Migrating Oracle Workloads to Google Cloud - PostgreSQL on Cloud SQL or GCE

2 min read

Dec 14, 2020 12:00:00 AM

When working with clients on database migration, there are a range of options we help them assess and evaluate. These include:

Bare Metal Solution (BMS)
PostgreSQL
1. On Cloud SQL
2. On GCE (Google Compute Engine)
Cloud Spanner

Some organizations choose BMS because of its stability, durability and reliability. Others will go with Cloud Spanner for its high availability, consistency and scalability. Of course, PostgreSQL — either on Cloud SQL or on GCE — is an option, and the one we’ll be discussing today.

PostgreSQL on Cloud SQL

If you’re looking to reduce licensing and maintenance costs while keeping your core application code, you should consider Cloud SQL for PostgreSQL. This fully managed relational database service enables you to set up, maintain, manage and administer PostgreSQL relational databases on Google Cloud. Because Cloud SQL for PostgreSQL provides out-of-the-box high availability, replication, encryption and automatic storage increases, establishing a managed PostgreSQL database could be an appealing solution for organizations looking to deploy their PostgreSQL workloads after migrating from Oracle. Important steps and considerations in a successful Oracle database migration to Cloud SQL for PostgreSQL include:

Assessment and discovery – feature usage detection, database configuration.
Success criteria – data validation, performance and application tests.
Environment setup – schema conversion, deployment to target.
Data migration – one-time load, real-time, change data capture.
Migration validation – application QA (quality assurance), database query validation and performance.
Rollback strategy

When considering a move to Cloud SQL for PostgreSQL you can anticipate the following pros and cons: Benefits:

Consolidate vendor support by shifting to Google who can also manage the entire underlying stack.
Reduce TCO of database deployments.
Adopt open-source and cloud native database technologies.
Modernize database architecture.

Challenges:

Schema conversion.
Real-time data migration through change data capture (CDC).
Eliminating vendor lock-in caused by proprietary features.
Application support.

PostgreSQL on GCE

In certain situations, PostgreSQL on GCE may be a better choice than PostgreSQL on Cloud SQL. For organizations where high availability and seamless upgrades are business-critical necessities, PostgreSQL on GCE could be the way to go. As with all such options and decisions, Pythian experts are available to assess your particular situation and offer the advice and recommendations tailored for your business needs. Because our certified service professionals have decades of experience working with Oracle, Google Cloud, PostgreSQL and all related technologies, we can help you confirm the direction that’s best for you. We can then apply our expertise to help engineer the optimal solution for your business; mitigating the risks of migration while maximizing throughput. Our proven approach to migration lets you transform your Oracle workloads with complete confidence. Ready to start a conversation? Email us at googlecloud@pythian.com for more information. Don’t miss our posts which look more in-depth at BMS and Cloud Spanner. To review the information about all your Google Cloud migration options in one handy document, please download our “Migrating Oracle Workloads to Google Cloud” white paper.

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