Could Database As A Service Work For Your Organisation?

The Pros and Cons of DBaaSAre you thinking of switching your database admin and development to the cloud? Make sure you’ve considered everything before you do!

Database as a Service, commonly known as DBaaS, is a popular cloud offering which promises affordability, flexibility and scalability for organisations who wish to make the move! Amazon AWS, Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure and countless other cloud providers provide DBaaS, meaning that they provide the physical hardware, software and infrastructure which is required for businesses of any size to run their database in the cloud. Typically, you can either choose to install your own database in their hosted cloud environment, or else choose a DBaaS package. There’s a lot to think about when you’re considering switching to DBaaS – this guide will run through some of the pros and cons.

Existing Expertise

Begin by looking at the existing database talent within your team. If you already have employees with strong database admin and development skills, then running your own database within the cloud is probably a better route for you. However, if you feel that you’re suffering from something of a skills gap, then DBaaS would be a great choice. For example, if inhouse software developers are your main asset but you’re low on database developers, then it would make sense to use DBaaS to allow your software team to get on with testing and deploying your end product.

Data Testing

DBaaS is also a useful environment for data testing at speed. You can simply set up the databases, feed in your test data, then delete the database environment when you’ve finished using it. This method is both simple and straightforward for DBaaS customers.

Affordability

One of the main draws of moving to the cloud for any reason is down to the cost-savings that are promised. This is no different with DBaaS. To break it down, companies who don’t use Database as a Service will need to foot the bill for the initial purchase costs of physical hardware, software licenses, the cost of database development team members and the power bill for running servers. All this is included in a typical DBaaS package, and there are usually guarantees of up-time from the larger cloud service providers.

Security

Of course, one of the downsides of not having control over an inhouse database environment, is the risk of a data breach occurring. When you take out a DBaaS package, you’ll want to know that your data is in the safest possible hands so that you remain industry compliant and don’t suffer a loss of reputation. Unfortunately cloud attacks do occur, often due to misconfigurations, and providers will undoubtedly face new cyber security challenges in 2020.

Meeting The Requirements of Your Project

A professional database developer Essex team explains that you’ll need to check with your choice of cloud provider to ensure that the DBaaS package you’re looking at meets the complexity requirements of your next project. IO-bound workloads in a database can cause some problems on this front as they require extremely powerful hardware which is not often offered by cloud providers. After researching the packages available in the market, you may decide that DBaaS isn’t for you, and you can run your database inhouse, whilst taking advantage of outsourced database admin and developers to solve any problems with skills gaps.

Start by taking a good look at what you want to achieve from your databases, both now and over the next five years. Consider the assets you already have and crunch the numbers to determine the best solution for your organisation!