- March 18, 2020
- Posted by: Abhimanyu Sundar
- Category: Data engineering
At times it feels like cloud technology is the only thing that everyone in the tech world is talking about.
However, not all companies today have adopted the cloud data warehouse approach. This article aims to help answer why you should move your data warehouse to the cloud. We will be covering two main topics in this article:
Question 1 – A data warehouse in the cloud – Do you need it?
Most definitely, yes! Just see how quickly your data warehouse is growing or even look at the number of project requests that are increasing for new data warehouses, new data lakes, new discovery sandboxes, faster query times, and more. Every IT department looks for a silver lining to meet the growing demands of business access that are routed through their business units. That silver lining is the cloud!
Question 2: What is expected from a cloud data warehouse, and how can you benefit from it? The list goes on, but I have narrowed it down to 6 key benefits:
Fast and Easy Deployment:
IT teams in the past, had to take into account how much storage and compute power they would require, at times even 2 years in advance. In the event of getting this information wrong, it would mean that extra hardware that was not needed was purchased or facing complaints regarding a dearth of storage.
However, this rather complicated and exhaustive planning & estimation process is not required in today’s day and age. By leveraging the cloud, users can build their own sandboxes, data warehouses or datamarts in minutes at any time of the day. One key advantage of having the data warehouse on cloud is that organizations only for the required resources when they are required.
Much needed Elasticity at significantly Lower Costs:
The major reason as to why people move to a data warehouse in the cloud is cost. A really expensive task is storing data in your own data center on premise. While expanding your data footprint, it becomes very tough to support your continuous analytical needs.
The immediate question that arises is Why? In the case of an on-premise data warehouse, you can’t quickly or easily scale, compute and store. In the event of you needing more storage, the compute will come along with it and the costs for both with have to be born.
Additionally, the need to purchase the requisite compute at peak times will also arise. Take the case of a retail company that needs to predict how much compute would be required to handle a Black Friday sale, they are stuck with the same compute for the rest of the year.
With a cloud data warehouse, that doesn’t need to be the case.
With the ideal cloud data warehouse in place, your system will be able to scale instantly and flexibly to deliver the required amount of compute that is necessary. As compute and storage are separate, only the essentialities will need to be purchased. The add on costs such as server rooms, hardware, networking , etc is also eliminated.
Data Security Concerns:
On-premise data warehouses were always considered to be the more secure option. Just like how the trust in digital copies increased when compared to physical paper copies, people are now starting to see as to why cloud data warehouses are more secure than on-premise data warehouses.
However, this as well entirely depends on the database possessed by the company.
Capabilities growing tremendously:
The overall value of your data warehouse tremendously improves when your data warehouse in the cloud. With better availability, performance and scalability, business intelligence and other applications can seamlessly deliver quicker and better insights.
The entire spectrum of data warehousing solutions such as data integration, business analytics, IoT and much more with the capability of being a fully integrated solution is possible with your data warehouse being in the cloud.
Self-Service Data Warehousing:
A self-driving data warehouse is what makes self-service entirely possible. An autonomous, self-driving data warehouse its own set of benefits. Management of the data warehouse does not become a worry for you anymore.
This means that you can reap the benefits of complete automation of upgrades, patching, and management. Using a data warehouse in the cloud means all you need to do is log into the cloud and allocate a new data warehouse in minutes – you do not need to depend on IT for this like before.
Availability and accessibility of data is more than ever.
IT teams now have the liberty to concentrate their resources and attention on providing business value from a strategic stand-point. This does not imply that database analysts (DBAs) are out of a job. Managing of applications connecting to a data warehouse and how developers use in database functions within their application code will still be done by DBAs.
The Cloud in itself:
Database that is self-driving makes life a lot easier because it handles the monotonous yet essential work that executives do not want to do. The much-needed ability and capability in the cloud can be gained with the self-serving database.
Cloud data warehouse adoption may just be one step out of a multi-step journey for many organizations. The cloud provider must ensure complete PaaS, IaaS & SaaS solutions.
IT infrastructure can be simplified, and capital investments can be minimized by leveraging your cloud’s services for data management, business intelligence, applications, and infrastructure.
Whilst choosing a cloud, it is imperative that you pick one that allows for flexible deployment models. This will enable you to migrate on-premise workloads to your cloud data centers and vice-versa seamlessly.
Leverge your Biggest Asset Data
Inquire Now
Conclusion
Having a data warehouse in the cloud has plenty of benefits. But going beyond that is what we need to strive for. Assess how a self-driving data warehouse can be of help and make maximum use of it.
