Hadoop is perhaps the most important tool for big data analytics and management. With Hadoop under the belt, larger enterprises can interpret and utilize the most complex and varied initiatives and data sets in their repertoires, and this without incurring bank-breaking expenditures.
Hadoop is extremely flexible and scalable, and has been the basis on which countless enterprises globally have created big data analytics solutions worth millions of dollars from the foundation of the basic out-of the-box Hadoop package.
Nonetheless, the very qualities that endear Hadoop to many have been a source of confusion for many more companies, top of the list being the best site for Hadoop deployment and implementation – in-cloud or on-site. There are four important considerations to be made before you can decide which solution best suits your enterprise’s needs and details of these are outlined in the coming paragraphs.
Where rubber meets the road, every enterprise will make a final decision based on its own goals, and the scheme that will drive it towards them with the highest level of efficiency.
Implementing Hadoop – factors to consider
- Security considerations
The cloud has become more prone to cyber-attacks and security breaches, with dozens of enterprises big and small bearing the brunt of such attacks. Just this year, Apple’s iCloud was penetrated, demonstrating that size and status does not make any enterprise invincible in the face of a few skilled and determined hackers. Similarly, data stored in the cloud, and Hadoop deployed for its analytics, can never be considered to be 100% safe.
This isn’t to say that there isn’t any security in the cloud. In the real sense, chances that your data will be hacked into from the cloud are extremely small. Majority of cloud service providers including remote DBA support services invest a lot of time and resources towards continuously updating their security systems to always stay one step ahead of cybercriminals.
Unfortunately, cybercriminals also don’t rest in the quest to find new schemes of attack, making use of readily available and advanced technological tools to aid their evil plans.
However, this should not cause you distress; exponentially more cyber-attacks are quelled than those which succeed. In fact, the breach into Apple’s iCloud recently was due to penetration of individuals’ weak passwords, rather than pre-existing vulnerabilities in the enterprise’s security systems.
Knowing the point of breach
The most important thing to understand is that cloud-based data is most vulnerable at the point of transit – when it is being uploaded to or downloaded from the cloud, rather than while it is within the cloud. As a matter of fact, the NSA and other government-allied intelligence agencies target this connection point to acquire their data – after it has left the source but before it reaches the destination.
With this in mind, deploying Hadoop on-premise makes better security sense, particularly if it is possible to maintain and use the data in a closed system. Security can be further enhanced by controlling who and how many people in the organization have access to the internal databases, and exactly how they are allowed to manipulate this data.
Remember, your data is only as secure as your internal control systems are robust – you don’t just automatically gain security by avoiding the cloud. The downside to this is that your company will have to bear the cost of these expensive protection systems, whereas the service provider bears this cost in a cloud environment.
Considering only enterprises that operate within closed networks, on-premise Hadoop implementation provides better security.
- Cost
Cloud Hadoop implementation is without doubt cheaper than on-premise deployment, and the reasons are obvious. With on-site deployment, the enterprise itself bears the cost of hardware, software and manpower for installation, upgrade and routine maintenance and management. This requires a substantial investment at the outset, to procure servers, build server rooms and hire skilled experts to man the data centers.
Consider that the servers should have processing power that is compatible with the enterprise query processing requirement. The more complex servers demand more time in maintenance and management, which amplifies your labor costs.
Frequent system upgrades will be needed to improve performance levels and/or storage capacity, representing additional costs in acquiring the necessary hardware and related applications. There are also physical space implications, including costs of securing the new facilities and keeping physical conditions at optimum levels for good server performance.
On the flip side, cloud-based Hadoop deployment does not bring any of the above costs into your considerations. All of the above are met by your cloud services provider, to whom you pay a periodic subscription fee to receive an allotment of resources according to your enterprise’s needs. Should you need to scale up or down or change packages; you need only indicate this to your provider, who will adjust your allocations accordingly.
That means you have virtually limitless and seamless scalability. In addition, with remote DBA support services, you need not make any changes to your in-house IT staff, and you can take up management packages according to your specific needs at any given time. All cost considerations included, cloud-based implementation beats on-premise implementation by far.
Conclusion – Practical considerations
As at now, we stand at 1 – 1 for both sides. However, as many enterprise executives will tell you, money is everything. Add to that the practicality of being able to access your data from anywhere at any time provided you have your access credentials and a network connection, you have the best solution right there.
Whether you are on the road, at home or anywhere else (except, perhaps, in the middle of the sea), you can check progress, upload status reports, make changes and carry out any necessary tasks comfortably, with changes being incorporated in real-time for other staff members in different locations to make use of.
On-premise systems in closed networks cannot allow for remote access since their very security depends on the fact that they are protected from external access except by physical means. At the end of the day, what all enterprises want is the best solution all factors considered, and for that, cloud based implementation wins.
