In a challenging market compounded by the COVID-19 pandemic and upheavals in business dynamics, enterprises face heightened expectations and competition. Developers and business leaders alike must adapt with greater infrastructure resilience and scalability to survive and thrive.
Every seasoned developer knows that the greatest enemy of innovation is a dying data platform. In the same way that legacy, proprietary systems are no longer technically superior nor cost-effective, IT executives and developers alike are realizing the enhanced capabilities and potential cost savings in adopting a cloud-centric, and open source approach to their database management systems (DBMS). Fully managed databases in the cloud, or Database-as-a-service (DBaaS), will become the norm in the next few years.
Understanding Hybrid Cloud vs. Multi-Cloud
Time and cost savings are contributing factors to enterprises adopting cloud-based computing at accelerated rates. Gartner validates this point with their prediction that 75% of global databases will be on the cloud by the end of this year. This may be a bold projection, but the market will see most enterprises at least moving to a hybrid cloud environment, meaning that some applications remain on-premises, while new applications are built in the cloud.
Additionally, the multi-cloud approach will continue to advance as more enterprises require the distribution of applications and services across a combination of clouds, including public, private, and edge clouds. Multi-cloud management facilitates the creation of a unified and consistent framework for managing cloud workflow and apps; it organizes massive volumes of data. A key incentive for enterprises taking a multi-cloud approach is that it helps them avoid overcommitting to a single cloud vendor. Rather than allowing precious data to become beholden to one vendor, spreading systems across multiple suppliers can be advantageous for data ownership and separation of workflows.
More options, more obstacles
In this new agile environment, developers drive decisions. IT architects, database administrators (DBAs), and IT executives still play important roles in the software ecosystem, but developers are increasingly weighing in on application-specific decisions. But while cloud adoption garners immense benefits, it also brings a unique set of challenges developers face, including vendor lock-in, database innovation and performance, and asset compliance—not to mention an overwhelming surplus of options. These challenges can be amplified when enterprises adopt multi-cloud management strategies.
Developers and business leaders seek data ownership and control, and they simply don’t have time—or money—to waste. Unfortunately, what many of these decision-makers eventually realize often too late is their new cloud vendors impose similar dependencies as legacy, proprietary systems. New cloud vendors, who are at their core data center infrastructure and hardware experts, have now jumped into the software business. Yet these vendors are not database experts, and as such, they have limitations that may prevent hybrid and multi-cloud solutions. This means that enterprises looking for freedom in the cloud may find themselves—and their databases—still held captive to a single company.
An open source is a compelling approach
Fortunately, there is a solution that can give developers the flexibility, scalability, and cost
savings they are looking for. Open source technologies like PostgreSQL, also known as Postgres, are inherently more affordable because the development costs are spread across a rich, global community. Add to this, the Postgres license is extremely permissive and allows developers to use every cloud, every deployment technology, and every virtualization method. It is also possible to run the same Postgres database everywhere, whether on-premise, in multiple clouds, or in a hybrid approach, which is extremely advantageous for enterprises that need a consistent experience on all platforms.
In every context, Postgres has overcome obstacles pertaining to cloud and multi-cloud adoption and outperforms other databases in the most critical contexts. This includes technical performance flexibility across the broadest number of mission-critical enterprise applications.
This also makes Postgres uniquely suited for building new, modern open source applications in the cloud. Open source is at the heart of Postgres. Because it is a truly open-source database, it is available everywhere on all key public clouds and relevant operating systems that matter to modern development. At the same time, Postgres has become significantly faster over recent years, especially with enhanced management tools that make it easy for developers to run highly available applications at scale.
It’s no wonder that Postgres is cited by Stack Overflow as the most used, loved, and wanted database by developers.
Building the way for future
Database expertise should be a primary factor for enterprises considering adopting a multi-cloud approach. Done right, enterprises can experience the freedom and flexibility of the cloud, scalability, and cost savings, without the need to manage their own servers. Harnessing the power of Postgres means developers and business leaders can take advantage of capabilities such as database performance improvement, security, and dependability. Avoiding vendor lock-in allows greater flexibility in hybrid and multi-cloud environments—so developers can focus on building with greater speed and innovation.
Managing multi cloud platform is really a challenging one and well explained the techniques to handle them. Good article, keep sharing more.