ClearScale Blog

When it comes to upgrading legacy databases, there is no better answer than migrating to the cloud. The right cloud platform can easily deliver the availability, scalability, security, and cost-effectiveness of commercial databases without the high price tag. However, the prospect of migrating to the cloud can be intimidating for many business leaders. After all, a poor migration can put mission-critical workloads and sensitive customer data at risk. There is no room for error. Fortunately, IT teams don’t have

AWS re:Invent 2020 was jam-packed with cloud insights, tips, and demonstrations. We especially enjoyed learning more about how to leverage Kubernetes and optimize infrastructure for containerized applications on AWS. Our Technical Lead from the Systems Engineering team, Alexander Ivenin, sat in on sessions that covered a wide range of Kubernetes-related topics, including how to migrate legacy applications to containers and how to operate Kubernetes clusters with Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Service (EKS). We also learned best practices for how to

Many organizations that use Amazon Web Services (AWS) initially used AWS Lambda, Amazon’s Function-as-a-Service product, to automate workflows around running and scaling code. While this service does save time for developers, many companies have found challenges using AWS Lambda with more complex applications. To address these issues, Amazon launched AWS Step Functions, a serverless function orchestrator that simplifies the process of managing and sequencing Lambda functions. With AWS Step Functions, businesses can improve application resiliency, leverage other powerful AWS

At the 2020 AWS re:Invent there have been a lot of great sessions covering everything that’s new and improved in managed database services from Amazon Web Services (AWS). In this post, ClearScale’s Database Engineer, Renat Sunyaev, and Database Tech Lead, Sergey Kushnarev, summarize these exciting announcements. Over the past 15 years there was an incredible shift of application workloads from on-premises data centers or colocation facilities to cloud-based computing using services from AWS. Companies have been able

At the 2020 AWS re:Invent, Amazon Web Services (AWS) discussed best practices for application migration in sessions like The Cutover: Moving Your Traffic to the Cloud. The presenters discussed how each migration plan should contain 4 primary goals: Zero or minimum downtime Reduced risk of data loss Fast rollback Traffic and log monitoring Best Practices for Ensuring a Zero Downtime Migration To achieve these goals, it’s important to ensure that the traffic cutover is performed correctly. In ClearScale

Microservices architecture continues to be a trending topic in the application development world, largely because it makes apps easier to build, expand, and scale compared to traditional monolithic architecture. But there are numerous considerations that go into the use of microservices. One of them is how to package and deploy the services. In a previous blog, we discussed the use of containers for microservices. In this one, the focus is on serverless. Microservices and Serverless Defined What are microservices? As

The recent AWS re:Invent session, Best Practices for Running Microsoft Active Directory on AWS, featured a detailed overview of multi-region replication for AWS Managed Microsoft Active Directory. Vladimir Kolesnikov, Systems Tech Lead at ClearScale, provides his expert commentary on this exciting announcement. Overview Released in late November 2020, Amazon Web Services’ (AWS) new multi-region replication feature breaks down the wall of Active Directory (AD) managed service for many customers who wanted disaster recovery and fault tolerance of AD infrastructure

In a previous blog, we talked about how microservices have changed application modernization. A somewhat related concept that’s also had an impact is that of containers. And, as it so happens, microservices and containers work well together for app modernization. As a refresher, with microservices an app is broken down into a collection of small, loosely coupled services. Each service is continuously developed and separately maintained, and communicates through a clearly defined, lightweight framework to achieve a business objective

In our increasingly digital world, software is essential to businesses and organizations. Software enables us to communicate directly with customers, design new applications, manage logistics, and more. Put simply, software is completely transforming how we operate. However, traditional approaches to software development and infrastructure management no longer suffice in our fast-paced world. Enterprises need agile, flexible, and scalable IT, alongside streamlined deployment practices, to innovate and iterate rapidly. In other words, they need DevOps. DevOps refers to a collection of

Legacy databases pale in comparison to cloud databases. For example, legacy databases often come with rigid contracts, punitive licensing, and monolithic architecture. They also tend to be more costly due to inflexible pricing and annual maintenance expenses. Leaders who hold fast to their legacy databases will continue to fall behind and miss out on all the cloud has to offer (to learn more about this topic, check out our Guide to Migrating Legacy Databases to AWS. However, it can be