What is Cloud Bigtable?

Cloud Bigtable is Google's fully managed, wide-column NoSQL database service for very large analytical and operational workloads. It is the same database that powers Google Search, Google Analytics, Gmail, and Maps. Key characteristics: Petabyte scale: handles trillions of rows. Low-latency reads: sub-10ms for single-row reads. Time-series optimized: designed for time-stamped data like IoT sensor readings and financial market data. HBase compatible: migrate existing HBase workloads. Linear scaling: add nodes for more throughput proportionally. Data model: tables have row keys, column families, and cells with timestamps — no secondary indexes. Row key design is critical for performance. Use Bigtable for IoT, finance (stock tickers), AdTech, and ML feature data. It is not a general-purpose database — use Firestore or Cloud SQL for transactional workloads.