Are Your Database Deployments Becoming a Bit CLOUDY?  Part 1 (3) – AaS the World Turns

Cumulus, Stratus, Cirrus….no…not that THAT kind of CLOUDY.

The increasing number of cloud options can be confusing. With that in mind, I thought I’d ‘clear the air’ and review some of the more popular implementations.

There are literally hundreds of companies providing cloud services with different areas of focus.

Have a look…

https://www.forbes.com/cloud100/list/

…..but to simplify, I thought I would review offerings from two technology giants,

Microsoft and Amazon. These will be detailed in Part 2 and Part 3.

 

In this Part 1 of the series, the 'aaS' concept is covered.

'aaS' is an acronym for "as-a-service" as it relates to cloud computing.

There are lots of these too...

Service

Abbr.

Analytics as a service

AnaaS

API as a service

AaaS

Artificial intelligence as a service

AIaaS

Backend as a service

BaaS

Banking as a service

Blockchain as a service

Business process as a service

BPaaS

Contact Information as a service

CIaaS

Content as a service

CaaS

Construction as a service

Container as a service

Communications Platform as a Service

CPaaS

Data as a service

DaaS

Desktop as a service

Drone as a service

Database as a service

DBaaS

Distribution as a service

DaaS

Exposure as a service

EaaS

Energy storage as a service

ESaaS

Electric vehicle as a service [2]

EVaaS

Function as a service

FaaS

Farming as a service

Games as a service

GaaS

Hadoop as a service

HaaS

Housing as a service

Infrastructure as a service

IaaS

Identity as a service

IDaaS

IT as a service

ITaaS

Knowledge as a service

KaaS

Logging as a service

LaaS

Management as a service

MaaS

Microgrid as a service

Mobility as a service

Monitoring as a service

Metal as a service

Mobile backend as a service

MBaaS

Machine Learning as a service

MLaaS

Network as a service

NaaS

Network Defense as a service

NDaaS

Payments as a service

PaaS

Platform as a service

Push notification as a service

RAN as a service

Recovery as a service

RaaS

Recycling as a service

Robot as a service

Search as a service

SaaS

Security as a service

Software as a service

Storage as a service

Transportation as a service

TaaS

Testing as a service

Unified Communications as a Service

UCaaS

For the purposes of this blog, IaaS, PaaS (DBaaS), and SaaS will be covered for context around database cloud deployments.

IBM has published a great at-a-glance understanding of what you manage versus what the vendor manages in these ’aaS' models

(Click on the image to enlarge)

 

 

IaaS – Infrastructure as a Service

The physical infrastructure is provided ‘as a service’. In my experience, this is often what companies dip their toe in the water with first. This is likely because IaaS provides among the lowest-level control of resources in the cloud. I say ‘among’ because though less popular, there is the option of BMaaS – Bare-Metal-as a-Service. This is direct access to the hardware as opposed to being provisioned virtualized compute, network, and storage. With an IaaS model, the service manages the infrastructure (for a fee) and users purchase, configure and manage the software like the operating systems, middleware, and applications. For DBAs, this equates to installing the DBMS on a VM and implementing it in the cloud.

Advantages:

  • Nimble/on-demand growth and scaling (up or down) without the need for hardware investment spend or increased IT staffing and training.
  • (Potential) cost savings by the reduction in hardware (and again, staffing) spend. This needs to be weighed versus IaaS subscription costs.
  • Accessibility is typically improved as users can get to what they want, where they want

Disadvantages:

  • Reliance - If something goes down on the provider end, all you can do is wait...or scramble back to the on-prem option. Uptime and productivity are not only at risk but also out of your hands.
  • Security - Systems can be exposed and be vulnerable to hacking.

PaaS – Platform-as-a-Service

In the database world, we hear about DBaaS – Database-as-a-Service, a more specific type of PaaS. Also offered as a fee-based subscription, the provider maintains the physical infrastructure and the database …and delivers it as a private cloud service. With DBaaS, subscribers reap the benefit of forgoing several administrative tasks. The end-user controls database content and usage. Time to value is improved but inherently, it offers less flexibility and control.

Advantages:

  • No need to build, configure, and/or maintain your DBMSs.
  • Database bugs, patches, upgrades, and general uptime are maintained
  • Little need for Database Development/Developers

Disadvantages:

  • Reduced security control
  • Little to no customizations to your database implementations

SaaS – Software-as-a-Service

Software applications are delivered ‘on-demand’ via the cloud provider versus local platform deployments. With an internet connection and a web browser, users access the software deployed in the cloud. There is no need to install, manage, or maintain anything.

Here is a blog I wrote describing SaaS benefits.

Consider a SaaS Solution: https://www.quest.com/community/blogs/b/performance-monitoring/posts/saasy-consider-software-as-a-service

Bonus: Serverless computing!

It is called 'serverless' even though physical servers are used. In this model, instead of paying for a fixed amount of resources, the service 'auto-scales'. Users are charged 'as-used'. This eliminates the need to determine the size and scope of the infrastructure required and reserved.

Every company has different needs, priorities, budgets, and resources so understanding the benefits and shortcomings of each configuration is important.

The market for these technologies is growing and evolving at a rapid pace. As such, there are more and more vendor ‘flavors’ available.

In part 2 (of 3) of this blog series, I will review some of the Microsoft Azure derivations.

Sources:

forbes.com

horsesforsources.com

ibm.com

cloudflare.com

objectrocket.com

wikipedia.com

Anonymous
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