Achieve EAM high-availability with DBaaS instead of operating a DR site

Body

The most critical aspect of all production systems is being able to ensure high-availability in case of critical failures. The traditional approach was to a operate Disaster Recovery site and Fail-Over Clusters. This requires 24x7 maintenance and monitoring activities and adds the significant costs for hardware, software and human resources engaged. Due to this, many companies opt-out of having the high-availability for their EAM system.

Thankfully, there is a new option with Database-as-a-Service offering being provided by all major database vendors. Providing a high-availability system for 10,000 users can now be achieved by filling the single web form. You will then be provided with a database service that is available 24x7 and all maintenance, monitoring and backup activities are automated in the background.

We tested DBaaS offerings from several vendors such as Amazon, Microsoft and Oracle and found all of them being able to deliver on their promise. Although some products like IBM MAXIMO and IBM TRIRIGA are not officially certified for these platforms, we managed to successfully migrate several clients to DBaaS database on ORACLE and MS SQL Server.

To achieve this, we have devised BENFICA (Byte-code ExecutioN-Flow-Control Instrumentation Agent) that allows us to guarantee runtime compatibility of EAM products with DBaaS platforms across system patches, updates and upgrades. DBaaS systems usually run two or more copies of the database, so automated maintenance or minor upgrades rarely affect the database service availability.

As a final note, below are screenshots of recently migrated production systems, now operating on DBaaS cloud offering for Oracle and MS SQL.

Hope you liked this article and it has given you the new perspective on DBaaS options.