Bear said new DBaaS management tools will help companies innovate.
“Redirecting DBAs and IT practitioners away from legwork such as patching, provisioning, cloning, patching, refreshing and backups allows them to help the business proactively plan applications and databases that can support new initiatives, from more effective engaging of their customers to improved operational efficiency or more robust cybersecurity,” he said.
Baer added that the latest DBaaS software helps companies grapple with the scalability, elasticity, and flexibility required to embrace the Internet of things (IoT), fast 5G networks and other emerging technologies. Traditional on-premises database management tools weren’t designed to handle these demands.
The Role of Hyperconverged Infrastructure in DBaaS
One promising innovation of the cloud era is hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI), which manages compute, storage and networking on commodity hardware, simplifying datacenter operations and reducing total cost of ownership. HCI can work on-premise, in the cloud or in a hybrid setup. The best HCI software centralizes the management of these resources in an easy-to-use, consumer-grade interface.
In his Nutanix white paper, Baer explained why HCI lays the groundwork for advanced DBaaS applications.
“HCI enables flexibility, as many enterprises are already juggling running databases on-premises and in one — or more — clouds,” he wrote. “It promotes flexibility and agility by eliminating the need to separately configure and tune each of the resources regardless of where they run, individually.”
Nutanix, an HCI pioneer, is positioning itself to lead the coming wave of DBaaS-driven innovation. Its Nutanix Era software gives DBAs the power to create, provision and manage their entire DB ecosystem from a single screen. That streamlines the processes of DB provisioning, copy data management, data protection and patch management.
“Nutanix’s key differentiator is that it does not limit customer database choices,” Baer said in an interview.
“Most commercial DBaaS services are designed around specific databases. Nutanix Era allows customers to take advantage of the benefits of DBaaS with the database(s) of their choice.”
Ultimately, innovating with DBaaS comes down to who benefits from the technology.
“IT and the business are the beneficiaries,” Baer said. “IT, because it can devote its efforts to higher value-added tasks, and the business, because they can reduce time to benefit and grow more agile in response to changes in their competitive landscapes.”