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Mar 20 2024
Migrate Your Mission-Critical Database to the Cloud with Confidence

Is your company contemplating moving its mission-critical database to the cloud? If so, you may have concerns around the cloud’s ability to provide the performance, security, and privacy required to adequately support your database applications. Fortunately, it’s a new day in cloud computing that allows you to migrate to the cloud with confidence! Here are some things to keep in mind that will bring you peace of mind for cloud migration.

Optimized Performance

You may enjoy faster database performance in the cloud. Cloud service providers (CSPs) offer varying processing power, memory, and storage capacity options to meet your most demanding workload performance requirements. Frequently accessed data can be stored in high-speed caches closer to users, minimizing latency and improving response times. Load balancers distribute processing across servers within the cloud infrastructure to prevent server overload and bottlenecks. Some CSPs also have sophisticated monitoring tools to track resource usage and identify performance bottlenecks.

Enhanced Security

Data isn’t necessarily more secure in your on-premises data center than in the cloud. This is because CSPs invest heavily in advanced security controls to protect their infrastructure and have deep security expertise. They constantly update and patch their systems, often addressing vulnerabilities faster than on-premises deployments. Some CSPs also offer free vulnerability scanning and penetration testing.

However, it’s important to keep in mind that you are also responsible for security in the cloud. The Shared Responsibility Model (SRM) is a cloud security approach that states that CSPs are responsible for securing their service infrastructure and customers are responsible for securing their data and applications within the cloud environment. This includes tasks such as:

    • Patching and updating software
    • Properly configuring security settings
    • Implementing adequate access controls
    • Managing user accounts and permissions

Improved Compliance

Organizations with strict data privacy requirements have understandably been reluctant to operate their mission-critical databases with sensitive data in the cloud. But with the right CSP and the right approach, it is possible to implement a compliant cloud strategy. CSPs offer infrastructure and services built to comply with a wide range of global security and compliance standards such as GDPR, PCI DSS, HIPAA, and others, including data sovereignty requirements:

Data Residency Requirements: You can choose among data center locations for where to store your data to meet compliance mandates. Some CSPs can prevent data copies from being moved outside of a location.

Data Transfer Requirements: These include the legal and regulatory rules that oversee how personal data can be moved across different jurisdictions, organizations, or systems. CSPs often offer pre-approved standard contractual clauses (SCCs) and support Binding Corporate Rules (BCRs) to serve compliance purposes for data transfers. Some CSPs let their customers control and monitor their cross-border data transfers.

Sovereign Controls: Some CSPs use hardware-based enclaves to ensure complete data isolation.

Additionally, many CSPs, as well as database vendors, offer features to help customers with compliance requirements to protect sensitive data. These include:

  • Data encryption at rest and in transit protects data from unauthorized access
  • Access controls enforce who can access and modify personal data
  • Data masking and anonymization de-identify data while still allowing analysis
  • Audit logging: tracks data access and activity for improved accountability.

Microsoft Cloud for Sovereignty provides additional layers of protection through features like Azure Confidential Computing. This technology utilizes hardware-based enclaves to ensure even Microsoft cannot access customer data in use.

Cloud Migration Made Easy

Ingres NeXt delivers low-risk database migration from traditional environments to modern cloud platforms with web and mobile client endpoints. Since no two journeys to the cloud are identical, Actian provides the infrastructure and tooling required to take customers to the cloud regardless of what their planned journey may look like.

Here are additional articles on database modernization benefits and challenges that you may find helpful:

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Author: Teresa Wingfield

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Jan 18 2024
Digital Transformation: Modernizing Database Applications

In my previous blog on digital transformation, I wrote about the benefits of migrating mission-critical databases to the cloud. This time, I’m focusing on modernizing the applications that interact with the database. Application modernization can involve modernizing an application’s code, features, architecture and/or infrastructure. It’s a growing priority according to The 2023 Gartner CIO and Technology Executive Survey that places it in the top 4 technology areas in spending, with 46% of organizations increasing their spend on application modernization. Further, Foundry, an IDG company, reports that 87% of its survey respondents cite modernizing critical applications as a key success driver.

7 Benefits of Database Application Modernization

Why all the recent interest in transitioning to modern applications? Application modernization and database modernization are closely intertwined processes that work together to enhance the overall agility, efficiency, performance, security, innovation, and capabilities of an organization’s business. Here’s how application modernization complements database modernization:

Accelerated Time to Market

Monolithic legacy applications are time consuming to update. Modernized applications with a loosely coupled architecture can enable faster development cycles, reducing the time it takes to bring new features or products to market. Agile development methodologies often accompany application modernization, enabling incremental and iterative development so that teams can respond rapidly to changing business requirements.

Cloud-Enabled Opportunities

Moving applications to the cloud as part of an application modernization initiative provides an extensive list of advantages over on-premises deployments, including elasticity, scalability, accessibility, business continuity, environmental sustainability, a pay-as-you-go model, and more.

Optimized User Experience

Modernizing applications offers many ways to increase user satisfaction, and productivity, including more intuitive interfaces, personalization, improved response times and better accessibility.  Multi-channel support such as mobile and web and cross-platform compatibility extend reach while advanced search and navigation, rich media incorporation, and third-party integrations add value for users.

Stronger Security and Compliance

Legacy applications built on outdated technologies may lack security features and defenses against contemporary threats and may not comply with regulatory compliance requirements. Modernizing applications allows for the implementation of the latest security measures and compliance standards, reducing the likelihood of security breaches and non-compliance.

Staff Productivity

Legacy systems can be difficult to maintain and may require significant technical resources for updates and support. Modern applications can improve staff efficiency, reduce maintenance expenses, and lead to better utilization of resources for strategic initiatives that deliver greater value to the business.

Easier Integration

Application modernization supports integration with technologies and architectural best practices that enhance interoperability, flexibility, and efficiency. Using technologies such as microservices, APIs, containers, standardized protocols, and/or cloud services, it’s easier to integrate modernized applications within complex IT environments.

Support for Innovation

Legacy applications often make it difficult to incorporate newer technologies, hindering innovation. Modernizing applications allows organizations the ability to leverage emerging technologies, such as machine learning and Internet of Things (IoT) for competitive advantage.

Database Application Modernization with Ingres NeXT

In summary, database application modernization is a strategic digital transformation initiative that can help organizations stay ahead in the digital age.  However, application modernization can be expensive and risky without the right approach.

Ingres NeXt is designed to protect existing database application investments in OpenROAD while leveraging them in new ways to add value to your business, without costly and lengthy rewrites. Flexible options to modernize your OpenROAD applications include:

  • ABF and Forms-Based Applications – Modernize ABF applications to OpenROAD frames using the abf2or migration utility and extend converted applications to mobile and web applications.
  • OpenROAD and Workbench IDE – Migrate partitioned ABF applications to OpenROAD frames.
  • OpenROAD Server – Deploy applications securely in the OpenROAD Server to retain and use application business logic.

In addition, The Ingres NeXt Readiness Assessment offers a pre-defined set of professional services that can lower your risk for application modernization and increase your confidence for a successful cloud journey. The service is designed to assist you with understanding the requirements to modernize Ingres and ABF or OpenROAD applications and to impart recommendations important to your modernization strategy formulation, planning, and implementation.

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Author: Teresa Wingfield

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Jun 1 2023
Using Data to Improve Your ROI Just Got Easier!

Are your data analytics providing a positive return on investment (ROI) for your organization? Unfortunately, the answer may be no because the data isn’t offering enough value, meaning that it isn’t positively impacting business outcomes. Too often, data platforms are information graveyards. This may sound harsh, but Forrester estimates that less than 0.5% of all data is ever analyzed and used. It also estimates that if the typical Fortune 1000 business were able to increase data accessibility by 10%, it would generate more than $65 million in additional net income.

You should and can turn this around. Delivering the right data, at the right time and in the right context will make it easier to use data to improve your ROI. Here are some pointers to help you get started.

Deliver the Right Data

You can’t improve business outcomes unless you ask your users what data they really need. You’re likely to get an extensive list of requests, so you should also find out what key performance indicators (KPIs) and other methods users apply to measure their success. This will provide a way for you to prioritize data that will help users meet their goals. Also, try to understand issues that are preventing users from getting the insights they need, including factors such as usability, data quality, and accessibility.

Deliver Data at the Right Time

Organizations with traditional data analytics, data warehousing, business intelligence, and data management processes often take weeks to respond to requests for the right data. As a result, current data isn’t available when users need it for decision-making. Real-time data analytics helps organizations deliver data in a manner that improves situational awareness as change is happening, and thus empowers them to decide on the best courses of action at the moment.

Deliver Data in the Right Context

Analytics embedded within day-to-day tools and applications deliver data in the right context, allowing users in sales, marketing, finance, and other departments to make better decisions faster. According to Gartner, context-driven analytics, and artificial intelligence (AI) models will replace 60% of existing models built on traditional data, by 2025. 

The Avalanche Cloud Data Platform Improves ROI

The Actian Data platform is the ideal solution for making it easy to deliver the right data, at the right time and in the right context.

REAL-Real Time Analytics: The Avalanche platform is able to not only update data in the instant that it changes but does so in a way that does not impact the performance of other workloads or queries. While other technologies claim real-time analytics, their data updates always impact query performance. Thus, they deliver “near” real-time or “human” real-time…but never REAL real-time. If you need TRUE real-time insights –at the moment they matter– you need the Avalanche Platform.

Embedded Analytics: The Avalanche platform includes a scalable connectivity framework, a lightweight embeddable runtime engine, a low-code development environment, and ready-to-use APIs to deliver embedded analytics quickly.

Native Integration:  In addition, the Avalanche Platform includes integration. This means you can work with one vendor to solve multiple problems: integrating data from any source to any target, transforming it along the way with profiling and cleansing via automation and orchestration, and delivering real-time analytics. One-stop shopping with the Avalanche Platform saves you headaches with procurement, simplifies your ecosystem and gets you results faster.

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Author: Teresa Wingfield

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Apr 21 2023
6 Things You Must Know About Data Modernization

Data is the heart of digital transformation and the digital+ economy. Data modernization moves data from siloed legacy systems to the digital world to help organizations optimize their use of data as a strategic asset. For a successful data modernization journey, the following are some important things you need to know: 

#1. Data Strategy 

A data strategy lays out your plan to improve how your business acquires, stores, manages, uses, and shares data. The creation of a strategy, according to McKinsey, ranks as the top reason for companies’ success in data and analytics. Your data strategy should include your vision, business objectives, use cases, goals, and ways to measure success. 

#2. Data Architecture and Technologies 

To improve access to information that empowers “next best action” decisions, you will need to transfer your data from outdated or siloed legacy databases in your on-premises data center to a modern cloud data platform. Gartner says that more than 85% of organizations will embrace a cloud-first principle by 2025 and will not be able to fully execute their digital strategies without the use of cloud-native architectures and technologies. For successful data modernization, your cloud data platform must be a cloud-native solution in order to provide the scalability, elasticity, resiliency, automation, and accessibility needed to accelerate cycles of innovation and support real-time data-driven decisions.  

#3. Data Analytics 

Another important part of data modernization is data analytics. Traditional business tools aren’t enough to support modern data needs. Advanced analytics such as predictive modeling, statistical methods, and machine learning are needed to forecast trends and predict events. Further, embedding analytics directly within applications and tools helps users better understand and use data since it’s in the context of their work.    

#4. Data Quality 

Quality matters a lot in data modernization because users who rely on data to help them make important business decisions need to know that they can trust its integrity. Data should be accurate, complete, consistent, reliable, and up-to-date. A collaborative approach to data quality across the organization increases knowledge sharing and transparency regarding how data is stored and used.   

#5. Data Security 

Strong data security is the foundation for protecting modern cloud data platforms. It includes safeguards and countermeasures to prevent, detect, counteract, or minimize security risks. In addition to security controls to keep your data safe, including user authentication, access control, role separation, and encryption, you’ll need to protect cloud services using isolation, a single tenant architecture, a key management service, federated identity/single sign-on, and end-to-end data encryption.  

#6. Data Governance 

Data governance determines the appropriate storage, use, handling, and availability of data. As your data modernization initiative democratizes data, you’ll need to protect privacy, comply with regulations, and ensure ethical use. This requires fine-grained techniques to prevent inappropriate access to personally identifiable information (PII), sensitive personal information, and commercially sensitive data, while still allowing visibility to data attributes a worker needs. 

Make Modernization Easier 

 Your modernization journey depends on a cloud data platform that eliminates internal data silos and supports cloud-native technologies. You’ll also need to choose the right data analytics tools, ensure that your data is trustworthy and implement solid data and cloud security and data governance. The Avalanche Cloud Data Platform can help make your digital transformation easier with proven data integration, data management, and data analytics services. Learn more about how the Avalanche Cloud Data platform accelerates data modernization so you can deliver today while building your digital future.  

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Author: Teresa Wingfield

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