Growing Database Operational Requirements
With growing application level and enterprise requirements, firms are either willingly or unwillingly expanding their data capabilities. These include data organization and structure, storage, security and other functional/non-functional requirements like setting up and configuring the data store for fast and efficient data search, retrieval, speedy writes, etc. Apparently, along with a fast growing data store, the resource requirements for a 24/7 available Database Administrator (DBA) team with quick turnaround, solid state-of-the art technologies for data storage, networking and distribution, backup and security have become the integral part of these small to large firms and enterprises.
On the other hand, the above requirements maps to an ever increasing sense of responsibility and accountability, the rising costs for establishing and maintaining such a resource base and infrastructure is causing firms to think in terms of a solution that satisfies their database requirements, but at the same time, is affordable and feasible too. Here comes the role of, and certainly thanks to, Database Outsourcing or Database as a Service (DBaaS).
Database as a Service (DBaaS)
DBaaS is a Database Outsourcing Service that is providing enough and sufficient database resources that is based on Cloud Computing, Storage and Networking infrastructure. These are fully managed services and include all the necessary elements of database implementation like hardware, software, database administration, backups, security and networking. These solutions are highly scalable, robust, topmost uptime guaranteed and with a 24/7 smart support DBA team. The greatest advantage in terms of affordability, especially for SMBs are, you need to pay for what you use, whether it is space, computing, traffic or support. There is no over or under resource allocation and what you get, or what you take is entirely upon your need at the time of allocation, at any point of time. And you can make the decision for allocation and scalability at any point of time, whether it is for an application level upgrade or organizational expansion.
Advantages of Database Outsourcing
1. Rapid or On-Demand Provisioning
It is a matter of minutes, if not seconds, for requesting for more resources and within minutes, you have got what you need. Contrary to in-house database set-ups where lengthy software and hardware purchases, installation, setup and migration is needed, this is the highest advantage and yields you high amount of cost and time savings.
2. High Security
The DBaaS provider takes the entire responsibility for data and hardware security provided your security guidelines like user credential management etc. are strictly followed. Since the system is not in-house but on remote cloud with high security, your data and integrity is highly safe than in-house deployments.
3. Computing and Performance
The cloud based multi-node, cluster based computing engines that is otherwise not possible in an in-house environment, makes the data processing extremely fast and reliable. It also speeds up the front end application performance and turn-around time also, causing increased customer and employee satisfaction.4. Fully Managed Implementations
All aspects of database administration, configuration, troubleshooting, performance optimization, fine tuning, upgrades, backups, recovery/restore etc are fully managed by the provider. You can certainly contribute to the set-up by suggesting your benchmark configurations.
5. 24/7 Monitoring and Support
Your database implementation is part of the higher cloud and the entire application and infrastructure is under full-time monitoring by dedicated DBA support team. Various communication options like telephone, chat, email, support tickets can provide you instant support and troubleshooting assistance without worrying about expertise requirements or levels that are limitations in a traditional in-house deployment.6. Storage and Computing
Due to the high popularity and advancement in cloud technology, cloud storage and computing is cheaper than ever now. You can avail as much as resources that you need without worrying for underlying hardware or system support, since everything is fully managed in the DBaaS providers infrastructure.
7. Scalability
Whether to scale you database to store a 1000 records or 100GB records, it’s a matter of few clicks for scaling top for an increased storage and fast cluster. You can scale up or down according to your needs. Similarly distribution and computing power selection is also highly scalable, since the resources are ready for allocation or re-take from the resource pool.
8. Highly Cost-effective and Economical
Comparing to setting up a similar in-house infrastructure, where there is no on-demand provisioning and scalability is restricted, DBaaS Database Outsourcing is highly affordable and cost-effective for SMBs and large enterprises. There is no high one time investment, rather only instantaneous payments for what you avail of.
To Decide about DBaaS for your Organization
As said earlier, for organizations that scale up or have plans for expansion of operations, resources, domain and budget of projects handling, handling database infrastructure can be a significant effort area that will consume time, resources, space and other issues like upgrade/scalability expenses and possible down times. So it is a wise decision for SMBs and enterprises to look forward for start consuming the benefits of DBaaS and make their database infrastructure grow along with business without much effort and cost as is with traditional deployments.