--- title: Spanner Omni Reaches GA, Replacing Google's Atomic... description: Google's Spanner Omni, a deploy-anywhere version of its distributed SQL database, has reached general availability, running on customer data centers, other... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/spanner-omni-reaches-ga-replacing-google-s-atomic-clocks-and-file-system-with-software-olkzqb65q twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Spanner Omni Reaches GA, Replacing Google's Atomic Clocks and File System with Software | daily.dev og:description: Google's Spanner Omni, a deploy-anywhere version of its distributed SQL database, has reached general availability, running on customer data centers, other... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/spanner-omni-reaches-ga-replacing-google-s-atomic-clocks-and-file-system-with-software-olkzqb65q og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/OLkzQb65Q.png og:image:alt: Spanner Omni Reaches GA, Replacing Google's Atomic Clocks and File System with Software og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Spanner Omni Reaches GA, Replacing Google's Atomic Clocks and File System with Software **[InfoQ](https://daily.dev/sources/infoq)** · 5 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary Google's Spanner Omni, a deploy-anywhere version of its distributed SQL database, has reached general availability, running on customer data centers, other clouds (Google Cloud and Amazon, not Azure), or even a laptop. To get Spanner off Google's own infrastructure, the team replaced Colossus (the distributed file system) with a Colossus-like software abstraction layer, and TrueTime (atomic clock and GPS-based clock synchronization) with a software-based alternative that tolerates weaker uncertainty bounds. Paxos consensus, sharding, and synchronous replication carry over unchanged. Notably, there is no availability SLA; Google instead offers reference topologies (single-server, single-zone, multi-zone, multi-cluster). Practitioners like Carlos Pérez Martín (CTO, Q2BSTUDIO) frame the real change as operational rather than architectural: failure domains, patching, and compliance burdens now belong to the customer. GA adds TLS, auth, audit logging, backup/restore, and worker nodes. Licensing includes a free Developer Edition (90-day default, with an always-free small single-server tier) and an unpriced vCPU-based Commercial Edition. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### What replaced Colossus and TrueTime in Spanner Omni so it can run outside Google's data centers? Colossus, Google's distributed file system, was replaced with a Colossus-like abstraction layer that writes to attached local file systems and makes them network-available with automatic shard splitting and rebalancing. TrueTime, the atomic-clock and GPS-based clock service, was replaced with a software-based time synchronization method that works because Spanner already overlaps time-uncertainty waits with other work, tolerating weaker uncertainty bounds. _daily.dev readers weighing self-hosted versus managed Spanner can track releases like Omni as the trade-offs evolve._ ### Does Spanner Omni come with an availability SLA like managed Spanner? No, Spanner Omni has no availability SLA because it runs on customer-managed infrastructure rather than Google's own. Instead, Google documents reference topologies meant to achieve comparable high availability: single-server (downtime during upgrades), single-zone with at least three servers, multi-zone with at least three zones of three servers each, and multi-cluster spanning three zones across two or more clusters. _Teams scoping self-managed database reliability can follow how daily.dev covers evolving distributed-database guidance._ ### What licensing options does Spanner Omni offer and what are the limits of the free tier? Spanner Omni has a free Developer Edition for non-production use with a 90-day default license that excludes backups and worker nodes, though a single-server deployment of 4 vCPUs or fewer never expires and includes backup and restore; extending past 90 days requires submitting a Google form. The Commercial Edition is an annual vCPU-based subscription with no published price. _Engineers comparing database licensing models can keep tabs on pricing shifts like this one via daily.dev._ ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Introducing Spanner Omni](https://daily.dev/posts/introducing-spanner-omni-e8u1cpbkm) · Google Cloud · 2 upvotes · 0 comments - [Google Cloud Blog](https://daily.dev/posts/google-cloud-blog-trihfu0x6) · Google Cloud · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#database](https://daily.dev/tags/database), [#gcp](https://daily.dev/tags/gcp), [#hybrid-cloud](https://daily.dev/tags/hybrid-cloud), [#spanner](https://daily.dev/tags/spanner) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/spanner-omni-reaches-ga-replacing-google-s-atomic-clocks-and-file-system-with-software-olkzqb65q) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"Spanner Omni Reaches GA, Replacing Google's Atomic Clocks and File System with Software","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/spanner-omni-reaches-ga-replacing-google-s-atomic-clocks-and-file-system-with-software-olkzqb65q","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/spanner-omni-reaches-ga-replacing-google-s-atomic-clocks-and-file-system-with-software-olkzqb65q"},"datePublished":"2026-10-07T04:55:39.232Z","dateModified":"2026-10-07T04:56:40.784Z","description":"Google's Spanner Omni, a deploy-anywhere version of its distributed SQL database, has reached general availability, running on customer data centers, other...","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/cc434679d8fba19ecf905e06c828f164?_a=AQAEuop","thumbnailUrl":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/cc434679d8fba19ecf905e06c828f164?_a=AQAEuop","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"InfoQ","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"InfoQ","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/t_logo,f_auto/v1/logos/afc3bced3e1e4b188dd9127017a60e0c","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/infoq"},"commentCount":0,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/spanner-omni-reaches-ga-replacing-google-s-atomic-clocks-and-file-system-with-software-olkzqb65q","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":0},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":0}],"keywords":"database,gcp,hybrid-cloud,spanner","timeRequired":"PT5M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"InfoQ","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/infoq"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Spanner Omni Reaches GA, Replacing Google's Atomic Clocks and File System with Software"}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"FAQPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/spanner-omni-reaches-ga-replacing-google-s-atomic-clocks-and-file-system-with-software-olkzqb65q#faq","mainEntity":[{"@type":"Question","name":"What replaced Colossus and TrueTime in Spanner Omni so it can run outside Google's data centers?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"Colossus, Google's distributed file system, was replaced with a Colossus-like abstraction layer that writes to attached local file systems and makes them network-available with automatic shard splitting and rebalancing. 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