For decades, companies have relied on "classic" data warehouses to consolidate operational and transactional information. But these "first-generation" warehouses are no longer adapted to today's environment. In order to benefit from greater agility, companies need to opt for a hybrid infrastructure.
Classical data warehouses, built specifically for the purpose of performing analyses, are losing their appeal. Companies are collecting more and more data to feed their critical applications (business intelligence and analytics). Relying on a single, "fixed" solution for business performance is increasingly becoming a handicap.
This is why the trend is towards the adoption of "as-a-service" data platforms, as highlighted in 451 Research's "Voice of the Enterprise" report.
"Companies are increasingly turning to hybrid cloud environments. Because they see that they combine the advantages of the public cloud (scalable infrastructure, pay-per-use) and the private cloud (control, predictability). This approach means placing the various workloads in the environment where they will be most effective for the business. Even if this means modernizing software to improve the customer experience, or securing access to strategic applications and data", say the authors of the report.
Minimizing risk
A hybrid solution in the cloud is essential for modernizing a data warehouse. Companies need it to be faster, more efficient and more modern, but also robust enough to handle large volumes of data and many users, while providing real-time query results.
In addition to the well-known advantages of the cloud in general, a hybrid data warehouse offers a number of other benefits, including :
Scalability: the cloud enables simultaneous access for a large number of employees. The modular design also makes it easy to add compute nodes as needed. The result is accelerated analytical experimentation.
Flexible deployment: hybrid data warehouse solutions enable companies to deploy their analytical workloads as they see fit, with the flexibility to optimize costs and minimize risks.
In conclusion, a hybrid approach to a data warehouse helps companies work with auditable data, whether it resides on a public cloud, in multiple cloud environments, or on-premises. Necessary changes are specific to each company, but the gains to be made in all cases are too great to ignore.
