Database management systems Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Database management systems - Research Paper Example Organizing and maintaining such enormous amount of data in only papers is almost impossible. If back up is not maintained properly, the business might lose critical information which could lead to losses. Thus, the migration of existing and current data to cloud based platform will require well defined architecture as well as strategies. The cloud database model should have specific objectives in line with policies of the organization. The model should also include sufficient security, encryption, and control over information which will be transferred. The biggest challenge lies in maintaining the balance between speed of data transfer, cost of data transfer, data accuracy and consistency. If all these aspects of cloud database management are not ensured then the consequences could be data loss, wrong location data placement or data alteration during transfer process. Even though cloud based computing platforms are becoming popular, especially for e-business and MNCs, due to cost eff iciency, there are issues related to data safety, speed and security. The objective of this paper is to critically analyze the cloud database by pointing out disadvantages of cloud data. Introduction and Background of the Research The cloud computing technology has been receiving significant attention in the market lately. For many sectors and companies in various industries, cloud is not just an umbrella for marketing but a consolidated technology that offers grid computing, SAAS (software as a service), distributed computing, and so on. There are many companies that offer cloud services including Amazon RDS and Microsoft SQL Azure. A cloud database is basically a database management system that runs on cloud computing platform (Curino, pp.1-2). Some of the cloud computing platforms are Go Grid, Amazon EC2, and Rack space. (Source: Curino and et.al, n.d, p.2) The main vision on the basis of which cloud computing was developed is based on certain key features that cloud database is expected to perform. Some of the important features that was kept in mind while creating cloud data platform were data storage, processing, software installation, software delivery from local servers and desktops across various networks. The key concept was that the target users must get access to remote data from anywhere at any time without requiring to carry a hard drive or other storage device. The concept was created to free big corporations from generating own power and capital investment. Thus, the most important candidate of cloud computing is the database management applications. The main reason behind this is that large corporations spend huge sum of money to safely manage enterprise data which involves upfront investment in both hardware and patented software services. The advantage that the different enterprises would get from cloud computing is that they could reduce their annual data management cost significant with the help cloud database. By using cloud data the comp anies will not have to install, own and maintain dedicated expensive software packages. The reason is that cloud computing service providers or vendors provide their customers with virtual machines or platforms from where the customer will be able to install and manage software services without having to own and store a version in their