Connected Cloud

A connected cloud provides multiple functions under a single management umbrella. In a data platform context, these services would include data analysis, storage, and data integration. The Actian Data Platform offers these services. In a multi-cloud enterprise, it is essential to have management tools that span multiple public cloud platforms and on-premises instances for a hybrid cloud architecture.

What are the Benefits

The main benefit of a connected cloud for businesses is that it reduces the administrative effort associated with managing individual resources. Cloud providers bundle services and high-level abstracted interfaces to reduce the effort of managing resources. Developers can build, test, and deploy new applications faster if they are built on connected services. Serverless computing or Function-as-a-Service (FaaS) can be considered the next level of connected cloud in that it removes even more elements to manage.

Key Elements

• Compute is the most basic and elastic resource that cloud providers provision.
• Network services include dedicated VPN-protected connections.
• Service types include infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS), platforms-as-a-service (PaaS), and software-as-a-service (SaaS).
• Cloud storage for files can be mapped to a file system or abstracted into data blocks, making cloud storage easier to use for developers and more straightforward to manage for a business.

For providers of cloud-based application services, containerization enables them to package their application with everything it needs to run into a single deployment unit. For example, the Actian Data Platform is deployed as containers and microservices on Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) nodes, Google Cloud Dataproc, and Google Cloud Storage (GCS). This benefits customers through faster instance provisioning.

Implementing Connected Cloud

Many businesses don’t want to be tied to a single cloud platform to maximize flexibility, so it is important to follow a deliberate hybrid cloud strategy. Major cloud providers such as Amazon, Microsoft and Google have their own connected data offerings, but standardizing on a single cloud provider can make it challenging to migrate workloads to other clouds. Selecting a data management platform that provides data analysis and integration services across multiple public cloud platforms maintains cloud independence for a business.

Regulated industries such as finance and healthcare need to keep tight control of sensitive client data they employ on-premises or on private clouds. A hybrid cloud strategy offers the benefit of keeping some data on-premises while making the most of what public clouds have to offer for much of their data. Running data centers is expensive. Businesses can avoid long procurement cycles, capacity planning, and management costs using public cloud platforms that offer resources on demand with subscription pricing.

Connecting Multiple Clouds

One of the great things about cloud-based computing is eliminating the cost and effort of managing and maintaining your own IT infrastructure. The primary advantage of connecting multiple clouds is taking advantage of the latest advances in each cloud provider’s ecosystem. The downside is increasing infrastructure complexity. Using management tools and data services that span multiple clouds mitigates most of the complexity.

Cloud providers are responding to the need for cross-cloud cooperation with initiatives that include creating secure, high-speed connections between cloud platforms and supporting portable applications that can be deployed or migrated across the cloud without refactoring.

Actian in Connected Cloud Environments

The Actian Data Platform supports customers using multiple connected clouds. The data platform provides a single user interface to deploy and manage instances that run on a mix of cloud services. Customers prefer to store data in the cloud in which it was created or pool data where it makes business sense. The Actian Data Platform allows an organization to perform data analysis where the data is located. SQL queries can access data stored in Amazon S3 buckets and Azure and Google storage. A single distributed query can span multiple Actian Data Platform instances.