Reimagining Databases: 5 reasons DBaaS should be at the heart of digital transformation

Data has emerged as the new currency as the world becomes increasingly digitized with the ever-growing Internet of Things (IoT).  However, the value of this currency can only be maximized if it is used to extract information by businesses to gain a competitive edge. Companies must transform into ‘data-driven enterprises’ that have data and predictive analytics at the very core of their functioning, to launch into the future.

With the increasing amount of data that the companies receive today, databases managed by legacy systems are becoming increasingly burdensome. They have a slow response time, inconsistent performance, and are plagued with inefficiencies. Given databases play an integral role in day-to-day business functions- companies must find new ways to tackle database management.

Databases simplified

According to IDC research, approximately 75 per cent of database deployments remain on-premises. An unsurprising figure, given that organizations want to keep their most critical IP close by. But as businesses focus on digital transformation, Database-as-a-Service (DBaaS) offers a simplified way of configuring and maintaining an organization’s databases. DBaaS can support automation and self-service, regardless of where the database is running.

Here are five key reasons for enterprises to consider DBaaS

1. Reduced downtime and enhanced security – Security is an ever-increasing threat for businesses, with a dramatic rise in cyber-attacks since the pandemic. In legacy environments, patching security vulnerabilities can result in lengthy periods of downtime, which according to a Forrester Consulting study commissioned by Nutanix, equated to US$35,000 per hour in losses from productivity, revenue loss, and downstream impact for the composite organization.

However, when shifting to DBaaS, companies gain access to a single management console, which means they can automatically distribute patches across databases faster than ever. In many cases, patches can be made in under an hour. And in the event of a cyber-attack, running DBaaS means databases can be immediately restored, allowing organizations to get straight back to business.

2. Increased business returns with higher cost savings – 73 per cent of organizations globally use different tools and processes for their on-premise databases versus their cloud databases according to IDC research. Not only does this result in the company purchasing redundant tools and having to maintain them, but it also results in staffing inefficiencies, with database managers spending hours creating and maintaining databases. In fact, the Forrester Consulting Total Economic Impact of Nutanix Era study reports that database administrator (DBA) teams often need to work overtime and on weekends in order to keep up – this is overtime which can be slashed by 50 per cent simply by migrating to a simpler database management solution. Furthermore, organizations will see an overall return on investment of 291 per cent in three years, when migrated to Nutanix Database Service. Additionally, DBAs often over-provision database hardware to leave overhead for future growth – a cost that becomes obsolete with DBaaS systems that can scale on demand.

For India’s RBL Bank, a digital leader in India with more than 8.49 million customers and 1,631 offices, their returns were significant. Leveraging Nutanix Database Service allowed them to cut provisioning times by 90 per cent and reduce critical clones creations of databases for key customers to 4 hours instead of 1-2 days, all while saving 90Tb of database storage. RBL’s time-to-market for new services dropped from 2-4 days to 4-6 hours, and it has virtually eliminated IT downtime with a 99 per cent cut in end-user computing (EUC) service tickets.

3. Improve talent acquisition – Forrester study shows that interviewed companies found it challenging to hire technologists with the specialized skill sets to maintain legacy databases. Each time a veteran employee leaves or retires, it prompts a knowledge leak, creates a transition gap, and causes quality issues. Now, with Generation Z entering the workforce – a generation of digital natives who expect technology to work rapidly and seamlessly – organizations must be able to offer the most flexible and easy-to-use cloud-based technologies in order to attract and retain the next generation of talent. As the talent war intensifies, talent acquisition and retention are becoming increasingly competitive, and companies who refuse to let go of more outdated or clunky systems will fail to attract the best and brightest.

4. Gain rich customer insights – Consumer intelligence is playing an increasing role in strategic business decisions as organizations aim to stay one step ahead of ever-changing consumer behaviours. Databases are a gold mine of customer data, and emerging technologies, such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML), can help businesses make sense of this data; detecting patterns and anomalies that would be impossible to detect manually.

However, AI and ML technologies work best in the cloud – deploying them across on-prem databases wouldn’t work in the same way. For businesses that want to track real-time customer behaviours and to stay on top of trends, migrating databases to the cloud and deploying DBaaS not only improves efficiency but provides invaluable customer insights.

5. Fast-track digital transformation – With the cloud playing an increasingly important role in delivering critical resources to companies in the face of fast DX (Digital transformation), Indian firms are searching for ways to achieve scalability, cost-effectiveness, and resilience in order to meet their objectives. As a result, the cloud becomes crucial in achieving these business goals. 40% of Indian enterprises will have implemented specialised cloud services, either on-premises or at a service provider facility, in response to the performance, security, and compliance needs in the next two years, according to IDC‘s 2022 predictions. Not only does deploying DBaaS help to improve operational efficiencies, but it also helps businesses digitally transform across other areas of the business.

App development teams in charge of building new systems and processes need to work off the most up to date, live databases – not duplicate versions that are constantly out of date. Deploying DBaaS paves the way for digital transformation across the rest of the organization.  Databases of the future

Databases are critical to company success, but as we move into 2022 and beyond, data volumes will only continue to explode. The exponential data growth will force organizations to modernize and simplify their database management systems – whether on-premises, in the private cloud, or in the hybrid cloud – finding new ways to improve efficiency, save costs, and improve the employee experience.

Author: Faiz Shakir, Managing Director, Sales, India & SAARC, Nutanix