Google adds VM monitoring to Database Center amid enterprise demand

Google has updated its AI-powered database fleet management offering — Database Center — with the capability to monitor self-managed databases running on its own compute virtual machines (VMs).

Several enterprises run their databases, such as PostgreSQL and MySQL, on compute VMs as they offer more flexibility, scalability, and cost-effectiveness when compared to dedicated hardware.

Earlier, enterprises could use the Database Center to only monitor Google-managed databases, including Spanner, AlloyDB, and Bigtable.

This capability, according to Google, is a result of several enterprises demanding support for monitoring self-managed databases to gain full oversight of all their deployed databases.

“This holistic visibility helps identify critical security vulnerabilities, improve security posture, and simplify compliance,” said Charlie Dai, VP and principal analyst at Forrester.

These security vulnerabilities could include outdated minor versions, broad IP access range, having databases without a root password, and having databases that don’t have auditing enabled, Google executives wrote in a blog post.

This capability is currently in preview, and enterprises need to sign up for early access to get access to it.

Google has also added new capabilities to the Database Center, such as alerting for new resources and issues for all the databases, adding Gemini-powered natural language capabilities for folder-level fleet management, and historical fleet comparison up to 30 days.

Google said its alerting for new resources and issues for all databases will allow enterprise users to create custom alerts when new database resources are provisioned and also receive alerts via email, Slack, and Google chat messages for any new issue types detected by Database Center.

This capability will enable proactive monitoring and allow immediate action to enforce governance policies, prevent configuration drift, and mitigate risks before they impact applications, Dai said.

In order to simplify fleet monitoring at scale, Google has added Gemini-powered language capabilities to Database Center at the folder level.

“This means you can now have contextual conversations about your databases within a specific folder, making it easier to manage and troubleshoot databases, especially in large and complex organizational environments,” Google executives wrote in a blog post.

The historical fleet comparison feature for 30 days, on the other hand, can be used by enterprises in capacity planning and the analysis of database fleet health.

Earlier, Google offered a seven-day historical comparison for database inventory and issues, and now it offers three options: 1 day, 7 days, and 30 days.

Enterprises or database administrators can use the fleet comparison feature to get a detailed view of new database inventory and identify new operational, security issues that emerged during the selected period, Google executives wrote.

This should help database administrators in enterprises use data-driven decisions for fleet optimization, Dai said.

Google did not clarify whether the additional capabilities are already available for enterprise users.