HarperDB: It’s all about the (open) DBaaS
The cloud has many resources, obviously.
Among the most widely discussed elements of cloud usage as of 2020 is the more widespread use, deployment, implementation, integration to and adoption of DataBase-as-a-Service (DBaaS).
The central technology proposition is, of course, why bother hosting, provisioning, managing and running your own database, when you could buy it as as cloud service, which can also be served with incremental extra toppings from schema generation… to deduplication… to Extract Transform Load (ETL) chores… and more besides.
Recent updates this arena include doggy-logo-themed database company HarperDB and its release of its eponymously named cloud.
HarperDB Cloud is a fully managed/hosted services that is said to run on anything with an operating system.
As you would expect with a modern cloud (as opposed to an ‘old fashioned’ one, or at least anything pre-millennial) HarperDB Cloud instances can be spun up in minutes.
Instances feature a built-in API, ACID compliant SQL and NoSQL capabilities and standard interfaces for connecting to reporting and analysis tools.
By developers for developers
This is the first RESTful database truly built by developers for developers says Stephen Goldberg, CEO HarperDB.
“The goal of launching HarperDB Cloud was to make our already easy to use product even easier. [We wanted to] focus on improving the developer’s experience and allowing them to focus on application development, while letting us take care of data management and DevOps,” said Goldberg.
Goldberg and team says that, today, developers face the complicated and frustrating decision of whether to sacrifice cost, capabilities, or performance when selecting a database… and this aspect is what they’re setting out to counter by offering a product that can scale vertically and horizontally and has a dynamic schema.
Users can upgrade instance sizes once in the HarperDB Admin Studio tool and HarperDB provides full documentation and resources such as technical blogs and knowledgebase articles.
DBaaS, if done well
Harper isn’t the only one being positive about the open DBaaS market… Instacluster is also upbeat.
“We’re seeing the DBaaS market continue to grow year-over-year — and with good reason,” said Peter Nichol, CEO at Instaclustr, which provides a DBaaS solution for open source Apache Cassandra. “Modern cloud databases are incredibly powerful, but require specific expertise to get things right with migrations, performance, scale and cost-efficiency. Many businesses who can benefit from database transformations aren’t going to have that knowledge-base in-house.”
Nichol concludes by saying that ‘DBaaS done well’ takes those responsibilities off business’ plates. For him (and it appears for others) it’s an efficient shortcut to getting the most out of your database while keeping costs in check.
Approved image source: HarperDB