The data replication and synchronization landscape has changed enormously in the last five years. The ever-increasing volume and detail of data that is shared among systems has become a key priority for IT executives in a range of companies. Despite the increase in performance and capacity, hardware costs have reduced over the years, enabling companies to store more data in their Enterprise data warehouses. However, software license costs have soared; vendors typically force users to upgrade and charge extra for new features. To reduce IT budgets, CTOs are taking on a completely different approach to computing, that is, the Cloud.
No longer do we need to buy our own hardware, install the software products, and pay consultants to configure them. We can now buy Software as a Service (SaaS), where all aspects of building a computer system are taken care of. One of the many services offered in cloud computing is SaaS. We can pay for this service annually, monthly, or even by the hour. At the time of writing, Oracle Corporation released a new cloud offering: the Integration Cloud Service that is designed to bridge the integration gap in SaaS.
Oracle GoldenGate 12c currently plays a major role in cloud computing by synchronizing on-premises systems with their cloud counterparts or migrating structured and unstructured data from the private cloud to the public cloud. As systems need to share data regardless of volume, whether it is current news or stock market data feeds, GoldenGate will ensure that the information is easily accessible in real time.
A number of challenges exist when you integrate heterogeneous systems. Currently, cloud subscription-based services are comparatively cheaper than building your own infrastructure. Naturally, building data centers with owned equipment and resources incurs huge capital expenditure (CAPEX); this is now offset to operational expenditure (OPEX) in the cloud environment. The advantage being the support and upgrade path that forms part of the subscription package. However, the challenge lies in integrating applications and data into the cloud without shifting cost to developing and supporting new interfaces.
Oracle Fusion Middleware features a suite of products that provide end-to-end solutions to your integration requirements. In addition to GoldenGate, we have Oracle Data Integrator (ODI) offering a wealth of integration modules. One example is the Hadoop module, journalizing Big Data integration with Oracle's Big Data architecture to enable customers to capitalize on the performance and real-time advantages of Hadoop technologies. Oracle plans to leverage the technology by offering the Integration Cloud Service to simplify application and data integration between systems. The aim here is to provide a standardized approach to integration. This allows customers to add new applications and data feeds quickly and easily at the lowest possible cost.
The following diagram helps to illustrate this:
Such standardization employs an integration platform that interfaces with a service bus, and the service bus interfaces with the applications. If an application provider changes its API definition, the change is handled by the service bus, which has the ability to transpose dozens of different data types and network protocols into a generic format, requiring no changes to the applications. The architecture can support in-cloud and on-premises to cloud applications.
Often called private cloud to public cloud, on-premises systems are typically grouped in mini clouds housed in a company's own data center that now need to replicate or migrate data to the public cloud. Like integration, a number of challenges exist. The main concern for CIO's is security, storing sensitive data in an environment deemed as public. However, cloud service providers, such as Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Oracle Cloud, have employed the latest technology to secure their customer's data assets. These technologies are also embedded in Oracle GoldenGate 12c and offer a high level of security at the data transport layer.
Along with Oracle Identity Manager (OIM), the API Gateway manages all of these connections, including the SSH (secure shell) keys that connect cloud services, such as AWS, that applies governance controls for service access, usage, and availability.
More recently, banks have started to migrate their applications to the public cloud. This is all set to become a future trend for financial organizations as the technology becomes trusted and accepted by the industry and its regulators.
Oracle Corporation advertises that they have dedicated data centers in high-density geographical areas to support cloud services. Some of the additional key benefits of migrating to the cloud are:
- Simplified integration: This provides a web-based, point and click integration experience
- Highly visible: This specifies rich monitoring and error management
- Software lifecycle: This supports both on-premises and cloud lifecycle tools
- High availability: This provides RAC Clusters with Data Guard that support HA and maximum availability architecture (MAA)
- Managed services: This includes Oracle RMAN backup and Oracle critical patching and upgrades
- Fully portable: This supports on-premises to cloud migrations
In essence, moving to the cloud should not be a big deal. After all, the architecture, the standards, and the components are the same in both on-premises and the cloud.