The Types of Databases Powering the Cloud

We recently conducted a survey on cloud adoption, and one of the questions we touched upon was the type of databases powering the cloud. Our respondents leverage a wide range of database technologies for their cloud approaches. Here are the top selections, presented in order of popularity.

1. Microsoft SQL Server

Microsoft SQL Server was the overwhelmingly most popular database selection, with 140 respondents. It is a strong general-purpose relational database that is widely supported across many cloud platforms. You can deploy it on Windows and Linux servers, as well as containers. One of its biggest advantages is being able to query other databases’ data in-place. SQL Server 2019 also added Spark and HDFS support out of the box. You can work with both structured and unstructured data and use your programming language of choice.

2. Oracle

More than 80 respondents use Oracle to power their cloud adoption. This widely used database technology offers a multi-model database management system. It also supports MySQL, NoSQL, and in-memory databases. Oracle offers many types of implementation, as well as deep integration with their other solutions. It’s powerful with significant reliability and commercial support, making it popular among larger organizations and those with particularly demanding workloads.

3. MySQL

MySQL is a general purpose open-source database known for its low total cost of ownership, user-friendliness, and support for scaling OLTP applications. Over 40 respondents use this database for their cloud adoption strategy. Replication features offer high-performance and reliability, while InnoDB integration brings ACID compliance to the table.

4. PostgreSQL

PostgreSQL is another open-source relational database finding itself high on the list, with over 20 respondents. This database has been around for more than 30 years, is ACID compliant, and is known for being extremely reliable. A major advantage of this platform is that it offers a lot of flexibility. You can easily add custom data types, develop custom functionality, integrate add-ons from the active developer community, and it’s all available for free.

5. IBM Db2

IBM Db2 is the choice for 20 respondents. It’s a relational database that leverages artificial intelligence for modern applications. It supports multi-cloud and on-premise deployments, and offers both structured and unstructured data storage. This enterprise-grade database is commonly used in IBM host environments.

6. MongoDB

MongoDB is one of the most commonly used document stores, designed for general purpose use. Organizations of all sizes leverage this platform, and the features support many modern applications. Transactional, operational, and analytical applications are all supported in a single database, and it has significant support among third-party developers.

7. MariaDB

MariaDB is an open-source relational database that is compatible with MySQL and Oracle, offers a column-oriented storage engine, and has JSON support. You can put your transactional, analytical, and hybrid workloads on the same database technology, and use row and column storage as needed for each use case. Deployment options include using it as a relational database, setting it up as a distributed SQL database, or powering a data warehouse with it. You can plug-in different storage engines to optimize each workload.

8. Cassandra

Cassandra is a wide-column store, NoSQL database. It’s designed to support multi-cloud and hybrid cloud environments, with reliable performance, high scalability, and features that power modern applications. Operating this database is intentionally kept simple so the total cost of ownership stays low.

Moving to a Modern Database

At Datavail, we’ve guided hundreds of customers through database modernization and cloud migration and have extensive expertise with all mentioned databases. We’re partners and certified with many database platforms, including Oracle, MongoDB, AWS, and Microsoft.

We can help you bring your databases up to speed with end-to-end service. Learn more about cloud adoption trends by reading our white paper.