Augmenting Multi- and Hybrid Cloud Strategies with Databases

“Cloud” is not only a catchword in tech, it has become the vehicle for next-generation digital business, where enterprises are adapting their strategies to leverage cloud capabilities and take on the demands of the artificial intelligence, IoT and edge computing revolutions. According to Gartner, three out of four enterprises will have a multicloud or hybrid cloud approach by the end of 2022.

To be sure, the terms “multicloud” and “hybrid cloud” refer to cloud deployments that integrate more than one cloud, and although they might sound similar — and some people use the terms interchangeably — they differ in the kinds of cloud infrastructure they include. Here’s a quick refresher on these two cloud approaches, what their main benefits are and how databases factor in each approach.

Multicloud vs. Hybrid Cloud

Multicloud refers to a use of multiple cloud computing and storage services from different vendors in a single heterogeneous architecture. It’s a solution for companies looking to work across more than one cloud provider to distribute their workload and data across multiple cloud storage technologies and infrastructure providers.

Hybrid cloud is slightly different in that it is a mixed computing, storage and services environment made up of on-premises infrastructure, private cloud services and a public cloud with orchestration among the various platforms. In other words, if a company uses a combination of public clouds, on-premises computing and private clouds in their data center, then they’re essentially using a hybrid-cloud infrastructure.

The Benefits of a Multicloud Approach

Many companies are drawn to a multicloud approach because it improves service and security while reducing overall costs. This approach not only lets a company distribute its technology capabilities, and ensure applications perform better and are more available, but it also enables them to choose cloud providers in different regions to best meet their particular needs, such as balancing user load or reducing system failover.

Some other benefits of a multicloud approach include:

• Increased resiliency by ensuring that data storage resources are always available. It also helps to minimize performance-affecting factors like latency, jitter and packet loss, which are typically caused by hopping between networks and servers.
• Improved flexibility and scalability by giving companies the flexibility to scale their storage requirements up and down as needed.
• Performance gains by optimizing the use of data storage and processing in regions and zones with the closest proximity to applications and users. This is especially true as more global cloud providers are rolling out edge computing solutions. Improved proximity results in better performance and reduced latency.
• Optimized return on investment by enabling a company to spin up whatever cloud resources are on offer without having to compromise their choices. Multicloud infrastructure offers a rich set of cloud options to solve rigorous needs across a diverse range of computing and business functions, thereby optimizing returns on cloud investments.
• Lower total cost of ownership by allowing the mix and matching of services between different Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) providers to reduce the total cost of ownership, particularly with larger and more sophisticated applications. Having all systems within a lone cloud provider gives no ability to move a portion of the workload or system to another provider with better pricing for that need.
• Reduced risk by no longer relying on a single provider. This is multiplied as a company adds more and more technology solutions within a single IaaS provider.

The Benefits of a Hybrid Cloud Approach 

While the benefits of a hybrid-cloud approach are very similar, the primary benefit of a hybrid cloud is agility, which allows companies to adapt and change directions quickly. For example, a company might decide to combine public clouds, private clouds and on-premises resources to gain the agility it needs for a competitive advantage.

By placing some applications and technologies in public clouds and some in a more managed environment, companies gain flexibility, resilience and more control over costs. From a security standpoint, companies can keep their most security-focused workloads in the private cloud while running regular business data and apps in cost-effective public cloud networks. For instance, a company might want to deploy customer-facing web applications in the public cloud but ensure that its mission-critical systems run on premises for better privacy, data security and control.

Assessing the Right Database for Your Cloud Strategy

Databases are central to supporting the design, development and capabilities of any modern application and are therefore central in a company’s cloud approach. Here are a few key considerations to make when assessing the best database management systems (DBMS) for a company’s cloud strategy:

• Does the technology provide automatic replication and synchronization capabilities? Balancing and distributing workloads quickly and efficiently across nodes and clusters to fully support multi- and hybrid cloud strategies is a key feature enterprises should look for in a data platform. By automating replication techniques, organizations can meet the redundancy, failover and disaster recovery requirements of today’s businesses. Furthermore, updates to data must be reflected instantly across the entirety of an organization’s ecosystem to ensure enterprises deliver data integrity and resilience.
• Does it reduce risk and meet data privacy requirements? The ability to isolate data and limit the management of storage and processing to specific clusters and nodes helps organizations meet increasingly stringent data privacy and sovereignty requirements within and across countries.
• Does it have the ability to localize data to improve customer experiences? Organizations require a database architecture that is able to store specific data in zones that are closest to users and applications in order to deliver great customer experiences. This enables businesses to reduce network hops and improve latency and application performance.

 Couchbase with a Multicloud or Hybrid Approach

From the very outset, Couchbase’s modern database was designed to be cloud native to provide customers maximum flexibility and make it easy to get consistent benefits across their deployments. Learn how customers use Couchbase across a variety of cloud strategies to improve resiliency, performance and stability, while reducing risk and total cost of ownership.