Pure Storage, a leading provider of advanced data storage technology and services recently announced a partnership between Portworx, its Database-Platform-as-a-Service (DBPaaS), and MongoDB. This collaboration aims to transform the way developers build modern applications, offering enterprises seamless integration of MongoDB Enterprise Advanced with Portworx’s data services. The partnership also addresses the specific challenges faced by DevOps teams in managing databases across multiple deployment models, providing a unified solution for simplified database lifecycle management.

As part of the partnership, Portworx has integrated MongoDB Enterprise Advanced as an offering alongside other data services, including NoSQL servers. This integration enables MongoDB users to deploy and manage MongoDB Enterprise Advanced within data centres with minimal intervention. The comprehensive lifecycle management of the database is entrusted to Portworx, streamlining operations and enhancing overall efficiency.

To know more about it, Analytics India Magazine reached out to Venkat Ramakrishnan, VP, engineering and products, CNBU at Pure Storage. 

Addressing the Challenges of Database Lifecycle Management

In a DevOps environment, managing the lifecycle of databases across various applications and deployment models poses several challenges. One significant hurdle according to Ramakrishnan is the proliferation of diverse database types and flavours, resulting in a polyglot environment. Portworx tackles this issue by offering a single pane of glass that enables the deployment, management, monitoring, and lifecycle handling of data services, from Day Zero to Day 2.

“As enterprises scale up their operations, managing hundreds or even thousands of application instances and data services become exponentially more complex,” said Ramakrishnan. 

He added that infrastructure issues like server problems, storage limitations, networking glitches, operating system crashes, and security patches can occur at any time, overwhelming DBAs, platform engineers, and application owners.

Portworx’s data services solution simplifies this complexity by providing a unified management portal. Through this portal, users can effortlessly select and deploy data services, relying on Portworx to handle critical operations such as installation, upgrades, patching, capacity management, performance optimization, backup and recovery, and more.

Furthermore, Ramakrishnan said Portworx’s unified approach extends beyond individual database instances, ensuring seamless management of thousands of instances in a DevOps environment. It offers deployment flexibility across various environments, including data centres, edge environments, and any cloud, empowering platform administrators and DBAs to efficiently run and manage databases anywhere.

Hyperscalers and Collaborations with Data Storage Companies

While database management systems like MongoDB, Neo4j etc are partnering with storage platforms like Pure Storage, the question of what hyperscalers are doing at present rises. Ramakrishnan said that hyperscalers such as Amazon, Microsoft, and Google typically run their own managed services to cater to cloud-first or cloud-only customers. 

“While these services may be suitable for some users, many organisations desire more control over their data, costs, performance, and accessibility,” says Ramakrishnan. In such cases, he says, they may choose to run their databases in self-managed instances, utilising tools like Portworx Data Services (PDS). 

Furthermore, some enterprises have significant data centre presence, making hyperscalers offerings less aligned with their requirements. “Thus, these customers opt to run specific services themselves,” said Ramakrishnan. 

Furthermore, he says that to provide additional choices to users, hyperscalers and cloud companies often seek partnerships with data storage providers like Pure Storage. These collaborations aim to offer a broader range of data services, databases, and versions to meet diverse customer needs. “By integrating their solutions, Pure Storage enhances the overall cloud experience, empowering users with greater flexibility and a managed data services environment,” he said. 

Security and Data Privacy

When it comes to security and data privacy, Portworx prioritises these crucial aspects within its data platform. The platform incorporates various measures to guarantee availability, reliability, serviceability, security, business continuity, and disaster recovery.

Portworx employs secure port security, enabling multi-tenancy without compromising data integrity between different tenants. It supports per-volume encryption, ensuring that data remains encrypted at rest and in transit, effectively preventing unauthorised access. Moreover, Portworks offers a comprehensive authentication and authorization (AAA) solution, adding an additional layer of security. 

“This solution ensures that the data is deployed securely, whether on the cloud or on-premises. It allows tenants to bring their own security tokens and keys, ensuring that data remains isolated and protected from other tenants. In essence, it provides a fully end-to-end security architecture,” said Ramakrishnan.