This article highlights the motivating factors behind adopting cloud database services, along with the most important things to think about prior to making your decision:
- Control Over Database Configuration
- Overhead (Maintenance, Operations, etc)
- Continuity Between On-Premises and Cloud (Both Technical and Business)
- Level of Support and Expertise
After reading this overview, you can watch the full conversation here!
Why cloud database services?
It’s no secret that everyone is moving to the cloud, and fast. Industry analysts like Deloitte shared with EDB in 2020 that, while they’d seen technology spending mostly decrease, spending on cloud resources was increasing.
Part of this is due to the changing working conditions of the last two years, but to attribute the interest in cloud database services solely to the pandemic would downplay why they’re so appealing.
The cloud offers:
- scalability to ensure your database grows with your business
- agility to build and deploy your apps with ease and speed
- resource efficiency to provide access to a range of tools and support options
- maintenance and recovery automations to protect your most valuable assets
Just to name a few.
In short, the pull of the cloud is that it allows you to do more by doing less.
Building your cloud strategy
Once you’ve decided to move to the cloud, your next step is determining what your environment will look like. In most cases, it won’t just consist of one element. You might opt for:
- Private cloud
- Public cloud
- Hybrid
- Multi-cloud
Because these environments tend to be complex, it’s essential to find a solution that will allow you to seamlessly connect, integrate, and manage all of the components of your database management strategy (DBMS), eliminating redundancy and maximizing efficiency.
Consider the following:
Consideration #1: Control over database configuration
When choosing your solution, be it software-as-a-service (SaaS), infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS), or platform-as-a-service, you’ll have to figure out what in your environment you wanted automated or handled by your service provider (CSP) and what you want to govern yourself. Different solutions offer different levels of control and support.
This will affect how you build your apps, how you construct your cloud architecture, and how you manage your environment as a whole. It’s here where you see the biggest differences between IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS, which offer varying levels of what the provider controls—from least to most, in that order.
Consideration #2: Overhead (maintenance, operations, etc) management
The level of management provided by a given solution doesn’t just dictate what you can do. Just as importantly, it dictates what you have to do.
The less your cloud database provider handles, the more the responsibility to keep things running falls into your lap. One of the biggest benefits of SaaS is that issues like outages are no longer the responsibility of your IT and operations teams—as they might be with your on-premises servers. The provider takes care of fixing bugs and deploying vital updates, which saves you time and money.
Consideration #3: Continuity between on-premises and cloud (both technical and business)
There’s a reason why so many businesses opt for PostgreSQL when it comes to moving their databases to the cloud. PostgreSQL’s incredible flexibility allows it to integrate with an incredible range of cloud providers, applications, and other tools.
Whether you’re moving away from on-premises servers entirely or adopting a hybrid DBMS, you want a cloud solution that provides continuity, that allows you to maintain your familiar architecture, and to use all of the tools that were essential to your business and your personnel. PostgreSQL makes your transition to the cloud smoother, and allows all your users to hit the ground running once there.
Consideration #4: Level of support and expertise
We’ve written at length about the benefits of fully managed PostgreSQL in the cloud, especially in the context of our latest cloud solution BigAnimal. If you’d like to learn more about how BigAnimal works, you can start a free trial!
Not only does a fully managed solution ensure that you don’t have to worry about running your own cloud database, as you would with basic open source PostgreSQL, but it also comes with one of the strengths we’re most proud of: dedicated support.
Moving to the cloud can be a daunting undertaking, and having experts in your corner simplifies and accelerates the process immensely. But that expertise shouldn’t stop once you reach your destination. Having dedicated support teams on hand to address your questions and concerns ensures that you’re always getting the most out of your cloud investments. When we talk to our customers, EDB’s round-the-clock support always comes up.
Feet on the ground, head in the cloud
These insights are only the tip of the iceberg! A journey to the cloud is an exciting and complex process, and having the most information possible before you set out is critical. You should know your use case, understand why you decided to embark on a migration, and pinpoint your priorities all before you decide which cloud database service you want to use.
For more detailed information on what to look out for, watch this webinar or visit this site.