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Not long ago, Alibaba Cloud announced a partnership with open source database vendor MongoDB, according to the agreement, the former will become the only cloud vendor in the world to provide the latest MongoDB services.

Looking directly at this news, most non-industry-related people may be a bit less sensitive. In fact, in recent years, with the traditional database industry rooted in local servers and the cloud computing, the open source database began in 2018. Manufacturers Redis, MongoDB, etc. have revised the agreement to limit the use of open source databases on the cloud, and now Alibaba Cloud and MongoDB actively cooperate to develop a version suitable for the cloud, which proves that the trend of the cloud on the database is inevitable.

As early as 2014, AWS released the industry’s first cloud-original database, Aurora. Alibaba Cloud followed in 2017 and released the first cloud-original database POLARDB in China. Now, the open source database giant has taken the initiative to cooperate. A trend of deepening performance.

The drivers are not complicated. Cloud computing + database can bring lower operating costs, higher flexibility, and the ability to meet the huge and complex data needs of the future IoT and 5G, the traditional database giant , including Oracle, can not resist this trend.

From the perspective of the entire cloud computing industry, the competition for this track has already begun. Cloud computing vendors, large and small, are entering the game. In this new war, how do cloud computing fight, and How to win your position, where are the advantages of AWS and Alibaba Cloud?

Compared with wine bottles and wine, an easy-to-understand “cloud computing + database” competition situation and future challenges surfaced.

There are three ways to match the “bottle” of cloud computing with the “wine” of the database

If you compare the carrier to a bottle and compare the database product to wine, then the traditional database is undoubtedly the “old bottle” installed “old wine”, deploying traditional database products on the local server, whether they are closed Oracle Still open source MySQL, Redis, MongoDB, etc.

When the cloud computing is on the cloud, the “new bottle” is already in place. From the case of Ali, AWS and more small and medium-sized cloud computing vendors, the cloud competition on the database has these three. Kind of “matching”:

1, “New bottle of old wine”

Simply, loading a traditional database product with cloud computing is equivalent to deploying it locally, and now it’s a different place.

Although it is said that Oracle’s decline is closely related to cloud computing, but fairly, Either Oracle or its competing MySQL and so on have no fundamental contradiction with cloud computing, under the concept of “upper cloud” Whether it is closed Oracle or open source MySQL can be deployed to the cloud, Oracle has also adopted this approach in the transformation of these years.

This “new bottled old wine” game is the basic configuration and basic ability of all cloud computing platforms combined with the database, whether it is a giant such as AWS, Alibaba Cloud, Azure, or other cloud computing vendors. For example, Tencent Cloud launched the “TStack” product, which is dedicated to the cloudization of the local Oracle enterprise. There is also a special cloud solution for MySQL.

This gameplay faces uncertainty from the database product for its own benefit. For example, Oracle requires authorization to go to the cloud, while open source systems sometimes introduce protocols that limit the cloud.

2, “New bottled new wine”

Strictly speaking, “cloud on the database” and “cloud database” are two different concepts. The former should be the new bottled wine mentioned above, while the latter is native to the cloud environment. Next, it is a new database product form, so it should belong to the “new bottle of new wine.”

“New bottled new wine” as a new gameplay, mainly led by large cloud computing vendors and breakthroughs, the advantage is that you can use the advantages of the cloud to create many features that are not available in the past database products.

The POLARDB launched by Alibaba Cloud in 2017 is of this type. It has the low cost advantage of distributed design and centralized ease of use. From the parameter point of view, the performance of this product can reach the traditional open source database system MySQL. 6 times, support single library capacity to expand to hundreds of terabytes (simple understanding is that the flexibility is large, can store more things, the ceiling is high), and the system expansion is completed in the second level.

AWS Aurora, introduced in 2014, is also a typical example of “new bottled new wine”. Native Amazon Aurora uses the AWS platform.With the performance and availability of high-end commercial databases, and the simplicity and cost-effectiveness of open source databases, from the point of “running points”, “up to five times better performance than typical MySQL databases”, and “higher than typical Up to three times the performance of a PostgreSQL database.”

3, “New bottle” brewed “new wine”

In addition to the traditional database “Shangyun” and “Cloud Native Database”, from the perspective of ecological operation, when cloud computing vendors cooperate with database products, and both parties jointly develop traditional database products suitable for cloud environments, The combination of the “new bottle” and the “new wine” came into being.

Unlike the traditional cloud on the database, This kind of gameplay is not the enterprise demand side to communicate with the database side, but the cloud supply and the database supply side of the active change, “brewed” new product.

Alibaba Cloud cooperates with MongoDB, which is a typical “new bottle” brewing “new wine”. In addition to the original cloud database, it cooperates with the traditional open source system to establish an open source database system suitable for the cloud environment.

This kind of cooperation is generally not coming out of thin air, often stemming from existing cooperation. Prior to this collaboration, Alibaba Cloud was the first cloud vendor to offer MongoDB services in China, providing cloud-hosted database services that are fully compatible with the MongoDB protocol.

In this sense, Alibaba Cloud, a cloud computing giant, is using the “two-handed” gameplay in the cloud competition on the database. On the one hand, it cooperates with the traditional database to improve, on the other hand, it has its own cloud. Native database.

No matter what wine or bottle, the competition on the cloud is inseparable from these competitions

In fact, cloud computing is a complex competition on the database cloud. The logic is not complicated. It is nothing more than three levels of basic capabilities, technology and business advancement. They are hard indicators and hard capabilities to some extent. It is difficult to get promoted in the short term, so the new track competition is essentially the competition of the old cloud computing strength.

1. The basic cloud computing system + business understanding is the eternal foundation

AWS first launched Amazon Aurora, which has a lot to do with the development of its e-commerce business. A large number of database business needs exposed the problems of efficiency and capacity of traditional databases, and it is widely understood that an old city road Planning for four lanes, even though it was already very wide at the time, is still very crowded today.

As a result, the giants have been driven by demand, and have launched various cloud native databases, or cooperated with database products, based on cloud computing systems and business understanding, the expansion in this area is natural.process.

Alibaba Cloud is also the case. In 2008, IOE began to mention IOE, which is directly related to the rapid expansion of Taobao’s business. Now IOE is basically completed, and in addition to a giant cloud computing platform, The understanding of data services has also been feedback through the practice of e-commerce, finance and other services. The 4.2 version update after cooperation with MongoDB is the result of the evolution of data requirements.

For small and medium-sized cloud computing platforms, it is also necessary to enhance the understanding of data services in the process of cooperation with customers, while improving themselves while doing business.

2, the technical height determines the conversion cost, and the conversion cost determines the validity of the “stock conversion”

The cloud on the database, or the native cloud database, the development process of the market, many times it is not “incremental”, but “stock conversion”, unless those new companies are newly established Or a new project to set up a new database.

The Oracle and MySQL era users who occupy the current market are required to move forward to the cloud. These enterprises have clear requirements for the database and clear concepts. They are also an advantage and do not require excessive market education.

However, in the digital age, the migration of databases is a more troublesome thing than in the past. This level of trouble has become more difficult as the digital society has deepened and the growth of the client companies themselves has grown. In many large enterprises, the requirements for the database are 4 9 or even 5 9 (the latter is about equal to 1 year and only 5 minutes are not available), If the enterprise needs to process a large amount of data every day, The database is converted to the cloud as if the engine was replaced when flying at a height of 10,000 meters.

The focus of competition is on who can provide customers with a more convenient and cost-effective way to convert, on one hand is the convenience of database relocation, on the other hand is the conversion of different database types ( For example, a customer who uses MySQL, it is a shame to change the MySQL type. After all, the cloud database has more advantages, and the conversion cost is too high and it is difficult to adopt.

We found relevant words in the giant cloud database product introduction:

AWS: Aurora is a relational database built for the cloud that is compatible with MySQL and PostgreSQL;

Alibaba Cloud: POLARDB is fully compatible with open source databases MySQL 5.6, 8.0, PostgreSQL 11, enabling one-click fast migration.

Obviously, this aspect is the focus of cloud computing database competition.

3. The same industry competition of ToB attribute, cold start problem of PK marketing level

The database is not a completely new business. Its technical service as a ToB attribute is a category of enterprise service to some extent, but the technical nature is neglected and the enterprise service attribute is neglected.

From the provision of cloud computing services to the provision of cloud database services, the platform is deeper into the customer’s operational management and business logic. The attributes of enterprise services and ToB are more powerful, and once the ToB attribute becomes stronger, the result It is the nature of resource competition in the process of market expansion.

That is, The cloud on the database can rely on the resources of the giant itself to promote, “free rider” cold start, for example, Alibaba Cloud and the nail tying (the same customer sometimes Mutual marketing is already an open secret of the cloud computing industry. The help of the nail cloud, Alibaba Cloud and the “Ali economy” resources on the cloud business on the database is self-evident.

Similarly, AWS is also growing up against the Amazon Empire. .

The “new bottle” is more attractive, and there are three major tests?

In Gartner’s 2018 database magic quadrant, both AWS and Alibaba Cloud were selected to show the “future charm” of the cloud’s native database and database.

But the charm is not without cost. At least for now, to take the “new bottle” for wine, you still face these three challenges:

1, more sensitive market expectations, very low fault tolerance

Traffic accidents happen every day, and even crashes and deaths are hard to become the focus of social attention. However, if a self-driving car that is being tested on the road is paralyzed, public opinion will undoubtedly flock to it and then give A big headline: “Automatic driving is over?”

Using a new cloud form to host database products that have lasted for 50 years, facing more sensitive market expectations, The problems that often occur in local deployments can easily lead to criticism once they occur on the cloud platform.

In a nutshell, this is a matter of too low a fault tolerance rate. Only the cloud computing platform itself is fully prepared before it can be launched.

2, database competition is still essentially product competition

With the Moutai bottle, the upgraded version of Erguotou, Erguotou or Erguotou, can not make Moutai in all aspects of taste.

The cloud is just a carrier. The quality of the bottle is good. The wine must be good. Whether it is Aurora, the world premiere of AWS, or Alibaba Cloud and MongoDB, the self-developed POLARDB, the products made are easy to use. In addition to the advantages of easier operation and more flexible deployment, how is the database at the business level?To meet the real needs of customers, to make a good product that is all-round and easy to use is a direct challenge.

In 2013, the last Oracle database of Taobao’s core system went offline. Amazon publicly stated that it will completely abandon the Oracle database by 2020, but these do not mean that Oracle has no advantage at the product level for decades. Amazon has launched offline IT for its own business, but the business scale of more enterprises is still not enough for Oracle’s ceiling. Oracle’s mature product form and perfect after-sales service are still advantages.

Gartner predicts that by 2023, 3/4 of the world’s databases will run on the cloud, but its implementation will take four years from now, and for the digital age, this is a long time, of which The competition and the superior position are still full of challenges at the product level.

3, the cloud on the database is only a member of the “combination trend”, more database trends must be concerned

In the context of the big environment, the cloud on the database is only a member of the “combination trend”. There are still many trends in the digital society itself. The combination of them and the database is an objective and inherent necessity, such as similar to the AI.

Alibaba Cloud’s POLARDB claims to implement the “storage and computing separation” mechanism, which is a kind of architecture that is too popular after the database is too large. The simple understanding is that the database does things in the storage phase and is isolated from the call and operation phases. Open, save only for storage, use only for use, it is more likely to be implemented in cloud computing, combined with the cloud trend on the database is not unexpected.

In addition, it integrates many intelligent technologies of Dharma Institute, which greatly enhances the business efficiency of the enterprise. Relevant research results have been included in many international top-level database conferences such as SIGMOD.

When the Internet of Things and 5G arrived, the database and edge computing were merged. Under the high-speed and low-latency technology features, it is expected that there will be more room for upgrade.

The cloud on the database will continue to increase in the next few years. In the process, there will be more trends to be merged with it. This will be another more complicated story. Wait and see.

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