What Is Database as a Service
Key Points
- DBaaS (Database‑as‑a‑Service) is IBM’s offering that delivers a fully managed database through a cloud “as‑a‑service” model, removing the need for customers to provision and maintain the underlying infrastructure.
- In a traditional setup you must order a server, install an OS, deploy the database software, and manually configure everything, which is time‑consuming and error‑prone.
- Ongoing operation of a self‑managed database demands continual patching of hardware, firmware, OS, and database software, strict access‑control management, and separation of duties between administrators—all of which add significant operational overhead.
- DBaaS also handles essential production tasks such as automated backups, versioning, and rapid recovery, ensuring continuity without the customer having to manage complex restore processes.
Full Transcript
# What Is Database as a Service **Source:** [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qfiOVB3yMHQ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qfiOVB3yMHQ) **Duration:** 00:07:41 ## Summary - DBaaS (Database‑as‑a‑Service) is IBM’s offering that delivers a fully managed database through a cloud “as‑a‑service” model, removing the need for customers to provision and maintain the underlying infrastructure. - In a traditional setup you must order a server, install an OS, deploy the database software, and manually configure everything, which is time‑consuming and error‑prone. - Ongoing operation of a self‑managed database demands continual patching of hardware, firmware, OS, and database software, strict access‑control management, and separation of duties between administrators—all of which add significant operational overhead. - DBaaS also handles essential production tasks such as automated backups, versioning, and rapid recovery, ensuring continuity without the customer having to manage complex restore processes. ## Sections - [00:00:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qfiOVB3yMHQ&t=0s) **Understanding Database as a Service** - Bradley Knapp explains what DBaaS (Database as a Service) is, contrasts it with traditional on‑premise database setup, and highlights the operational complexities it aims to simplify. ## Full Transcript
hi there my name is bradley knapp with
ibm and the question that i want to help
you answer today is what is d-bass
what is this d-bass thing
so d-b-a-n-s
what is it
dbas is an acronym that stands for
database as a service that's our dnrb
here literally stanford database
what is database as a service so if we
think about our cloud model of as a
service products and as a service
offerings and if you've got any
questions about that we've got a bunch
of other videos on the channel that you
can review to learn about that as a
service model
dbas is the ability to deliver a
database in that as a service model
and so if you think about the
traditional way to deploy a database
right is you'd go over here and you'd
order some sort of a server
and on top of that server you'd put
linux
and then on top of that linux you would
install your database software right so
my sequel
and so there's a lot of work involved in
this right you have to go out you order
the server configure the server put your
linux on it whatever it may be
download compile and install your
database software there's a lot that
goes on into this now you can script it
you can make it faster you can make it
easier but there's still a lot to get it
set up but getting it set up isn't the
hard part once it's set up you've got to
keep it running and that's where the
real challenge comes in right because
what do you have to worry about when you
have all of these things
well you've got to worry about your
users
right and so with all of the users who
can log into the server who can log into
the operating system who can log into
the database what kind of access levels
do they need what kind of permissions do
they need you've got to worry about
patching hardware patching firmware
patching software patching for the
operating system software patching for
your database you have to have somebody
who keeps up with all of those patches
protecting against security
vulnerabilities you've got to think
about your access control model
who can get into this why and when do
you have separation of duties between
your database administrators and your
server administrators or can people
cross-pollinate there's a lot of work
that goes into successful operation of a
database server particularly something
that's going to be hosting a production
workload you've got to build it you've
got to secure it and oh hey by the way
you've got to operate it and what does
that mean what do i mean when i say
you've got to operate it well
so you've got these three components
here
that you also have to have backup
what happens if the server goes down
you've got to have backups of it you've
got to have quiest versions of the
database you're going to have backups of
your operating system all of your
configuration
if the server goes down you need to
restore from those backups you need to
bring it back up live again
and there's a lot of work that goes into
all of that
hence
database is a service so what happens
well the whole idea behind database as a
service is
instead of you doing all of this work we
the cloud provider are going to do most
of this for you and so you're going to
come to us and rather than ordering the
server and telling us what operating
system and what version of database
software and all that you want you're
going to say hey bradley i want my sql
database as a service i want an ms and
my sql database that i can just log into
and start using and it's going to have
connections on it you're going to open
some ports up for me so that it can work
for a web server or another application
server
and i just want to interact with it in
an as a service manner i don't want to
worry about backups you take care of
that i don't want to worry about running
it highly available you take care of
that i don't want to worry about it
crashing and me having to restore it you
guys take care of all of that what i
want
is a database
that has connections for user sessions
that has connections for app server
sessions and then it has connections for
admin
admin services
and i don't want to worry about backups
and all of those kinds of things the
cloud provider takes care of all of that
that
is the as a service part and so on the
back end to the cloud provider that you
are buying this database serve this
database as a service product from
they're going to take care of the
hardware the operating system
the patching the user access the
security the backups running it highly
available guaranteeing that it's always
up always available
they are going to take care of all of
those things for you you're just going
to subscribe to this service as a
service right you're going to pay an
amount per month and that amount is
going to be built up of how many rights
do you make the database how big is the
database how much storage space does it
take up
what level of availability do you want
does it have to be available with three
nines or four nines or five nines of
uptime
and then some other little little
add-ons
but it allows you to tailor your spend
to where you are only spending what you
need to run your workload
and so when it's pitched like this of
course everybody comes back and they say
oh man that sounds great why wouldn't
everybody only buy database as a service
why would anybody go out and ever stand
up their own database ever again
this is a good question and let's talk
about that for a minute because the big
difference between database as a service
and running it yourself is that in a
database as a service model
a lot of the administrative control the
very specific tweaking and tuning that
you can do on a database to make it run
faster that gets abstracted away from
you the person who are consuming it
because it's run by the cloud provider
and so if we think about our two models
right
our as a service model
versus our role
your own model
enroll your own which is where you set
up everything yourself
you have a hundred percent
administrative control over everything
you decide what users get access you
decide what your backup strategy is what
your restore strategy is you decide
everything on your own and like in
spider-man with great power comes great
responsibility now in that as a service
model cloud provider is going to make a
bunch of those decisions for you makes
your life easier but you can't get in
and twist all of those dials and knobs
and tune that database so that it runs
at 100 performance all the time specific
to your workload and so you may end up
having to oversize your database as a
service from a performance perspective
as compared if you rolled your own
but that's okay because if you don't
want to go out and hire your own
database administrators and hire your
own server administrators and deal with
the headaches of user access and
security and integration
you don't have to you can consume it in
an as a service model you don't need to
worry about cloud providers going to
take care of that all you worry about
is plugging your endpoints in to where
they need to be
and being sure that the right people
have the credentials and everything else
is going to get taken care of for you so
that you can focus on what you really
want to do which is running that
workload in providing the service out to
your customers your partners and your
consumers thank you so much for your
time today if you have any questions
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