Databases form root to all service sectors in this digital era. Facilities to manage these databases have taken different forms in the long run and have eventually reached up to the Database-as-a-service (DBaaS) age.

DBMS (Database Management System) is mainly using for only retrieving data in a database. These Softwares include MySQL, Oracle Database, Microsoft Access, PostgreSQL, etc.  Major hosting control panels like cPanel, Plesk, Direct Admins have inbuilt provision for above services. Further, maintaining a VPS or a dedicated server for each purpose remains a choice of the clients here, with a server admin or developer to manage the database server for the proper functionality of the application. In addition to all, a good backup system should be maintained manually to meet any emergencies. While these are now things of the past, let’s talk some DBaaS.

DBaaS Definition and Providers

Database-as-a-service (DBaaS) helps to manage the database from a Cloud platform. That is, your database can run without any dedicated server and can be accessed through a web portal provided by the service provider. In short, you can provision, manage, consume, configure, and operate databases using a common set of abstractions (primitives), without being bothered about whether the database was MySQL, Oracle or MongoDB. The platform providers will manage server resources, backups upon request, cluster resizing and so on.  Below are a few major Cloud database providers.

1. Amazon Relational Database
2. Microsoft Azure SQL Database
3. Oracle Database
4. SAP Cloud Platform
5. Rackspace Cloud

Why companies are switching to DBaaS?

Simplicity could be a single word to describe the major attraction of DBaaS. The database provisioning took longer durations with DBMS whereas in the DBAAS auto-provisioning is simplifying the tasks.

The low cost is another attractive point for the migration to DBASS because we need to pay only for the usage.

Scalability is another feature for the migration to DBASS. According to every business management team, they are looking to increase the resources for achieving their goals. The DBASS system allows increasing the current resource according to the requirements.

The DBASS has the feature to serve the data from the different sides of the world by providing entry points. This will helpful for customers for accessing the data without any delay.

At the time of migration, you can choose the main service providers like Amazon and Microsoft Azure

Amazon providing different RDS database engines and you can choose according to your application. Amazon providing RDS engines like Amazon Aurora, PostgreSQL, MySQL, MariaDB, Oracle, Microsoft SQL Server.

Microsoft Azure provides Azure Database for PostgreSQL, Azure Database for MySQL, Azure Database for MariaDB

Advantage of DBaaS.

The databases are stored in the remote server and hence no additional expenses are required on hardware and license.

The server maintenance will be taken care of by the DBAAS service provider.  So there is no requirement for a database server administrator for maintaining the database server.

The DBaaS service provides high security for the databases. The database access can be defined within a simple click. Also, we can control access to databases from which country we are preferring.

Other major benefits include:

• The cloud database provider will keep the backup server for recovery of the databases.
• The disk space can be increased according to the database usage without stopping the services.
• The database contents are stored in an encrypted format.
• The automatic patching, updates, replications, and 99.99% availability.

Disadvantages of DBaaS.

• The database owner has no right to access to the Physical server.
• If any network issues happen at the DBaaS service providers end, the valuable data will not be accessible.
• The migration of the existing database may create a complex one. Before initiating migration you need to ensure the DBaaS is supporting the features of existing Databases.

In the emerging trend, it is sure that DBaaS gives a promising future with an enhanced platform for all Database users to accommodate any rising requirements. The introduction of security and compliance features shall enable companies benefit from the DBaaS features.