Database Usage in the Public and Private Cloud: Choices and Preferences

Database Usage in the Public and Private

Cloud: Choices and Preferences

Introduction

Organizations depend on their databases to process transactions and access the information they need. But with new types of workloads, data volumes that were unimaginable a few years ago as well as budget constraints, developers (and the companies they work for) face critical decisions about what type of database they should use and where it should run. Should they use a relational database or NoSQL? Proprietary software or open source? A public or private cloud? Two recent developments disrupt the database landscape even further: the emergence of the OpenStack cloud platform and Database as a Service (DBaaS) as an alternative to managing the database yourself.

Tesora commissioned a survey of North American developer communities to better understand the database choices that developers are making, and their preferences and expectations going forward. The survey had more 500 respondents, with 40% from organizations with more than 1,000 employees. Many of the results were expected, but there were also a few surprises.

It should be emphasized that respondents are early adopters of new technology, and the survey results provide a snapshot of OpenStack and DBaaS in their early stages. However, they’re a revealing indicator of where databases might be heading in the next few years, and the type of technology and architecture decisions we can expect.

Survey Results

1. What database(s) does your company currently use?

The leaders were the “Big Three” relational databases: Microsoft SQL Server, MySQL and Oracle. MongoDB was the most popular NoSQL DB with slightly more than 10%, behind all relational database choices. In total, 79% of respondents are currently using a relational database, while 16% are using NoSQL. The results suggest that

few years or less, as opposed to decades for some of the incumbents. The results seem to indicate the need for coexistence rather than displacement (at least in large, established organizations), with relational databases running

2. Which of the following public cloud infrastructures are used at your company?

Amazon AWS was the most popular public cloud platform with 24% of responses. The fact that AWS was the leader is no surprise; what is a surprise is that Google GCE was fairly close behind at 16% even though it has only been generally

3. Which of the following private cloud infrastructures are used at your company?

though it has only been available since 2010. Fifteen percent of survey respondents stated that their companies were

1_{. (Of organizations that are using a private}

it is Amazon’s designated AWS-compatible private cloud.

VMware vCloud Director

15%

OpenStack

11%

CloudStack

3%

Eucalyptus

1%

1This is a survey of open-source software developers, and surveys of other groups will have different results. For example, a report by 451

Re-search, The OpenStack Tipping Point — Will It Go Over the Edge? (May 2014) shows a somewhat wider gap between VMWare and OpenStack, while a 2013 IDC Connect survey (funded by Red Hat) found that fully 84% of IT decision makers plan on implementing OpenStack at some point.

Google (GCE)

Microsoft Azure

Rackspace

IBM Softlayer

Amazon (AWS)

24

%

8

%

6

%

16

%

4

%

4. What use cases are you running in the private and public cloud?

Use cases for public and private clouds were surprisingly similar, with web services, testing/QA and databases the

respondents.

also indicate how mainstream cloud computing has become, with more than half of respondents reporting that their organizations are using public clouds, while 49% are using private clouds.

Continuous Integration/Automated Testing Databases

Web Services Storage and Backup QA /Test Environment

Research Virtual Desktop

Management & Monitoring Systems Data Mining/Big Data/Hadoop

25%

26%

22%

16%

15%

12%

11%

7%

32%

24%

21%

12%

7%

8%

9%

8%

5%

PRIVATE

CLOUD

PUBLIC

CLOUD

10%

OpenStack is an open source operating system for private and public clouds. It provides access to large pools of compute, storage and networking resources, all managed through a central dashboard that gives administrators control while empowering their users to provision resources through a web interface. As an open platform for cloud

computing, OpenStack provides an alternative to proprietary technology, avoiding lock-in while providing access to a broad ecosystem of solutions from a global developer community.

OpenStack began in 2010 as a joint project of Rackspace Hosting and NASA. It is now managed by the OpenStack Foundation, a not-for-profit organization with more than 9,500 individual members and more than 150 member companies including IBM, AT&T, Dell, HP, Redhat, Oracle and Intel, just to name a few.

What Is OpenStack?

5. What characteristics of a private cloud infrastructure are important to you?

and integration with current systems (37 percent). This is no surprise since private clouds are all about allowing organizations to leverage their existing infrastructure while adding cloud capabilities such as economies of scale,

Cost Savings

Operational Efficiencies

Integrates With Existing Systems Standards Based Modular Architecture Open Source Broad Adoption Amazon Compatibility

44

38

37

27

23

17

16

9

6. Are people in your organization using any of the following database as a service (DBaaS) offerings in the public cloud?

Amazon RDS was the clear leader, with Google Cloud SQL a distant second followed by Microsoft Azure SQL. The responses suggest that the dominance of relational databases extends to the DBaaS model, and also highlight the

MongoDB, Cassandra and Redis, with support for PostgreSQL and other database technologies currently under development. MongoLabs

4

%

3

%

3

%

2

%

2

%

4

%

1

%

12

%

6

%

Database as a Service (DBaaS) is an emerging way to manage database systems, that greatly simplifyies administration while providing seamless availability and scalability. It runs in a public or private cloud, with the cloud provider taking responsibility for a wide range of administrative functions (configuring, patching, backups, restores, monitoring, etc.). A self-service interface allows developers to focus on building and improving their applications without worrying about managing databases on their own.

DBaaS advantages include:

What is a Database as a Service (DBaaS)?

7. Is your organization implementing or planning to implement a private cloud DBaaS?

Currently Implementing

10

%

10

%

4

%

7

%

6-12

12-24

Planning to implement in the next

24+

One of the most surprising survey results was the projected growth for DBaaS in a private cloud. While 10% of respondents said their companies have already implemented a private cloud DBaaS, 31 percent say their organizations plan to implement DBaaS in a private cloud at some point — more than triple current usage. This growth could be driven by growing awareness of DBaaS advantages, including seamless operation for developers

Companies seem slow in meeting the demand for DBaaS. Only 21 percent will be implementing a DBaaS solution within the next two years.

8. If the following databases were available as a Database as a Service (DBaaS) within your organization’s private cloud, how likely would you be to use them?

Trove is the database as a service project for OpenStack, building upon OpenStack’s open source framework to provide scalable and reliable DBaaS provisioning functionality. End users can quickly and easily use relational and non-relational databases while behind the scenes the Trove DBaaS automates complex administrative tasks. Database administrators can quickly provision and scale capacity in the cloud and manage multiple database management systems (DBMS) such as MySQL, MongoDB and others from a single dashboard. Trove is in production use today at HP, Rackspace and PayPal.

What Is OpenStack Trove?

Results suggest that many respondents are eager to use DBaaS, but their desire to use it isn’t matched by its availability. While more than half (52 percent) of all respondents indicated private cloud, only 9 percent of organizations have actually implemented one. Although this number is expected to rise in currently not being met.

Demand for relational databases in a DBaaS setting is well they would use a relational DBaaS if it was available.

or more of the NoSQL technologies. Of these, Hadoop and each.

Respondents who said that they are likely or

very likely to use a relational DBaaS would

choose the following databases

Respondents who said they were likely or

very likely to use a NoSQL DBaaS would

choose the follow databases

MySQ L:

64

42

27

17

64

62

59

21

37

32

Respondents who said that they are likely or very likely to use a relational DBaaS would choose the following databases:

Respondents who said they were likely or very likely to use a NoSQL DBaaS would

choose the follow databases:

of respondents said they were likely or very likely to use one of the relational databases listed, while 16 percent of respondents were likely or very likely to use one of the NoSQL databases listed.

Summary

The survey results reflect technology choices and preferences taken by early adopters, but they’re revealing nonetheless: 1. OpenStack is catching up to VMWare as the preferred private cloud platform even though it has only been around for a few years. Of organizations that are using a private cloud, more than one-third now use OpenStack.

2. Many developers would embrace DBaaS but organizations seem to be slow to deploy it. Since preferences and choices made by developers generally reflect the optimum way to run a company’s business applications, organizations may want to consider database as a service for their employees and customers.

3. Use of relational databases remains well ahead of NoSQL, whether as a traditional database system or as a service, and whether it is provided in a public or private cloud.

As with other emerging technologies we have seen in the past, these survey results are probably conservative. The transition to DBaaS will probably accelerate as the market catches up with the early adopters and as more people become familiar with the database as a service model as well as the capabilities of OpenStack Trove. However, these findings provide an indication of how people will be interacting with databases in coming years, and the kinds of technology and architecture decisions that companies will need to think about as they plan their database strategy.

Survey Methodology

The Tesora survey had more than 500 responses, with 40 percent from organizations with more than 1,000 employees and 17 percent from companies with more than 10,000 employees. A broad mix of industries were represented in the responses, with 27 percent from information technology followed by healthcare at 10 percent and a rough tie at 9% with financial services and education. Some of the organizations that respondents represented were AT&T, Adobe, ADP, Ericsson, HP, IBM, Prudential, Ricoh, the State of Pennsylvania, the U.S. Army, the U.S. Navy, United Healthcare and Wells Fargo.

Acknowledgements

Tesora would like to thank the MongoDB Community, Tokutek and the Linux Foundation for participating in this survey.

Tesora is developing the first enterprise-class, scalable Database-as-a-Service (DBaaS) platform based on OpenStack Trove. The company brings more than 200 years of cumulative database technology experience to the OpenStack community, helping organizations get the most from their OpenStack investment by making it easy to deliver database capacity on demand.

To learn more about Tesora visit: www.tesora.com.

500 Survey Responses

Organizations with more than 1,000 employees

Companies with

more than 10,000 employees Companies in

information technology Companies in healthcare

Companies in financial services and education

40

%

17

%

25

%

10

%

9

%