Top 19 Cloud Database Management Systems (2023)

Cloud Database: Defined

Cloud Database Market is forecasted to reach $39.1 billion by 2026, after growing at a CAGR of 31.4% during 2021-2026. ⁽¹⁾

A cloud database defines a database management service, or a system built on and accessed through a cloud computing platform. It is like the traditional database management service but uses the cloud as a differentiator.

Being based on cloud computing, cloud databases offer more flexibility, scalability, and security as compared to traditional databases. With more and more companies moving their databases to the cloud, the market is full of various cloud Database Management System (DBMS) providers.

But before we look at the services and features offered by the leading Cloud DBMS providers, let’s understand the popular types of cloud database management models.

Different types of Cloud Database Management Systems

We know that cloud databases are built and accessed through the cloud – whether public, private, or hybrid. But what are the available options for their management?

The database management choices can be broadly categorized into three:

• Self-managed cloud databases: As the name suggests, this type of cloud DBMS offering is self-managed i.e., it is managed by the organization itself. The service provider will not provide any management support – the user will have complete control over the database installed on the cloud.
• Managed cloud databases: The managed cloud databases are the ones where the vendor takes care of the database management for their end-users. Here, the control is in the hands of the provider – the configurations too will be limited to the vendor-supported configurations.
• Automated cloud databases: The automated and managed cloud database model might seem the same – however there are a few differences. Unlike the managed databases, here the end-user has access to the database servers and can control database configurations and operations. Here, the cloud database service is accessed using APIs (application programming interfaces).

The vendor offerings we will discuss in this article – will largely fall into any of the three categories we discussed above.

Gartner Magic Quadrant for Cloud Database Management Systems

Research giant- Gartner, recently published its Magic Quadrant for the cloud database management systems, along with a list of features and services provided by the listed vendors.

By 2022, cloud database management system (DBMS) revenue will account for 50% of the total DBMS market revenue. – Gartner

The rest of the article talks about the leading Cloud DBMS providers according to the above quadrant – their services, strengths, and challenges.

Top Cloud Database Management System providers

1. Alibaba Cloud

Alibaba Cloud database services are focused on continuous evolvement to address changing customer demands and needs associated with data security and analytics.

According to a recently released press release, Alibaba Cloud database products revenue has increased 50% YoY with 150,000 customers worldwide ⁽²⁾.

2. Amazon Web Services (AWS) Position in Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for Cloud Database Management Systems: Leader Amazon Web Services, again, is known for its wide range of cloud database management services. It offers cloud database solutions by use cases – making it easier for businesses to select a particular use case and then choose the best-fit cloud database.

From databases to managed traditional applications like ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) to high-traffic gaming applications, AWS offers cloud databases for all major use cases.

3. Cloudera

Cloudera focuses on accelerating an organization’s digital transformation journey by making data and analytics accessible for everyone.

The Cloudera Data Platform (CDP) is based on this vision. It is the industry’s first enterprise data cloud. It delivers self-service analytics solutions across hybrid and multi-cloud environments.

It also takes care of the granular security and governance policies required by various IT and data leaders.

The CDP is simple to use and secure by design and serves as a big data platform for both the business and the IT. The CDP Hybrid Cloud further enhances its usability as it can run everywhere – on any cloud (public or private) and with any analytics. Its popular use cases include genomics and healthcare analytics, real-time compliance monitoring, and Internet of Things (IoT)-enabled predictive maintenance.

4. Cockroach Labs

Cockroach Labs cloud database offering includes CockroachDB Dedicated – a fully managed and hosted distributed SQL database service.

It is designed to meet the demands of modern applications.

It works on helping users focus on building innovative application architecture by eliminating the need of provisioning databases. It can handle high value and stringent workloads as well.

5. Couchbase

Couchbase offers Capella – a fully managed database-as-a-service (DBaaS). It is designed to deliver flexibility and performance at scale for modern enterprise applications.

The memory first architecture helps it deliver blazing-fast performances in real-time. It offers hyper-scalability i.e., better price-performance as the user scales. It uses SQL to query JSON data and can be deployed within a few clicks.

6. Databricks

The Databricks Lakehouse Platform unifies data warehousing and AI on a single platform. The simplified approach to the modern data stack eliminates traditional data silos to help businesses operate more efficiently and innovate faster.

It is available as Databricks Lakehouse Platform on Microsoft Azure – Azure Databricks, as well as on AWS, GCP, and Alibaba Cloud.

7. Exasol

Exasol offers an analytical database service. With an MPP (massively parallel processing) architecture and columnar database, it is built for delivering performance. Users can query billions of rows in seconds.

It offers a variety of deployment options as well – including SaaS (software-as-a-service), cloud, on-premises, and hybrid.

Furthermore, with automatic query tuning, organizations can reduce maintenance and overhead costs.

8. Google

Google offers powerful and scalable cloud database management solutions built on its Google Cloud Platform.

It provides database migration and management services as well as database modernization services.

9. Huawei Cloud

Huawei offers Relational GaussDB (for openGauss), GaussDB (for MySQL), GaussDB Data Warehouse Service available on Huawei CLOUD and Huawei CLOUD Stack (for on-premises deployment).

It offers non-relational GaussDB (for Mongo), GaussDB (for Cassandra), GaussDB (for Influx) GaussDB (for Redis) and Hadoop-based big data platform FusionInsight.

10. IBM

IBM’s Cloud Database service includes Cloud Pak for Data. It is a unified platform that can deliver data fabrics to connect and access siloed data stored on-premises or across multiple clouds without needing to move it.

The service was launched in 2018 and since then, it has helped users unlock the value of their data and infuse AI throughout their business. The latest version 4.0 – has further added intelligent automation to the service, helping business leaders tackle data complexity.

11. InterSystems

InterSystems offers InterSystems IRIS – a next-generation data platform that delivers high-performance, interoperability, and analytics capabilities. It is a cloud-first data platform and does not require the integration of multiple technologies.

It is ideal for developing and executing critical and data-intensive analytic applications. It can be deployed across all major public clouds including AWS, Microsoft Azure, GCP as well as private clouds, on-premises, virtual machines, or bare metal environments.

12. MariaDB

MariaDB offers SkySQL as its cloud database service. SkySQL is designed to bring the full power of MariaDB Enterprise to the cloud backed with powerful features and world-class support.

It is ideal for mission-critical business applications and for enterprise governance apps. It complements automation with human expertise.

The service is also available on AWS and Google Cloud.

13. MarkLogic

MarkLogic Data Hub Service is an on-demand and fully managed cloud database service. It delivers a high-performance enterprise database solution with built-in governance and security for organizational data.

It is available on both AWS and Azure.

It can run transactional, analytical, and operational applications at scale for a low cost. Further capabilities include smart mastering, multi-model, distributed transactions, semantic search, and more.

14. Microsoft

Microsoft offers a variety of fully managed, intelligent, and flexible cloud database services across multiple use cases and types – relational, NoSQL, and in-memory. They are designed to fit the needs of modern application developers.

Most of the database infrastructure is automated – including the scalability, availability, and security that can save the time and money of the users.

The Azure-managed databases further help users focus on the core job of building applications by providing performance insights via embedded intelligence and scalability.

15. Oracle

Oracle offers a wide range of cost-optimized and high-performance cloud databases, including in-memory, MySQL databases, NoSQL, etc.

The Oracle Autonomous Database is available on-premises via Oracle Cloud Infrastructure or Oracle@Customer. It can help users reduce operational costs with the application of multimodel converged databases and machine-learning-based automation for full lifecycle management.

16. Redis

Redis offers Redis Enterprise Cloud – a fully managed serverless cloud database service. It is built for speed that enables sub-millisecond performance and up to 99.999% uptime for business-critical applications.

It allows users to infinitely scale application data without compromising the performance. It also allows the distribution of datasets across regions – clouds or hybrid environments.

17. SAP

SAP database offerings include SAP HANA Cloud, SAP Adaptive Server Enterprise, SAP Data Warehouse Cloud, SAP IQ, and SAP SQL Anywhere for both analytical and operational use cases.

The SAP HANA Cloud is a fully managed in-memory cloud database-as-a-service (DBaaS). It can integrate data from across an enterprise and enable faster decision-making. It is ideal for building data solutions with modern architectures and gaining business-ready insights faster and in real-time.

18. SingleStore

SingleStore provides a fully managed and on-demand cloud database service – SingleStore Managed Service. It is ideal for data-intensive applications.

It supports multiple deployment options – AWS, GCP, and Microsoft Azure as well as a private cloud. It supports the creation of data clusters within a single click. Based on SQL – it has a distributed architecture and is highly scalable.

19. Snowflake

Snowflake offers Snowflake Data Cloud – a single and comprehensive data platform with seamless data collaboration. Users get high performance, flexibility, and near-infinite scalability. It can power an unlimited number of concurrent workloads.

It is an ideal solution for data warehousing, data engineering, data science, data application development, data lakes, etc.

Wrapping-up

Cloud databases offer numerous benefits as compared to traditional databases. Apart from improved agility and scalability, they can also help organizations decrease database management costs.

The choice of cloud DBMS will again depend on the need of the enterprise or individual users. There are databases that might be a fit for analytical applications while others may be more suitable for internet-scale applications. With multiple use cases, organizations are also moving to multimodel cloud databases – wherein they get multiple data models within a single database.

We hope this article will help you choose the right cloud database management system for your applications. Do let us know your thoughts through the comments section below.

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Sources:

• 1 https://www.industryarc.com/Research/Cloud-Database-Market-Research-500760
• 2 https://datastorageasean.com/news-press-releases/alibaba-cloud-database-products-revenue-increases-50-yoy-150000-customers
• Report: https://www.gartner.com/doc/reprints?id=1-28FSTKIO&ct=211215&st=sb

Disclaimer: This article aims to provide information about the specific cloud database solutions of different vendors for general informational purposes only. Vendors may change their product or service pricing and features from time to time. It’s therefore advised in the interest of the website visitor that before taking a decision or making a purchase, updated information should be verified from the respective vendor’s site. This information has been sourced from the vendor websites and relevant resources available in the public domain as of March 2022. Though we make best endeavors to ensure that the information is accurate and up to date, we do not guarantee its 100% accuracy or timeliness. Furthermore, this is not a ranking, the vendors have been listed in an alphabetical order.