There’s a saying “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”.

Increasingly in modern IT, which moves at an incredible pace, this saying is thrown aside as we upgrade, evolve and transform.

However, there are some great technologies that a serve purpose so well that they don’t get thrown away.

The DEC VAX11/780 was a “minicomputer” that Digital Equipment Corporation released back in 1977. Here’s the amazing thing about this ancient piece of computing history. It is considered to be so reliable and resilient you will still find it in use today onboard submarines in the US Navy and was used in the design process for F16 fighter jet planes.

The point is that you don’t have to make a change in IT just for the sake of it.

When it comes to your applications running on Oracle or SQL they are coming under significant pressure as data grows, yet performance expectations rise. The answer to the problem that many seem to jump to is “move to public cloud” and we are seeing that happen in large volumes.

However, whilst that may be exactly the right thing to do in many instances, it is also becoming clear that it should not be the automatic choice.

The Cloud has lots of appeal and as you try to breathe new life into your database applications it is tempting to think the scalability and flexibility of cloud is the key to your application modernisation, but the truth is not so straight forward.

Let me bring you back to the idea of “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”. On premises IT infrastructure has worked for years. In fact, in corporate IT, despite the huge growth in the cloud, most applications are still running in on prem or hosted datacentres. There are a number of reasons why updating your on-premises infrastructure or even building a hybrid infrastructure can be the most effective way to breathe life into your legacy Oracle and SQL applications.
Security remains an issue and whilst these days no one doubts the security that the public cloud providers build into their offerings, the nature of the cloud is accessibility and this can present risks that are not acceptable for some types of data.

Cost is also something that needs to be carefully considered. Bottom line is charging for a cloud-based relational database can be difficult to predict and budget and in many cases on premises ROI analysis can show savings over a public cloud.

But perhaps the most important issue is about control, speed and latency.  In the public cloud, you have less control about how your database is configured, what storage infrastructure supports the database and how integrated the storage is with compute. In layman’s terms, if you want to have total control over how fast your database will perform you need to control the infrastructure on which it sits. 

Dell technologies provide options that enable companies to “amp up” their databases and provide the right infrastructure to power more data, more users and faster insights by creating a platform that meets the needs of each database use case. Dell storage options such as the Unity XT portfolio offer flash performance, super-low latency and integration with the cloud. PowerEdge servers are the bedrock of ready solutions for Oracle and dependent on the use case, Hyperconverged technology is also available.

Applications running on databases like SQL or Oracle will remain at the core of businesses, they are the backend that supports much of the digital transformation that companies are striving for. The demand to increase performance, reliability and security for databases continues to grow.

As you consider how to continue to breathe life into these applications, the cloud may indeed be an option, however, it is not the only path.

Dell technologies who offer options that integrate with your public cloud aspirations through to complete ready solutions built entirely on their own optimised servers, storage of HCI can offer advice and insight on the best route and strategy for you to modernise your database infrastructure. To find out more, please check this great guide to modernisation.