By RickG on Jul 31, 2013
Database-as-a-Service and Platform-as-a-Service
In my last blog post, I outlined the basic differences between different varieties of Cloud offerings. Remember the two defining characteristics of any category of Cloud Service offerings –
· The Cloud Service level determines what you can see, configure and manage and
· The Cloud Service level determines the interface to the Cloud Service
There has been a fair amount of confusion on this topic and the Oracle Database Cloud Service. The name of the offering, and Oracle’s history as the leading enterprise database in the world, has let people to assume that the Database Cloud Service is a Database-as-a-Service (DBaaS), while the Database Cloud Service is actually a Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS).
If you go back to the two defining characteristics for Cloud Services, you can see that there is a clear distinction between a DBaaS and a PaaS that uses an underlying database –
· With a DBaaS, you would have access to the database instance itself. You could configure (within the limits of a shared resource environment) the instance to suit your particular needs. You would also have to manage the database instance, although some basic maintenance, such as backup, may be included as part of the DBaaS. With a PaaS, you would not have access to the underlying database, or any of the other software you would need to develop and deploy applications, such as web servers. All of this software would be included in your Service, and managed as part of the Service.
You would access a DBaaS in the same way you access a database instance – for Oracle, through SQL*Net. For a PaaS, you would access the database the way an application accesses the database – through SQL or PL/SQL.
With these distinctions in mind, the Oracle Database Cloud Service is clearly a PaaS. You cannot connect to a Database Cloud Service with SQL*Net, and you do not have to install, configure or manage any of the software used to support the Service.
A DBaaS, such as Amazon’s RDS, would allow you to access the database with SQL*Net, with best practices calling for you to use a dedicated network connection with a VPN. You would have to manage this network connection and its software and any other software you would use to support your application development and deployment environment. A PaaS would allow you to access the development or deployment environments via a URL and run both of them inside the Cloud, using SQL and PL/SQL running in the Oracle Database in the Cloud.
Which type of Cloud Service is right for you? Well, it depends on what you want to accomplish. If your goal is to move your Oracle Database from your in-house environment to a Cloud, you should be looking for a DBaaS offering, since this is the only piece you will be moving. You will still have the responsibility and overhead of managing the rest of your IT environment. And you should be aware of the fact that moving to a DBaaS is still a migration, requiring data movement, testing and frequently some adjustment in your overall operating procedures.
If you are looking to create solutions for business problems, with as little startup time and ongoing maintenance as possible, you would be better served by a PaaS, such as the Oracle Database Cloud Service. You could start with a DBaaS and add in the software you need to bring it up to the level of a PaaS, but you would be responsible for the purchase, installation, configuration and ongoing maintenance of this additional software. Of course, you would have a wide amount of flexibility in choosing and using this software too.
I hope this brief blog has helped clarify which type of Cloud Service you should be looking at to address your needs. In the next blog, I will go into more detail on the type of solutions that are best suited for a PaaS.
