The cloud data warehouse market size is expected to grow to $28.61[1] Billion by 2030 at a CAGR of 22.7%. The statistics clearly show why more and more businesses are moving from traditional data warehouses. Cloud-based data warehouse can dynamically scale and shrink to meet your ever-changing user needs & business priorities! It is an excellent solution for enterprises that require the agility to store, process & manage massive amounts of data for analytics & BI applications.
This blogpost focuses on helping you explore the basics of a cloud data warehouse, its key features, business benefits, reasons to move to a cloud data warehouse (DWH), major cloud data warehouse providers & how to choose the right one. So, let’s get started!
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A cloud data warehouse (CDW) is a database stored and managed within a public cloud and optimized for scalable BI and analytics. It leverages the cloud’s scalability, usability and interoperability to allow your organization’s business intelligence teams to extract actionable insights for quick, data-driven decision-making.
Here are certain key capabilities inherent to a cloud data warehouse that make it valuable for businesses.
Traditional on-premises data warehouses can no longer cope up with the growing data analytics needs, diverse data sources, and demand for elastic scalability. Let’s explore key differences between cloud vs on premise data warehouse.
Parameter | Cloud DWH | On-Premise DWH |
Scalability | Can scale up or down to accommodate changing data volumes and business needs. | Costly to scale and complex to scale down. |
Maintenance | Pay-as-you-go pricing model, you only spend on the storage space and cloud features you need. It is maintained by the cloud provider, which helps reduce IT burden. | Typically need ongoing maintenance for hardware and software, periodic upgrades, and new tools over time. |
Availability | Leading cloud providers (Amazon, Microsoft, and Google) ensure up to 99.99% of uptime. | Depends on the hardware & software quality and the competence of the in-house IT team. |
Performance | Can serve multiple geographic locations with excellent query-handling capability that can be measured in seconds. | Offers excellent performance that can be managed in milliseconds if the scalability challenge is solved. |
Security | Ensured by the cloud provider to protect infrastructure and data safety. | It largely depends on the competence of the in-house IT team. |
Cost-Effectiveness | Zero hardware-related costs with the possibility to pay as per the pay-as-you-go model.
| Requires significant initial investments (hardware, IT team, training & more). |
Agility | Faster to deploy and implement new features. | Slower to deploy and implement. |
Deployment | Since it is a Software as a Service, quick deployment with on-demand resources, reduced time to value. | Longer lead times for setup, configuration and procuring hardware. |
Integration | Better equipped to handle integration of diverse, multi-source data. | Usually struggles with integrating diverse data types. |
Updates | Minimal downtime due to automated updates and managed services. | Prone to downtime due to manual upgrades. |
Disaster Recovery | Built-in disaster recovery options and data protection features like encryption, IAM help protect data and applications. | Depends on on-premise physical servers and data centers for backups and recovery solutions. |
We can help you to design & implement a cloud-based data warehouse that meets your specific data storage needs & migration requirements.
Modern cloud architectures combine the flexibility of the cloud, the agility of big data platforms & the power of data warehousing – at a fraction of the cost of on-premises solutions. Cloud based data warehouses offer several benefits:
Now that you’ve explored the multi-fold benefits of cloud data warehousing, let’s explore the key capabilities of cloud data warehouse features.
There are many cloud-based data warehouse solutions in the market and most have these inherent cloud-based enterprise data warehouse features:
Although cloud data warehouse offers many benefits and features, it also presents challenges that need to be addressed to ensure successful implementation and operation.
Here’s an overview of the top cloud data warehousing challenges businesses face today and their solutions to overcome them:
Businesses often struggle to integrate data from disparate sources, ensuring data quality and consistency, and establishing effective data governance practices. This data chaos can hinder data analysis and decision-making.
Implement a robust data governance framework that defines data ownership, access controls, and data quality standards. Utilize data integration tools to streamline data ingestion, transformation, and cleansing.
Cloud data warehousing costs can spiral out of control if not managed effectively. Businesses often lack clear visibility into their cloud data usage and fail to optimize resource allocation.
Employ cloud cost management tools to monitor and granularly control cloud data usage. Leverage serverless computing options for workloads that don’t require constant resource provisioning.
Finding qualified cloud data warehousing professionals is a growing challenge, making it difficult for businesses to build and maintain the expertise needed to manage complex data warehousing environments.
Invest in training and upskilling existing IT staff to acquire cloud data warehousing skills. Consider outsourcing cloud data warehousing operations to specialized service providers.
Businesses must adhere to stringent data privacy regulations, such as GDPR and CCPA, while safeguarding their cloud data from unauthorized access and breaches.
Implement robust access controls, encryption, and data masking techniques to protect sensitive data. Prioritize cloud providers with strong security credentials and compliance certifications.
Data often remains siloed within departments, hindering cross-functional collaboration and insights that could be gained from a unified view of data.
Promote a data-driven culture that encourages data sharing and collaboration across departments. Implement data sharing platforms to facilitate secure data access and collaboration.
Businesses need to continuously monitor their cloud data warehousing infrastructure to identify performance bottlenecks, resource utilization patterns, and potential security issues.
Employ cloud data warehousing monitoring tools to track key performance indicators, resource utilization, and security metrics. Proactively address issues identified through monitoring to maintain optimal performance and security.
The challenges of cloud data warehousing listed above can be overcome by choosing top cloud data warehouse services like Snowflake, Amazon Redshift, Google BigQuery and others listed below.
Here are popular cloud data warehouse solutions offered by leading cloud vendors to help you find the best fit for your business needs:
Here are some key factors you need to ensure that your chosen vendor meets your unique business.
In addition to setting up cloud data warehouse, vendors play a crucial role in assisting businesses with implementation and migration. Here are some ways vendors can help:
Cloud data warehouse automation automates many of the manual, repetitive, and time-consuming tasks which allows organizations to reap the following benefits.
Being an industry leader in cloud application development, our expertise lies in developing and deploying cloud-native apps and the best cloud data warehouse solutions that fit your specific industry and meet your strategic business goals.
As certified service partners for AWS and Microsoft Azure, we can help companies like yours to navigate the Data Warehouse (DWH) journey to redefine how your organization manages data. Additionally, as your trusted data analytics company, our team of data engineers, designers, developers, architects, and data scientists help you set up a modern data architecture comprising technologies such as cloud, AI, ML, IoT, and advanced analytics. If you are unsure either about your exact storage, processing, and analytics requirements or about the best-fitting cloud data warehouse platform, we can help.
Our dedicated data warehouse development services cover cloud DWH consulting, designing, quality assurance & implementation with migration & modernization assistance.
Our client, a leading company in F&B, Resort management & Rental Home segment, was using 20+ applications to manage their disparate data sources and wanted us to create a centralized source of information.
We built a Cloud Data Warehouse (DWH) that unified all the data from their internal & third-party applications. The key deliverables of the project included the creation of
Benefits Delivered
With cloud DWH as the focal point of your modernization journey, you can streamline your processes with optimized query performance & productive integrations from siloed sources. They are a cost-effective and scalable solution for modern businesses as they offer the flexibility to query and analyze data from multiple sources. The growing adoption of cloud data warehouses in data analytics and business intelligence strategies is a major factor driving their growth. Further, they are easier to set up and maintain than traditional on-premises data warehouses. And if you are unsure of your storage, data management & analytics needs, we’re ready to help you!
We can help you implement a cloud DWH to meet your unique storage, integration, or migration needs for maximized performance.
A: Different types of cloud-based data warehouses cater to diverse business needs and data volumes. Here are common types of cloud data warehouse architectures:
Choosing the right cloud data warehouse architecture depends on factors such as data volume, performance requirements, budget, and organizational structure.
A: The right approach and best practices, you can ensure a successful and efficient deployment. Let’s explore the best practices for implementing your cloud data warehouse effectively:
Define Clear Goals:
Develop a Data Strategy:
Choose the Right Technology:
Plan for Migration:
Establish Data Governance:
A: Cloud data warehousing provides a scalable, cost-effective, and secure platform for your business to store, analyze, and extract valuable insights from their vast volumes of data. Cloud data warehousing has the following steps:
A: Cloud Data Warehouses (CDWs) serve diverse business needs, offering a versatile platform for extracting insights and fostering data-driven decision-making. Common use cases for cloud data warehouses include:
In essence, cloud data warehouses have become integral to businesses, providing a foundation for comprehensive data analysis and strategic decision-making across various domains.