Google Cloud's globally distributed database that combines the benefits of relational databases with horizontal scaling. Like having a database that works like a local one but can handle global-scale traffic.
A global financial services company uses Cloud Spanner to handle millions of transactions worldwide with strong consistency.
Cloud Spanner is a globally distributed, strongly consistent relational database with horizontal scaling. No single AWS/Azure/OCI service matches all of Spanner’s traits (global strong consistency + relational SQL + horizontal scale). Common alternatives are Aurora (high-performance relational, typically regional with optional global read replicas), Azure SQL Database (managed SQL, scaling options but global distribution differs), and Oracle Autonomous Database (managed Oracle with scaling/HA; global distribution model differs).