More than four years after the launch of Amazon RDS, Google can now boast of having a database-as-a-service solution of its own. Released into general availability on Tuesday after an extensive test period, Cloud SQL provides a much-needed relational backbone for applications running on App Engine and GCE.

The service supports databases up to 500 megabytes in size and includes a 99.95 percent uptime guarantee, as well as automatic encryption of all tables, temporary files and traffic on Google’s internal networks. External connections can be also be secured using SSL, and a built-in access control tool allows admins to grant user permissions at the database, table, or column level while limiting which hosts and applications can connect to their instances. Additionally, data is replicated multiple times across different regions and backed up routinely to address the availability concerns that have historically deterred larger organizations from committing to the public cloud.

Despite the Google’s efforts to catch up with Amazon, the infrastructure-as-a-service giant continues to set the pace for the industry. But Chris Kemp, an OpenStack pioneer and the CEO of Nebula, sees this changing as the market matures. He believes the search giant could emerge as a force to be reckoned with in the enterprise if customers continue to push the envelope with new use cases for GCE.

“There’s a different set of opportunities that exist when you bring a cloud into the enterprise, and I don’t think Amazon will see those things,” the entrepreneur said in an interview on theCUBE last month. OpenStack will take the lead in this segment, he predicts, but AWS will still play a central role – albeit not a dominant one. “The Google Compute Engine APIs could be important as we start to see people do incredible things on that platform,” he added, not mentioning Microsoft or other emerging cloud players such as Oracle. The long-time competitors are lagging behind the competition, but seem determined to bridge the competitive gap.

A day after the launch of Google Cloud SQL, Redmond revealed its intentions to add support for Oracle’s database, WebLogic application server and Java programming language to Azure starting March 12. The software have been available on the platform since early last year, but the lack of official certification meant users didn’t have to pay for licenses. Once the update kicks in, Microsoft will charge for “license-included” VMs based on the number of cores in a deployment.

Image source Google