level, our database management teams created a whole series of SQL commands to enable ITSM Cockpit to detect numerous weak signals and trigger escalations as required.

The other native Google Cloud tools then added to provide a 360-degree view of the database:

• • • Cloud Monitoring for metrics such as CPU and memory usage
    • Query Insights for analyzing query performance
    • Error Reporting for tracking and categorizing errors
    • Logs Explorer to extract detailed logs
    • Cloud SQL Operations for operational aspects such as instance startup and shutdown.

oXya offers this protection to its customers, enabling it to quickly identify the source of problems and be proactive.

Best Practice nº 4 – Optimized Maintenance Management

Cloud SQL maintenance, automatically scheduled by Google, generally lasts between 5 and 10 minutes, and may involve a brief interruption of service. These updates are essential in order to benefit from all the advantages, features and fixes.

To optimize management, oXya has developed an automated scripts that monitor its maintenance windows and sends alerts, enabling to better anticipate them.

This is in addition to database supervision. The aim is to eliminate any blind spots in our customers’ Change Approval Board (CAB), so that they can plan their maintenance properly. This means they can keep an eye on potential maintenance work on Cloud SQL databases.

Best Practice nº 5 – Cost Optimization

oXya offers FinOps controls on Cloud SQL technologies, making it easy to detect and explain any budget deviations. Our aim is to enable you to keep control over your cloud spending.

This may involve scripts that automatically manage shutdowns and relaunches of Cloud SQL instances outside working hours. As this is essentially a pay-as-you-go service, you can reduce your platform costs considerably!

Beyond Automation: Human Expertise

Contrary to popular belief, DBaaS solutions do not operate in total autonomy. In our experience, proper supervision is essential to guarantee optimum performance and control costs, so that you can run your databases with peace of mind.

With oXya’s professional services (for migration, for example) and managed services, you can keep your databases running smoothly and exploit their full potential.