Unlike popular belief, most developers do not enjoy managing services and apps due to the increased complexities. However, it is undoubtedly important to manage apps and websites after their launch. So, what is the solution? Well, serverless databases are a great way to solve these problems as they allow developers to easily maintain the database. Another advantage is that a serverless databases is completely cloud-based, making them an economical option.

Interested in migrating your existing database into a cloud-based and serverless database? Before you jump into serverless DB migration, we recommend learning what migration means, the basics of serverless databases, and their capabilities, features, and benefits. To help you better understand these concepts, we have curated the article below and answered some FAQs. So, what are you waiting for? Jump right into it and learn all there is to know about database migration services.

What Is A Database Migration?

Before we jump right into answering ‘what is a database migration‘, let us look at what database schemes mean. The term refers to the structure and interactions between data stored and managed by relational databases. Although developers must decide the schema of a database before implementing it to avoid the need for future changes, it might be unavoidable at times.

Database migrations, also known as schema migrations, refer to a set of process and structure changes that help modify object structures and data stored in databases. But, why are they necessary? Well, db migrations are done to change the current state of the database and take it to its desired state. This can be done by a range of steps such as adding or dropping columns, changing constraints, or removing elements.

Generally, database migration tools help make database migration changes repeatable and shareable. Moreover, they also help ensure that developers can use functional testing tools on these databases. These tools are generally preferred over manual labor because they are more adept at ensuring there is no data loss.

What Are Serverless Databases?

Before we start talking about serverless databases, let us look at a common business problem that will help you better understand the need for serverless databases:

Testing environments, especially testing databases, are necessary to ensure that applications and websites are running properly and can be maintained. However, the load on these databases varies and the testing time is quite an insignificant part of the overall development, production, and maintenance timeline. Maintaining these databases throughout the process and paying a huge chunk of money doesn’t make sense and can incur a huge cost. So, what is the solution? Well, the answer is right in front of you – serverless database migration.

Serverless databases act as a prerequisite for the serverless computing paradigm and embodies its core principles to help optimize business processes and costs. Here, the exact architecture and features of your application or software do not matter. However, some principles these must follow include:

• Almost zero manual server management
• Easy to scale
• Inherently fault-tolerant due to its built-in resilience
• Available to users 24/7 with instant access to data
• Companies need to pay only for database resources based on the consumption

When all of these principles are brought together, we get serverless databases. We hope we could provide you a clear answer to – “what is a serverless database“. This next-generation database is delivered as a database migration service with its main focus on cutting down business processes and reducing the overall cost.

How Do Serverless Databases Work?

To better understand how serverless databases work, let us take the example of the most popular database migration service – AWS Database Migration Services (works on Amazon Aurora Serverless).

An on-demand serverless database migration version of the Amazon Aurora edition that is compatible with MySQL, AWS Serverless databases have an auto-scaling configuration. The difference is that here, the database automatically switches on, turns off, and scales itself based on the needs of your application/software. This is why the serverless database runs on the cloud without the need to manage multiple instances of the database or other clusters.

But, how is this functionality realized? Well, in serverless databases, the storage and processing are separated. All you need to do is create an endpoint, set the minimum and maximum capacity of the database’s capability (optional), and issue queries to the endpoint of the database. Another benefit of separation of the storage and processing is that developers can easily scale down to zero processing without having to pay for the resources not in use.

Interested in implementing the serverless architecture for your organization’s databases via AWS Aurora? Get in touch with companies specializing in AWS serverless app development services to get started!

What Are The Key Capabilities Of Serverless Databases?

It is now clear why more and more businesses are looking for serverless database migration services. But, what are its key capabilities and core principles and how are these realized in serverless databases?

1. Automated Server Management

In contrast to what the name suggests, serverless databases are nothing but a bunch of servers that have been abstracted and automated. The main purpose is to reduce the pressure of database testing and maintenance on developers. Manual tasks like planning the database capacity, maintaining it, updating it, and provisioning are automated and happen behind the scenes. Moreover, using these database migration facilities is automated and requires little to no manual interaction.

2. Automatically Scalable

A great advantage of serverless database migration is that it easily allows you to scale the resources needed based on the app’s demands. So, whatever the workload, your system is capable of handling it and ensures resources are not wasted when the system needs to be scaled down.

3. In-built Fault Tolerance

A prime feature of serverless databases is that they survive the failure of any backend computer process or issues with network and physical resources. This is why the popular web frameworks are available even if you upgrade the services.

4. Can Be Accessed Instantly

The prime advantage of a serverless database is that it is easily scalable, meaning it can instantly scale down if needed. However, the major challenge is realizing the instant availability of a service that has been dormant for quite some time. Although this automatic scaling down helps businesses save money, this uncertainty of instant access is a big drawback.

5. Billed Based On Consumption

As discussed, serverless database migration is popular due to its built-in mechanism that tracks activity and bills users based only on consumption. This ensures that businesses do not pay for the resources and storage not utilized, which helps cut down on business costs.

6. Domain Failure Survival

Generally, a serverless platform is available across multiple regions and must be easily accessible. This can cause problems in the case of constraints like data availability and accuracy. To survive the failure and collapse of any domain data, a serverless database must have multiple copies of the stored data. Moreover, the system must be able to intelligently decide the storage of these copies to facilitate optimum storage and data availability.

7. Geographically Scalable

When discussing serverless database migration within the database context, we know that it is scalable. However, based on the business needs and operations, the database scale can be extended to geography. To ensure your serverless database is geographically scalable, it must offer automatic geo-partitioning to ensure the data moves securely across the globe.

8. Relational Database Characteristics

Out of all the database needs your serverless database must fulfill, the most complicated is ensuring the delivery of a relational database that supports joins and other characteristics. Although delivering the elegance of a SQL database might not be a requirement, it can be considered to ensure the better handling of operational workloads.

What Are The Features Of Serverless Databases?

Now that we know about the key capabilities of serverless databases, let us look at some of its key features that have led to the increased popularity of serverless database migration.

1. Multi-tenant Architecture

A major bonus of serverless databases is their ability to function as a single resource pool which can be used in multiple projects within your business. This is a great capability as it allows developers to utilize it without building application-specific data sources. So, the development team can easily build, set up, and deploy multiple applications with the help of the same database cluster.

2. Dynamic Service Quality

Due to the multi-tenancy feature, developers can easily assign priorities to each tenant. This helps ensure that the system resources are consumed accordingly and the most important tenants are prioritized. The benefit is that businesses can use the available resources to the best of their abilities across multiple projects without the need to put any project on hold. This is one of the most popular DB migration best practices as it allows businesses to utilize 60-80% of the resources available to ensure low-priority tasks are not strangulated.

3. Geo Distribution

Since most businesses work on a global scale, it is necessary for your serverless database to fulfill your data needs across geographical boundaries. To learn more about this feature in detail, you can refer to the section on geographic scalability.

4. Consistent With ACID Properties

Although serverless databases are easily scalable and cost-effective, data accuracy must be the priority of every organization. When you classify sequencing and scheduling functionalities in a single layer that is placed above the stored data system layer, you can ensure that the serverless database supports ACID properties.

5. Single Transactional Query Language

Although serverless databases allow the use of a single pool of resources, the constraint of imposing a single data structure or schema might limit your developer team from deploying multiple applications using it. Well, serverless databases support both structured and unstructured data that allow organizations to ensure that data is stored in the way it was meant to be.

What Are The Benefits Of A Serverless Database?

Some common benefits of serverless databases that have helped boost the popularity of serverless database migration are:-

1. Real-time Data Access

With a serverless architecture database, developers have access to the stored data at the granular level which allows default data indexing and offers the team immediate access to these indexes. So, the development team can easily query the database, while ensuring they can read, write, update, and add new elements to it. Moreover, the development team will be able to easily perform database migration steps with the help of functions.

2. Ease Of Scalability

Since serverless databases are automatically scaled as per business needs, they ensure that all necessary functions work in parallel and the data remains consistent.

3. High Security

Serverless databases have access control protocols in place to ensure all applications based on them operate on the same dataset. This helps ensure that the applications are safe from surface-level attacks which is essential for the proper functioning of today’s businesses.

4. Availability

Since serverless databases scale automatically, they offer reduced latency and performance issues. So, the data from event-driven functions can be easily read from the point that is closest to the user.

5. Schemaless

With schemaless databases, developers can handle any data output received from the functions. This ensures that the serverless database can be easily integrated with existing systems which is another reason contributing to the popularity of database migration.

You may like this: How to Build a Serverless Web App in Azure?

Conclusion

It is clear that serverless databases are highly popular currently and serverless migration services will continue to gain traction in the upcoming years. Moreover, with access to features like real-time data access, while reducing business costs, serverless databases can offer great benefits to businesses.

Interested in serverless database migration services and want to get started with it as soon as possible? Hire AWS Lambda developers to get started with migrating your business databases to serverless. We recommend you outsource software development services from the top development company and start experimenting with serverless databases to reduce operational costs and add to business security!

The post A Detailed Guide To Serverless Databases For Better Business Benefits appeared first on CMARIX Blog.

As businesses need to scale over time, their data ecosystem must change accordingly. This not only allows better handling of applications, but also helps enterprises save costs, enhance scalability, and achieve reliability. Moreover, business applications change with time including the addition of new features or changes in existing functionalities. This is why businesses must invest in database migration along with custom software development.

To help you better understand the need for database migration along with its benefits, challenges, and points to help tackle them, we have created the detailed article below. So, what are you waiting for? Jump right into it to get started with learning more about database migration and investing in it as soon as possible.

What Is A Database Migration?

Although database migration is a complicated process that we will get into in detail in the following sections, it would be better to explain the core idea in simple terms.

The simple answer to “what is a database migration” is – it is the process of data transportation from one or more databases/platforms to another target database/platform. It is a multi-phase process that involves different actions like moving data, assessing schemas, understanding the different objects like tables and objects, testing functions and methods, performance tuning, and multiple other steps.

It is clear that database migration is quite complicated and requires a lot of effort. So, the obvious question is – what is the need for database migrations? To help you understand the need for this difficult process, we have answered this question in the following section.

What Is The Need For Database Migration?

As technology continues to advance and businesses need to handle more and more data, it is important that organizations adapt to new technologies. This is essential as new technologies are better capable of handling large numbers of users while helping boost the application’s performance and efficiency. Some reasons for database migration to help understand why it is the need of the hour are:-

1. Save Business Costs

Since old technologies operate slower than advanced upgrades, using old databases might take a lot of time. This means that simple business processes will take up a lot of time and your infrastructure resources will be kept in use for longer. So, other business processes will be on hold until the resources free up. When your developers perform database migration, they ensure that your business saves on infrastructure and manpower required to support the database. Ultimately, this helps reduce business costs while offering greater flexibility and scope for improvement.

2. Upgrade Infrastructure

One of the most common reasons for businesses looking for data migration is their need to shift to a new system. After all, outdated systems are not only difficult to maintain, but might also not fulfill the current business demands. Moreover, with the introduction of new technologies like big data, business systems must be capable of handling huge amounts of data and processing them for better results.

3. Reduce Redundancy

Often, companies realize that their data is not stored in a comprehensive manner which can cause problems in business functioning. This also means that different business teams do not have access to accurate data and cannot deliver transparent services. In these cases, database migration is essential and necessary to move the complete business data in a single place. Doing so also promotes collaboration and ensures that all business departments and teams are in sync.

4. Security Patches And Updates

Databases are one of the most vulnerable points of cyberattacks since most businesses forget to upgrade them with time. So, they are quite easy to get through and fail more than other systems. With database migration, businesses get access to professional database migration service that includes database upgrades with better security options. So, the only way to update your database and ensure that it is not a point for data leaks is via database migration and degradation.

What Happens During Database Migration?

Now that we know how database migrations came into existence and why they are needed, let us move on to discussing what the process actually entails.

Generation Of Granular Changes As Individual Scripted Files

Basically, database migrations track granular changes to the schema of the database and in some cases, changes made to the data too. Typically, these changes are listed and stored as separate schema files to enable the proper reflection of code changes via version control software. Another point to note is that these files are not only available as individual scripts, but you can also find the current schema of the database as its own file (also known as the schema file).

Tool-Dependent Database Migration Scripts

Popular web frameworks and migration tools can produce migration changes in multiple file formats like JSON and XML. This means that there is no standard that is followed when it comes to database migration and the creation of relevant files. But, you can also custom-write your database migration script in the form of SQL. However, a downside is that handwriting codes means that the process becomes time-consuming and there is a high potential of errors creeping into the code.

What Are The Benefits Of Database Migration?

Some common benefits of database migration that have helped boost its popularity include:-

1. Improvement In Performance

Since database migration means the inclusion of new and advanced technologies, the target databases generally offer improved performance due to the optimization of resources, hardware, and infrastructure. Moreover, database migration includes the optimization of database design and indexing strategies, segmentation and partition of data, and the proper utilization of advanced database features.

2. Cost Optimization

By migrating to cloud-based technologies, businesses can avoid major investments in resources, hardware, and infrastructure. Instead, they can leverage tools available on a pay-as-you-use basis. Moreover, cloud-based solutions offer effective storage and help ensure proper data maintenance for better business efficiency.

3. Additional Features And Functionalities

Since database migrations use advanced technologies, they allow businesses to better leverage additional features and functionalities. For example, new systems support new data types, implement data analytics, and have built-in support that ensures high availability.

4. Data Consolidation

Often, multiple databases exist within an organization’s infrastructure which can lead to improper data management and coordination. Migrating these into a single database via database migration can help simplify the complete data management process, reduce instances of duplicate data, enable better data integrity, and allow instant formation of in-depth reports.

5. Business Continuity And Disaster Recovery

With database migration, businesses can migrate their organizational data into secure systems and platforms. This helps minimize the risk of data loss and allows better recovery of data in case of issues. Moreover, cloud-based solutions offer better data availability that is not dependent on hardware and helps prevent system disruption due to hardware and system failures.

You may like this: Realm Local Databases in React Native App Development

What Are The Challenges In Database Migration?

Although database migration is gaining popularity now, it has been a common practice for years. The process is quite complicated which gives rise to some common challenges listed below. Following DB migration best practices can help avoid these issues as much as possible.

1. Data Loss

The most common issue that organizations face during database migration is the loss of data. To avoid this, it is crucial to test for data loss or data corruption in the planning stage to ensure that the complete data is migrated to the target database. Doing this early on will help ensure that you can solve these challenges when you are not deep in database migration.

2. Data Security

Since data is of utmost importance to a business’s performance and proper functioning, data security is crucial. Before you go through data migration, focus on data encryption to ensure that your data is not put at risk during the process.

3. Planning Difficulty

Most multinational companies have their data spread across multiple databases which also spread across different geographical areas. Before db migration, companies must locate these databases and plan how to convert their schemas to ensure proper data migration into the target database. Beware that the planning process before database migration can become quite complicated and time-consuming.

4. Migration Strategy

The most obvious question, when companies learn about database migration, is – how is the DB migration done? Due to this lack of knowledge, companies often miss out on several crucial steps and adopt a strategy that is not suitable for their company. This can cause problems like data storage and maintenance in the future and might lead to system failures.

How To Perform Database Migration (Steps)?

To help you better plan your database migration strategy, we have broken down the multi-step process into a few simple steps. Check out the steps listed below and get ready to migrate your data:-

1. Proper Understanding Of The Source Database

An important step in the database migration process is understanding the source data that needs to be migrated to the target database. Some common questions that you must be able to understand before you go through the DB migration process include:-

• What is the size of the data stored in the source database? – The scope of your db migration project is highly dependent on the size and complexity of the source data that is to be migrated. This will also help you understand the amount of computing resources and time required to migrate your data into the target database.
• Does the data set contain huge tables? – When your data consists of tables with millions of rows, the migration process becomes quite complicated. In these cases, it would be wise to use database migration tools.
• What are the different data types involved in the database migration process? – When you migrate your data between different databases, you will need to consider the schema of the databases and decide on the schema of your target database for successful data migration.

2. Data Assessment

This step refers to the granular assessment of data before businesses go through database migration. You must profile the source data present in the database and set data quality rules that help remove data inconsistencies, duplicate records, and incorrect information. Properly assessing your data and completing your data profile will help mitigate the risk of delays and help you avoid budget overruns.

3. Conversion Of Database Schema

Often, businesses need to perform heterogeneous data migrations, meaning migrating data between different database engines. This process is wildly different from single database migrations and can be quite complicated. Although you can manually convert schemas for DB migrations, it is quite time-consuming and can take up a lot of resources. This is why we recommend using data migration tools and services to aid the migration process and help you quickly perform it.

4. Migration Build Tests

Adopting an iterative process can help better implement and test a migration build. It is advisable to start with a small data subset, profile it, and convert the schema into a fully running migration exercise. Doing so will help ensure data mapping, transformations, and data quality rules work as you intended.

5. Execution Of The Migration

Since database migration takes time, companies must plan the execution of their migration projects during the downtime. It is important to better plan your database moving projects to ensure that your system does not run into issues, failures, and interruptions. After all, this can disrupt client services and affect the complete business process.

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Are There Any Database Migration Tools?

The top db migration tools that you can utilize for quicker data migration are:-

1. AWS Database Migration Services

AWS database migration services are one of the most popular migration suites offered by Amazon. The cloud data migration tool offers businesses hybrid data storage and online and offline data transfers. Moreover, they include a wide range of services that help users move datasets irrespective of the data type and schema.

2. Informix

Another excellent database migration tool, Informix has been developed by IBM and allows migration of data from one IBM database to another. This tool primarily focuses on homogenous data migrations and is suitable for relational systems. Moreover, the tool is a high-speed and flexible database that easily integrates with SQL, NoSQL, or JSON, and spatial data.

3. Azure Database Migration Services

Owned by Microsoft, Azure’s database migration tool allows users to simplify and automate the complete data migration process. With the help of this tool, users can easily migrate databases from SQL servers, MySQL database, PostgreSQL database, MongoDB, and Oracle to the Azure cloud.

Expedite Your Business’ Database Migration With CMARIX

Since database migration is quite complicated, it can be time-consuming and expensive. However, it is important to complete the DB migration process on time to ensure that the company’s revenue and reputation do not take a hit. With functional testing tools and enterprise-grade database migration tools, you can easily automate repetitive tasks and ensure better maintenance of data quality.

At CMARIX, we design end-to-end database migration solutions that cater to the complex needs of every business. Moreover, our team of experts has years of professional experience in the fields of data migration and maintenance. Interested in learning more and utilizing expert database migration services? Get in touch with us to discuss your goals or for a quick demo!

The post A Detailed Guide to Database Migration and Its Importance appeared first on CMARIX Blog.