5 Reasons Why Distributed SQL databases are optimised for the Cloud

In this article, we’re going to explore why SQL databases are fast becoming the database of choice for enterprises looking to store their data in the Cloud. The reasons are many and varied, but there are five key reasons why distributed SQL databases are optimised for the Cloud and that should be your top considerations when deciding on which database to use on-premise or in the Cloud. Here are our 5 reasons

1) Data Resilience

The first reason that a distributed SQL database is optimised for the cloud is data resilience. Data resilience essentially means that your data can be stored in multiple places with minimal redundancy and minimal risk of data loss. The way this works is by splitting up your data into shards, or parts, where each shard contains its own subset of data. In order to make sure that your data is never lost you need to have a minimum number of copies of each shard available at all times in case something happens to one.

CockroachDB is an example of a distributed database that automatically manages these shards making it not only a super resilient DB but also an easy-to-manage one too.

You can just tell CockroachDB how many copies of your data you want and they will do the rest! With other databases like MySQL, PostgreSQL, or Oracle there is some configuration needed which makes it more difficult to keep track of how many copies are on hand if a disaster strikes.

2) Cluster Operations

Distributed SQL Database clusters can run on a single server node, or be distributed across multiple nodes. The individual nodes of a cluster can be located in different data centres to provide increased availability and protection against site-wide failure.

Clusters of distributed SQL databases typically have no single point of failure and offer scalability, resilience, high availability and disaster recovery capabilities.

Distributed SQL database clusters also provide better performance than their monolithic counterparts due to the ability to distribute load across multiple nodes.

For example, using CockroachDB, you can easily scale your database from one node to 100 by simply adding additional nodes without modifying your schema or changing queries.

3) Scalability

Distributed SQL databases such as CockroachDB were built with scalability in mind, allowing you to scale your system while maintaining ACID compliance and without changing schema. This means that you can easily scale up or down your workloads without having to plan ahead.

For example, if a cluster is running too hot, you can just add more nodes to spread the load evenly. If a node goes offline unexpectedly (due to a power outage), then you have another node ready to take over instantly. And because distributed SQL databases don't require any change of data structures when scaling up or down, there's no need for complex recovery procedures like rebalancing shards or splitting chunks of tables among nodes.

4) Availability of Compute Nodes

One of the major benefits of using a distributed SQL database in the cloud is that you can take advantage of availability. The cloud offers compute nodes which can be used to store, process and retrieve data at any time. This means that if one node is unavailable, another one will be able to fulfil your request. When running on a traditional on-premise environment, this isn’t possible as you’re limited by the number of machines or physical servers.

The flexibility offered by cloud computing makes it easy to scale up when needed and down again when demand decreases. For example, companies who experience increased demands during holiday seasons may not want to invest in additional hardware for just four months of the year so they can instead scale up resources during these periods using their providers’ infrastructure.

5) Multi-Cloud

CockroachDB has been designed from the ground up to be distributed and scalable, enabling it to take full advantage of both Multi-Cloud and Hybrid Cloud architectures. CockroachDB can be deployed in a Multi-Cloud environment as a service on any public cloud or virtual machine provider. The same goes for Hybrid Cloud environments.

CockroachDB can help eliminate the risks in regard to Cloud Concentration and Vendor Lock-in