Evaluating Hybrid Database Management Solutions
This past year, 70% of U.S. organizations budgeted $1.77 million for cloud spending. Going into 2018, most IT departments are predicted to have 40 percent of their platforms and apps still housed in systems at their facilities. Business owners wonder which approach is better – should they store their data in the cloud or on site? Sometimes the best solution is to use a combination of both.
On-Site Databases
There are some situations where on premises database solutions make the most sense. Here’s why many organizations choose to avoid public cloud storage:
- Money savings – For some businesses, the cost of uptime makes it more expensive to use a cloud database.
- Industry requirements – Healthcare and financial services often choose on-site databases to keep up with ever-changing compliance issues and regulations.
- Security concerns – Many businesses worry cloud storage could be less secure than housing data at their facility.
- Cloud downtimes – Organizations fear downtime for cloud maintenance will interfere with their business functioning.
Offsite Storage Options
Some businesses don’t want to store data in the cloud, but they have legitimate concerns about storing data only on-site. In the event of a fire or natural disaster, it’s helpful to have a copy of data stored at another location, so it’s safe even if the main data center is rendered completely unusable.
Organizations have used tape-based storage for decades, and tape technologies continue to improve. Cloud storage often costs less than tape purchase, but it can be more expensive over time. However, tapes must be managed and stored, and there are often security concerns with moving them off-site.
Cloud Based Storage
Cloud-based data is protected in the event of a natural disaster without anyone from your organization having to maintain on-site databases or replace backup tapes. Recent hurricanes showed how natural disasters can affect large areas of the country, so backups removed to a secondary site could still be unsafe. Cloud-based storage is often removed from your datacenter by hundreds of miles.
While data stored on external media must be physically mounted for access, cloud-based data is online, so it’s always available. Archived data is easy to locate.
Use All Available Options
The best solution for many businesses is to use a combination of cloud-based and other storage options. Avoid regulation conflicts by storing sensitive data on-site while enjoying the benefits and flexibility of the cloud for less sensitive data. Data transfers to cloud storage can be slow depending on internet bandwidth, so some operations might be more effectively managed on site.
Combined solutions can balance backup, recovery, archiving and regulation needs. Each organization can evaluate its goals and usage to determine which combination of solutions allows them to be most effective.