PDE Ingesting and Processing the Data Practice Question
Which Google Cloud service is designed to replicate data from MySQL, PostgreSQL, and Oracle databases to BigQuery or Cloud Storage in near real-time?
Answer choices
Why each option matters
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Datastream
Datastream is a serverless CDC service that ingests change data from relational databases into GCS or BigQuery.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Cloud Data Fusion
Why it's wrong here
Cloud Data Fusion is a codeless data integration and pipeline tool for transformation, not change data capture replication from operational databases. It is tempting as a managed ETL service, but it would be correct for building batch or streaming transformation pipelines, not near real-time replication into BigQuery.
- ✓
Datastream
Why this is correct
Datastream is a serverless change data capture service that streams MySQL, PostgreSQL and Oracle changes into BigQuery or Cloud Storage with low latency. Its native source connectors and near real-time replication match the requirement, unlike batch-oriented transfer or replication tools.
- ✗
Dataflow
Why it's wrong here
Dataflow is a managed Apache Beam runner for stream and batch processing, requiring you to build the pipeline rather than providing native database replication. It is tempting for its streaming capability, but it is correct when writing custom transformation logic, not turnkey CDC from MySQL, PostgreSQL or Oracle.
- ✗
Pub/Sub
Why it's wrong here
Pub/Sub is an asynchronous messaging service for event ingestion and delivery, not a database replication mechanism. It is tempting because it handles real-time streams, but it is correct for decoupling publishers and subscribers, not capturing and replicating changes from MySQL, PostgreSQL or Oracle into BigQuery.
Quick reference
Cloud Service Model Comparison
| Model | You Manage | Provider Manages | Examples |
|---|---|---|---|
| IaaS | OS, runtime, apps, data | Hardware, hypervisor, networking | EC2, Azure VMs, GCP Compute Engine |
| PaaS | Apps and data | OS, runtime, middleware, hardware | Elastic Beanstalk, Azure App Service |
| SaaS | Data and settings only | Everything else | Microsoft 365, Salesforce, Workday |
| FaaS / Serverless | Function code only | Infra, scaling, runtime | Lambda, Azure Functions, Cloud Run |
| CaaS | Containers and apps | Kubernetes, OS, hardware | EKS, AKS, GKE |
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