Date: Wed, 24 Feb 2021 00:00:00 +0000
<p><a href="https://twitter.com/markmirch">Mark Mirchandani</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/stephr_wong">Stephanie Wong</a> are back this week as we learn about all the new things happening with Google Cloud Spanner. Our guests this week, Dilraj Kaur and Christoph Bussler, describe Cloud Spanner as a fully managed relational database that boasts unlimited scaling and advanced consistency and availability.</p> <p>Unlimited scaling truly means unlimited, and Chris explains why Cloud Spanner offers this feature and how it’s making database design and development easier. Dilraj and Chris tell us all about the cool new features Spanner has developed, like generated columns and foreign keys, and how customer needs influenced these developments. Chris walks us through the process of using some of these new features, including how developers can monitor their database systems.</p> <p>Managed backups and multi-region configuration are additional recent additions to Cloud Spanner, and our guests explain how these are used by current enterprise clients. Dilraj and Chris explain the automatically managed features of Spanner versus the customer managed features and how people set up and manage database projects. We hear examples of companies using Cloud Spanner and how it has improved their businesses.</p> <h5 id="dilraj-kaur">Dilraj Kaur</h5> <p>Dilraj Kaur is an Enterprise Customer Engineer with specialization in Data Management. She has been with Google for about 2.5 years and is based in Atlanta.</p> <h5 id="christoph-bussler">Christoph Bussler</h5> <p>As a Solutions Architect Chris is focusing on databases, data migration and data integration in enterprise customer settings. See his professional work and background on his <a href="http://real-programmer.com">website</a>.</p> <h5 id="cool-things-of-the-week">Cool things of the week</h5> <ul> <li>New to Google Cloud? Here are a few free trainings to help you get started <a href="https://cloud.google.com/blog/topics/training-certifications/free-resources-to-help-you-get-started-with-google-cloud"> blog</a> <ul> <li>Start your skills challenge today <a href="https://inthecloud.withgoogle.com/google-cloud-skills/register.html"> site</a></li> </ul> </li> <li>Service Directory is generally available: Simplify your service inventory <a href="https://cloud.google.com/blog/products/networking/service-directory-is-ga-and-adds-automatic-service-registration"> blog</a></li> </ul> <h5 id="interview">Interview</h5> <ul> <li>Google Cloud Spanner <a href="https://cloud.google.com/spanner">site</a></li> <li>GCP Podcast Episode 62: Cloud Spanner with Deepti Srivastava <a href="https://www.gcppodcast.com/post/episode-62-cloud-spanner-with-deepti-srivastava/"> podcast</a></li> <li>Using the Cloud Spanner Emulator <a href="https://cloud.google.com/spanner/docs/emulator">docs</a></li> <li>Cloud Spanner Ecosystem <a href="https://cloudspannerecosystem.dev/">site</a></li> <li>Cloud Spanner Qwiklabs <a href="https://www.qwiklabs.com/catalog?keywords=cloud%20spanner">site</a></li> <li>Google Cloud Platform Community On Slack <a href="https://googlecloud-community.slack.com/archives/C49R7DSTH">site</a></li> <li>Creating and managing generated columns <a href="https://cloud.google.com/spanner/docs/generated-column/how-to">docs</a></li> <li>WITH Clause <a href="https://cloud.google.com/spanner/docs/query-syntax?hl=en#with-clause"> docs</a></li> <li>Foreign Keys <a href="https://cloud.google.com/spanner/docs/foreign-keys/overview?hl=en"> docs</a></li> <li>Numeric Data Type <a href="https://cloud.google.com/spanner/docs/data-types?hl=en#numeric_type"> docs</a></li> <li>Information schema <a href="https://cloud.google.com/spanner/docs/information-schema">docs</a></li> <li>Overview of introspection tools <a href="https://cloud.google.com/spanner/docs/introspection">docs</a></li> <li>Backup and Restore <a href="https://cloud.google.com/spanner/docs/backup">docs</a></li> <li>Multi-region configurations <a href="https://cloud.google.com/spanner/docs/instances#configs-multi-region"> docs</a></li> <li>ShareChat: Building a scalable data-driven social network for non-English speakers globally <a href="https://cloud.google.com/customers/sharechat">site</a></li> <li>Blockchain.com: Streamlining infrastructure for the world’s most dynamic financial market <a href="https://cloud.google.com/customers/blockchain">site</a></li> <li>What is Cloud Spanner? <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bUSU1e9j8wc">video</a></li> </ul> <h5 id="what-s-something-cool-you-re-working-on">What’s something cool you’re working on?</h5> <p>Mark has been working on budgeting blog posts, including <a href="https://cloud.google.com/blog/topics/developers-practitioners/protect-your-google-cloud-spending-budgets"> Protect your Google Cloud spending with budgets</a>.</p> <p>Stephanie is working on her <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Amow8BJm5Go">data center animation series</a></p>