Google Cloud Computing Foundation Course - Week 7 Lecture Notes Summary

1. Cloud Datastore: NoSQL Document Store (Lecture 33)

• Overview:
• A highly scalable, schema-less NoSQL database ideal for web and mobile development.
• Allows flexible data storage without requiring a predefined schema, suitable for
evolving applications.
• Advantages:
• No need for complex database changes when adding new properties.
• Uses Google Query Language (GQL), a SQL-like language for easy querying.
• Automatically scales to handle millions of requests per second and terabytes of data.
• Scalability and Management:
• Cloud Datastore is fully managed, automatically handling sharding, replication, and
ensuring high availability.
• It supports high-speed queries even with large datasets, maintaining high performance.
• Use Cases:
• Suitable for user profiles, game profiles, product catalogs, and storing real-time
inventory.
• Supports ACID transactions, making it a reliable choice for recording financial or
transactional data.

2. Cloud Bigtable: NoSQL Option (Lecture 34)

• Overview:
• A high-performance NoSQL database optimized for large-scale analytical workloads,
including time-series data, financial data analysis, IoT, and graph data.
• It supports petabyte-scale datasets with minimal latency.
• History and Impact:
• Originally developed by Google, Cloud Bigtable was pivotal in the creation of the
NoSQL industry.
• It provides real-time access to massive datasets and has influenced many modern
NoSQL databases.
• Performance:
• Bigtable automatically scales to billions of rows and thousands of columns with very
low latency.
• Ideal for high-load applications requiring efficient data processing and low-latency
access.
• Compatibility and Security:
• Compatible with industry-standard tools such as Hadoop, BigQuery, HBase, and Cloud
Dataflow.
• Fully managed with built-in encryption, disaster recovery, and replication for high
availability.
 • Use Cases:
• Effective for real-time analytics, IoT sensor data tracking, and high-throughput
applications.
• Integration with other GCP services enhances its utility in diverse applications.

3. Cloud Storage and Database Solutions (Lecture 35)

• Key Storage Use Cases:
• Cloud storage is categorized for different use cases: content delivery, data analytics,
general compute, and archival storage.
• Different storage classes (Multi-regional, Regional, Nearline, Coldline) vary based on
data access frequency and cost.
• Relational Database Services:
• Cloud SQL offers a fully managed service for MySQL and PostgreSQL databases,
ensuring ease of setup, maintenance, and scalability.
• Cloud Spanner combines relational database structure with horizontal scalability, making
it suitable for large-scale applications.
• NoSQL Solutions:
• Cloud Datastore excels in scenarios where rapid and flexible development is needed.
• Cloud Bigtable is best for applications requiring extensive throughput and analytical
capabilities.

4. APIs and Managed Services (Lecture 36)

• Introduction to APIs:
• REST APIs are the most commonly used interface for cloud services, allowing for
distributed and managed interactions between systems.
• Cloud Endpoints and Apigee provide management solutions for deploying and
maintaining APIs.
• Cloud Pub/Sub:
• A managed messaging service that facilitates asynchronous communication between
systems, ensuring reliable message delivery at scale.
• Use cases include event-driven architectures and real-time analytics.

Questions with Answers

1. Q: What is Cloud Datastore, and what type of data is it best suited for? A: Cloud Datastore
is a schema-less NoSQL document store ideal for non-relational data and rapid development,
such as user profiles and product catalogs.
2. Q: How does Cloud Datastore support scalability and performance? A: It automatically scales
to handle millions of requests per second and manages sharding and replication to maintain high
availability and performance.
3. Q: What are the benefits of using Google Query Language (GQL) with Cloud Datastore?
A: GQL uses SQL-like syntax, making it easy to learn and allowing for complex querying
 capabilities in Cloud Datastore.
4. Q: What is Cloud Bigtable, and what are its primary use cases? A: Cloud Bigtable is a
NoSQL database optimized for large-scale analytics and operational workloads, such as IoT
data, financial analysis, and time-series data.
5. Q: How does Cloud Bigtable achieve high performance with large datasets? A: It scales to
billions of rows with low latency, ensuring efficient access to vast amounts of data without
performance degradation.
6. Q: What industry-standard tools are compatible with Cloud Bigtable? A: Cloud Bigtable is
compatible with Hadoop, HBase, BigQuery, Cloud Dataflow, and other GCP services, ensuring
seamless integration.
7. Q: Describe the security measures implemented in Cloud Bigtable. A: Cloud Bigtable
encrypts data both in-flight and at rest, with access control managed through Cloud IAM
permissions.
8. Q: What are the key storage classes in Google Cloud, and how do they differ? A: The
storage classes include Multi-regional, Regional, Nearline, and Coldline, each differing in terms
of access frequency and cost efficiency.
9. Q: What is Cloud SQL, and what are its main benefits? A: Cloud SQL is a fully-managed
relational database service for MySQL and PostgreSQL, simplifying database administration,
backups, and scalability.
10.Q: How does Cloud Spanner combine relational and non-relational database features? A:
Cloud Spanner combines the relational structure with horizontal scalability, offering the benefits
of ACID transactions with non-relational database scale.
11.Q: What are the primary differences between Cloud Datastore and Cloud Bigtable? A:
Cloud Datastore is schema-less and ideal for flexible development, while Cloud Bigtable is
optimized for large-scale analytics with very low latency.
12.Q: Explain how Cloud Datastore supports ACID transactions. A: Cloud Datastore ensures
data consistency and reliability through ACID transactions, making it suitable for critical
operations like financial transactions.
13.Q: In what scenarios would Cloud Datastore be the best choice for database management?
A: Cloud Datastore is ideal for evolving applications with changing data requirements, such as
user profiles or mobile game data.
14.Q: What challenges does Cloud Bigtable solve for high-throughput workloads? A: It offers
low-latency access to massive datasets, enabling real-time analytics and supporting billions of
rows across thousands of columns.
15.Q: How does Cloud Bigtable ensure disaster recovery and high availability? A: Cloud
Bigtable provides replication across data centers and automatic backups to protect against data
loss and ensure availability.
16.Q: What is the primary function of Cloud Pub/Sub in Google Cloud? A: Cloud Pub/Sub is
a managed messaging service that allows systems to communicate asynchronously, handling
large volumes of real-time messages.
17.Q: Describe the benefits of using REST APIs with GCP services. A: REST APIs allow for
distributed, scalable interaction between services and applications, simplifying the integration of
GCP services into cloud-native applications.
18.Q: How does Cloud Datastore handle changes to the data schema? A: Cloud Datastore does
not require predefined schemas, allowing for flexible and dynamic changes to the data structure
as applications evolve.
19.Q: What are the advantages of Cloud Endpoints for API management? A: Cloud Endpoints
provides distributed API management, ensuring secure, scalable, and monitored API operations.
20.Q: How does Cloud Spanner ensure strong consistency across distributed regions? A: It
uses synchronous replication across multiple nodes and regions, maintaining strong consistency
in real-time.
21.Q: What is the relationship between Cloud Bigtable and HBase? A: Cloud Bigtable is
compatible with HBase, allowing users to leverage familiar tools and frameworks for
processing large-scale data.
22.Q: How does Cloud Datastore ensure high availability and durability? A: It automatically
handles data replication across multiple data centers, ensuring that the database remains highly
available and durable.
23.Q: Why is Cloud Bigtable considered ideal for IoT applications? A: Cloud Bigtable can
efficiently store and process large volumes of time-series data generated by IoT devices,
supporting real-time data access.
24.Q: What are the benefits of using Apigee for API management? A: Apigee allows for the
development and management of API proxies, enabling secure, scalable, and easily maintained
APIs for cloud-based applications.
25.Q: How does Cloud SQL differ from Cloud Bigtable? A: Cloud SQL is a relational database
service for structured data and transactions, while Cloud Bigtable is a NoSQL database
optimized for large-scale analytics.
26.Q: What role does Cloud Dataflow play in processing data for Cloud Bigtable? A: Cloud
Dataflow enables both batch and stream processing, allowing data to be written to or read from
Cloud Bigtable in real-time or in large batches.
27.Q: How does Cloud Bigtable handle scaling as workloads increase? A: Cloud Bigtable
scales linearly with increasing nodes, allowing for consistent performance as query and data
volumes grow.
28.Q: In which scenario would Cloud Pub/Sub be preferred over traditional messaging
systems? A: Cloud Pub/Sub is preferred for distributed, event-driven architectures requiring
asynchronous communication and large-scale message handling.
29.Q: Explain how Cloud Bigtable supports real-time analytics applications. A: Cloud
Bigtable provides low-latency access to massive datasets, making it ideal for applications
requiring real-time data processing and insights.
30.Q: How does Cloud Datastore support web and mobile development? A: Its flexibility,
scalability, and schema-less design make Cloud Datastore an ideal backend for web and mobile
applications with rapidly changing data structures.