Cloud Database

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What is a Cloud Database?

A cloud database is a type of database that is hosted and managed on a cloud computing platform. Unlike traditional databases that are stored on-premises, cloud databases are accessed online, allowing businesses to retrieve their data from anywhere in the world. Additionally, cloud databases offer scalability, enabling organizations to adjust their storage and processing resources as needed.

Cloud databases are managed by cloud service providers or vendors, eliminating the need for organizations to invest in their own infrastructure. In contrast, traditional databases require dedicated hardware and software and are managed by the organization’s IT department. This can be costly and time-consuming to maintain, while cloud databases offer a more convenient and cost-effective solution.

Cloud databases have several key attributes that make them a popular choice for businesses:

• They allow businesses to host databases without the need to purchase specialized hardware.
• Cloud databases can be self-managed or provided as a service (DBaaS) and managed by the cloud service provider or third party vendors.  Note* This content primarily centers on DBaaS instead of self-managed databases.
• They support both relational databases (such as MySQL and PostgreSQL) and NoSQL databases (including MongoDB and Apache CouchDB).
• Cloud databases can be accessed through a web interface or vendor-supplied API.

Cloud Database Models

Cloud databases offer two deployment models: traditional self-management and managed database as a service (DBaaS).

Traditional self-managed cloud databases: In this deployment model, the cloud database is self-deployed and hosted on one or more virtual machines, giving organizations more control over their database. 

Managed database service: In this model, the cloud service provider or vendor is responsible for most of the operational, maintenance, and administrative tasks, such as automatic provisioning, scaling, security, updates, and health monitoring. This approach allows organizations to focus on using their database to drive business objectives rather than managing the underlying technology.

Advantages of Cloud Databases

Cloud databases offer several benefits over traditional on-premises databases. Here are some of the key advantages:

Scalability: With increased traffic and the requirement for redundancy, on-premises databases may strain a company’s resources to grow infrastructure along with demand. Hardware, IT staff, and energy expenditures are factors. The more simplified scalability of cloud databases removes this potential burden. Theoretically, there are no boundaries to a cloud database’s scalability. 

Accessibility: The accessibility of cloud databases offers advantages to that of on-premises systems, especially for enterprises operating in several countries. If your cloud databases allow synchronization, your IT team can access data from anywhere with an internet connection. Moreover, it helps streamline application development; cloud databases enable your team to build and delete databases as required throughout the development phase. This advantage decreases complexity and speeds up the time required to bring new applications to market.

Cost-effectiveness: Cost for cloud-based database systems varies based on the cloud service provider. Price methods include subscription pricing, in which customers pay the same amount each month, pay-per-use pricing, in which you only pay for what you use and hybrid pricing, which incorporates features of the subscription and pay-per-use pricing models. By using cloud databases, companies can avoid the upfront costs of purchasing and maintaining hardware and software for local server installations. Additionally, they can avoid the ongoing costs of hiring and training in-house IT staff to manage these systems. Outsourcing storage to a cloud provider can also potentially save costs, as cloud providers can often offer storage at a lower cost than it would be to purchase and maintain the same amount of storage locally. However, it’s important to note that the cost-effectiveness of cloud databases depends on a variety of factors, including the specific needs of the company, the size and complexity of the database, and the pricing model chosen.

Backup and recovery: Disaster recovery is a set of procedures or actions taken by database administrators to restore data after an unexpected event. Cloud databases, including both NoSQL and traditional SQL databases, offer various backup and recovery options.. While cloud database vendors typically provide backup and recovery solutions, it’s still important for businesses to have their own disaster recovery plans in place to ensure business continuity in the event of a disaster.

High Availability: Managed databases generally offer data replication, and data redundancy across multiple data centers or regions.  This allows systems to remain fully operational and accessible to users even if network disruptions, hardware or software issues occur. DBaaS providers often have multiple copies of the database running across different servers or nodes in addition to means to distribute traffic among database instances.

Disadvantages of Cloud Databases

While cloud databases offer several advantages, there are also some disadvantages that can occur with some DBaaS providers:

Latency

Cloud latency refers to the time it takes for a cloud service provider to respond to a client’s request. In cloud computing, cloud service latency is a critical issue, particularly given the exponential growth of data creation and linked devices. The time it takes for data to travel to cloud hosting centers for computing operations and back to the client side can impact cloud computing performance. That’s why having a DBaaS provider that knows how to achieve low latency through geo specific deployments is of the utmost importance when hosting a database in the cloud.

Related resource: How to Reduce Latency and Minimize Outages

White paper: Latency is the New Outage

Vendor lock-in

Vendor lock-in is a potential issue in which an organization becomes too reliant on a specific cloud service provider and faces difficulty migrating its infrastructure to a different provider.

Cloud Database Implementation

How to Choose a Cloud Database

Choosing a cloud database can be challenging, as many options are available with different features and pricing structures. Here are some factors to consider when choosing a cloud database:

• Performance: A database with managed scalability guarantees that your organization’s workload and requirements are always satisfied. However, the performance of a cloud database also depends on several other factors, such as network latency, database design, and query optimization.
• Automated Services: Automated services and online performance optimization are crucial components for ensuring that everything operates well.Auto Scaling: Auto-scaling, which enables the database to automatically adjust its resources to meet demand. It is worth noting, automated services may also incur additional costs and may not always be suitable for all workloads.
• Security: When selecting a cloud database, data encryption (at risk and in transit), and automatic security upgrades are necessary to protect against data breaches and unauthorized access. However, data security is not only the responsibility of the cloud database provider but also of the customer, who should assess the possibilities that the service offers: saml, RBAC, logs, audit, encryption, etc.
• Compatibility and Integrations: Compatibility ensures that your apps can seamlessly integrate with the cloud database as well as providing improved performance for customers. Incompatible technologies can lead to slower response times, increased latency, and decreased reliability. Database compatibility is a means of avoiding major changes to existing infrastructure and cost savings by limiting the need for extensive customization and reconfiguration.   
• Hardware Isolation: For mission-critical applications, a specialized cloud infrastructure with hardware that is segregated from other tenants is recommended. 
• Backup: To avoid data loss in the event of a catastrophe, the cloud database provider should provide frequent backups of the stored data in different geographically dispersed locations. 
• High Availability: HA can be implemented in multiple ways. It is important to consider a cloud database provider that offers a primary instance and a standby instance to ensure uninterrupted operations in the event of infrastructure failure or disaster. This configuration, known as high availability, helps guarantee the availability of your data and applications.
• Support: Cloud database technology can be complex, and issues can arise that require the expertise of the vendor’s support team. Support can include troubleshooting, bug fixes, and general assistance with configuration and optimization of your cloud database. Having reliable and responsive support is especially important when your business is reliant on the cloud database for critical operations.
• Hybrid deployment possibilities: A hybrid deployment model allows you to use both public cloud and on-premise infrastructure which allows you to potentially leverage the benefits of both. By having the option of a hybrid deployment model, you can avoid vendor lock-in and choose the best environment for your specific needs. This can also help you optimize costs by allowing you to choose the most cost-effective environment for each workload.
• Cost: It is important to consider that things like the type of service e.g. managed, self-managed, or fully-managed, your deployment model, performance requirements, support, and licensing can all impact cost. It is important to have a cloud service provider that can offer you the service you need and a price that suits your budget

Best Practices for Using Cloud Databases

Cloud databases can offer many benefits to organizations, but it’s important to follow best practices to ensure that they are used effectively and securely. Here are some key practices to keep in mind:

• Develop a cloud data management strategy: Before migrating any organizational resources to the cloud, it’s important to create a strategy that fits the organization’s needs. A cloud data management strategy should cover all aspects of data management, including performance, efficiency, security, privacy, and analysis.
• Use identity and access management (IAM): IAM helps prevent unauthorized access to sensitive data by managing user roles and access levels.
• Implement security measures: Make sure your cloud database provider follows industry standard best practices and has appropriate security certifications.
• Plan to scale: Keeping future growth in mind and ensuring that your database provider can scale up or down depending on demands.
• Use a multi-region deployment: As stated earlier, a good DBaaS provider will be able to reduce latency and ensure high availability by distributing your database across multiple regions or availability zones.

By following these best practices, organizations can effectively develop, monitor, and manage their cloud database infrastructure. They can ensure that their data is secure, efficiently managed, and supports their business needs.