Enterprises can safely migrate to the cloud with the aid of hybrid cloud architectures, which also offer a way to meet data governance and risk management requirements for on-premises data. However, moving applications and the supporting databases to even a hybrid cloud requires extensive planning, testing, as well as ongoing management and monitoring.
What to consider when developing a hybrid cloud database strategy?
To fully utilize a hybrid cloud database strategy, new security, performance, integration, and data quality challenges must first be addressed. Hybrid cloud architecture offers advantages that can open new possibilities for cost reduction. Before deploying databases in a hybrid cloud environment, IT teams, data managers, and database administrators should take the following factors into consideration.
Objectives for modernizing applications and digital transformation
Defining the various objectives for modernizing and transforming business processes and the applications that support them is one of the best places to start. According to Brian Schneider, managing delivery architect for multi-cloud at IT management consultancy Capgemini, “Organizations need to understand the digital transformation goals for not only the business but also the outcomes they want from modernizing the existing applications and the databases used by those applications.” As a result, the business and end users should have access to the most effective and efficient database option.
Grouping applications and databases appropriately
The best way to stage data to support various application requirements can be determined by focusing on business and application goals. According to Colin Dawes, CTO at managed service provider Syntax, “the movement of applications and databases requires the appropriate grouping of the applications and databases into logical units.”
Data management teams can divide monolithic systems into manageable chunks by establishing these natural fault lines. Dawes cautioned that getting this step of the process wrong could result in performance and stability problems that would cause the stakeholders to reject the process.
Cost-benefit analysis versus alternative strategies
Data managers must weigh the relative expenses and advantages of updating their current on-premises database, moving to the cloud or adopting a hybrid strategy. In comparison to a cloud-only or on-premises approach, deploying and managing a hybrid cloud will be inherently more difficult and expensive.
Fees for data egress
The movement of data should be considered in a hybrid cloud database strategy. When switching to a hybrid environment, data transfer costs that were minimal with an on-premises database may now be significant. In support of a hybrid cloud database strategy, Sage stated that these costs “can be significant and depend on the amount of data replicated.”
Needs for new tools and abilities
Hybrid cloud databases might bring about fresh data workflows that require attention. According to Joshi of Everest Group, different public and on-premises systems may have different data management tool sets, which could raise operating costs. For scaling, cross-skilling, and plug-and-play operations, he advised creating a standard operating model and tool strategy.