Managed Databases (PAAS) is my favorite thing, so in 2010 I was hooked-up with Azure SQL DB: Let the cloud provider be responsible for everything, including backups, including restores, including OS upgrades, and so on.
Microsoft has the advantage
The main product of the pack is of course SQL Server, which has been through a well-deserved face-lift in the world of databases and is an efficient, well-sold and stable product, to which Microsoft has added managed versions of MySQL, Postgress and more.
In addition, Amazon has long begun to provide managed databases in a product called RDS, starting with MySQL, Oracle, postgres and SQL Server.
Of course, Google has also come into the market, offering about 3 managed database products in their cloud, known as GCP under the title Cloud SQL.
If you log into SQL on Google's portal, here's what you'll see:
3 types of databases are offered for sale:
In our case, of course, we shall select SQL Server.
Once selected, a configuration screen will pop up:
One must select a machine name, password, and location of the relevant data centre, and then you will have 6 sub-screens for changes and settings such as machine type and storage.
Take note of the proposed SQL versions (unlike the Azure SQL DB where the cloud provider is doing the upgrades - here you need to choose a version. Currently, there is only SQL Server 2017).
Next we choose how much CPU, how much RAM, and how much storage will be connected to the machine: it's impossible to change the location of files, etc.
If you choose custom, you can choose different combinations:
Over the following articles, we will discuss connections, maintenance and the like. If everything is checked, a server (Linux-based), with DB on it, will be created.
On Google's portal it looks like this (all parameters + some nice graphs):
Note that in SSMS, it appears with a nice little penguin icon :-)
In the following articles, we will go over the continued configurations, like backups, costs, etc., and we will also review performances.
