Google Cloud SQL vs Percona Monitoring and Management

Google Cloud SQL is a managed cloud service for relational databases, supporting MySQL, PostgreSQL, and SQL Server. It provides automated backups, high availability, read replicas, scaling, and point-in-time restoration; retention can extend to 35 days. Database Migration Service can move databases from on-premises systems, Compute Engine, or other clouds, and lift-and-shift migrations to Cloud SQL are available at no additional charge. The service connects with Google Cloud products including Compute Engine, Cloud Run, Google Kubernetes Engine, Cloud IAM, BigQuery, and Datastream, as well as tools such as Looker and Terraform. It encrypts data in transit on Google’s internal networks and at rest, and supports private VPC connectivity and network firewalls. The dedicated trial provides PostgreSQL and MySQL Enterprise Plus instances for 30 days, with no automatic charge, followed by a 90-day stopped state. Cloud SQL is paid, from $0.04; there is no free plan. MySQL use is limited to the InnoDB storage engine.

Percona Monitoring and Management (PMM) is a free, open source tool for monitoring, managing, and observing databases and the servers they use. It covers MySQL, PostgreSQL, MongoDB, and deployments across on-premises, cloud, and hybrid environments. Dashboards, configuration insight, and Query Analytics support monitoring; Query Analytics ranks queries by load and provides anomaly investigation, explain plans, and customizable dashboards. Percona Advisors scan MySQL, MongoDB, and PostgreSQL databases for security gaps, misconfigurations, and performance problems, then offer recommendations. PMM includes backup and restore for MongoDB and MySQL, with scheduled or on-demand backups and point-in-time recovery. Percona Alerting is described as supporting more than 15 notification channels. Deployment options include Docker, Podman, a virtual appliance, Kubernetes or OpenShift via Helm, and an AWS Marketplace instance. PMM Server has a browser-accessible interface; its documented Docker setup recommends at least 2 CPU cores, 4 GB RAM, and 100 GB disk, and requires x86-64-v2 CPU support. PMM Client connections to the server use TLS over HTTPS.