Amazon released DynamoDB, the first cloud database, and changed the database landscape forever. Since then, cloud databases have experienced a meteoric rise in adoption and innovation. Cloud database will become increasingly important in the future as the entire software development industry shifts to cloud-native development. Gartner predicts that by the end of 2022, 75% of databases will be migrated to the cloud:
Why are cloud databases becoming more and more popular? In terms of database technology, public cloud databases are no different than other SQL or NoSQL databases. However, the key selling point of public cloud databases is database management and scaling.
In traditional SQL databases and many NoSQL databases, the application owner manages the database, including replication, sharding, backup, recovery, scaling. But in a cloud database, the cloud provider manages the database.
Most cloud-native databases provide the following capabilities in addition to basic database management systems:
Scale horizontally with managed partitions/shards.
Automatic backup and recovery.
High availability and guaranteed SLA.
Replicate across data centers.
Supports different consistency levels (strong consistency, eventual consistency).
Cloud native.
Support multiple models.
Move data to the edge of global distribution.
Serverless.
Planetary scale.
While mainstream SQL and NoSQL databases are now attempting to reinvent these capabilities, they were not built from the ground up for these needs.
Ecosystems are forming around CSPs that both integrate services within a single CSP and provide early steps toward inter-cloud data management. This contrasts with an on-premises approach, where a single product often fills multiple roles but rarely provides its own built-in functionality to support integration with adjacent products in an on-premises deployment environment. While there has been growth in on-premises systems, this growth rarely comes from new on-premises deployments; this is usually due to price increases and forced upgrades to avoid risk.
