Managing the Hybrid Future: From Databases to Clouds
FEBRUARY/MARCH 2019 | DBTA
of a transformation to a more digitally
enhanced enterprise. Some on-premise
systems may be functioning well and
continuing to provide value to the business, or they may be an anchor holding
back progress. Either way, a hybrid
strategy serves to ease the transition as
an organization embraces cloud as it
moves forward.
2. Consider the implications
of data governance.
There are, and will remain, many
reasons for keeping portions of data
onsite, thus providing ongoing business
justification for hybrid arrangements.
There may be high security requirements,
in which proprietary data must remain
within the walls of the organization.
There may regulatory or compliance
requirements for keeping data out of
third-party hands. Geographic requirements may dictate that data remain
within national borders. Data managers
need to understand and identify the
portions of their data environments that
absolutely must remain on-premise, and
build capabilities accordingly.
3. Enhance business continuity.
Another advantage of a hybrid strategy is that it may help ensure seamless
availability of applications so that
business users are oblivious to outages
or downtime. However, a hybrid cloud
strategy needs to ensure that workloads can quickly and readily be moved
between on-premise and cloud environments. At the same time, conversely, it
may be prudent to maintain copies of
data within an on-premise system in
the event of cloud outages.
4. Don’t outsource security.
Whether data is managed by a cloud
provider or is managed on-premise,
it’s incumbent on the organization to
take ownership of data security. While
many major cloud providers may be
better trained, certified, and prepared
for security incidents, the onus should
always be on the enterprise customer to
perform due diligence when it comes to
protecting data. This includes holding
vendors’ feet to the fire to guarantee
that the enterprise’s security protocols
are met.
5. Ensure the flexibility of
data movement.
As the enterprise evolves into a
digitally powered, cloud-first business,
it’s important to be able to move data
assets between these environments as
well. While it’s relatively easy to move
datasets between environments, many
enterprises have accumulated features
or integrations—and cloud providers
provide value-added services or templates which ease deployments—that
may make it more difficult to migrate
data to alternative environments.
6. Embrace the range of tools.
Hybrid cloud means employing a
range of tools for different dimensions
of the deployment, from traditional
tools for on-premise solutions to tools
specific to cloud providers. As a result,
enterprises may be overwhelmed with
tools. Such tools cover backup and
recovery, cloud management, API
management, performance management, and security management. There
may be separate teams working with
specific tools as well. Vendor-specific
tools and cross-platform tool offerings
need to be evaluated. Data managers
need to focus on tools that provide the
greatest coverage for both on-premise
and cloud environments to ensure the
greatest leverage. Ultimately, the greater
the automation such tools provide, the
better it is.
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7. Expand the scope of servicelevel agreements.
In an era of enhanced compliance
mandates and scrutiny of data privacy
and security, data governance is an
extremely critical requirement, regardless of its origins or where it is stored.
Data governance does not stop outside
the enterprise walls; rather, a governance
strategy needs to extend across networks
to all data resources. In addition, SLAs
will need to be applied and enforced
across a range of environments. There
may even be pass-through SLAS, in
which IT departments contract to
provide certain levels of availability and
performance, based on their own agreements with backend cloud providers.
It’s important to remember as well that
business users may be oblivious to where
agreements are applied—they just want
their applications to work as intended.
8. Prepare for new skill sets.
Moving between on-premise systems
and data and cloud-based resources
requires a recalibration of skills. While
on-premise skills—heads-down integration, programming, security—are still
a necessity, the emerging cloud side of
the equation requires higher-level skills
such as architecture and consulting.
DBAs and developers will need more
frequent refreshes of their skillsets to
prepare for this new environment.
Managing data environments that
cross over from on-premise to public
cloud sites requires different approaches
and technologies than either traditional
on-premise data environments or fully
cloud-based services. Following the eight
rules outlined above will help. n
—Joe McKendrick
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FEBRUARY/MARCH 2019 | DBTA
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