Item: IBM Cloud Databases
Rating: 10
Author: Jon Tara

Overall Satisfaction with IBM Cloud Databases (formerly Compose)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

IBM Cloud Databases is used (along with IBM Cloud Object Store) as part of a backend system supporting client, eGrove Education Inc.'s, mobile app which helps high school and college STEM students develop their spatial visualization skills through automatically-graded free-hand sketching in a mobile app.

A CloudFoundry app uses IBM Cloud Databases as a synchronization source/sink and system of record for assigned material (both text and media blob data), course rosters, grading results, etc. (Because of the volume of student-produced sketches, student sketches are stored in Cloud Object Store).

Pros and Cons

Pros

ACID Compliance vs non-ACID compliance of the most popular open-source relational database (MySQL).
Fully managed solution: no bumbling with server installation/setup/maintenance.
Reliable high-availability implementation.

Cons

Yet more fine-grained provisioning (but thanks for the improvements!) For example, currently there is a 3-core minimum for dedicated cores.

Return on Investment

It is difficult to determine for this use case, as it is a new use case, and not yet fully scaled-out in the market. Costs have and are projected to be more than acceptable, and at a welcome reduction from the previous Compose cost structure.

Alternatives Considered

I did compare IBM Compose for PostgreSQL with PostgreSQL offerings available from Amazon and Google. IBM Compose was judged easier to provision and maintain.

I'm pleased with the additional more granular provisioning flexibility and more favorable cost structure that has come with the transition to IBM Databases for PostgreSQL.

Likelihood to Recommend

This is my current go-to solution where a relational database in the cloud is a requirement. The IBM Cloud Databases PostgreSQL implementation is particular attractive vs. alternatives available from other cloud providers because of relational databases scale "up" well (while generally not scaling "out" well or at all) and IBM is able to offer the ultimate scale-up, the recently available, Hyper Protect DBAAS. I can build today on IBM Cloud Databases for PostgreSQL with the knowledge that in the future, if needed, I can scale up to a solution running on massive Z-Series hardware that is at the same time much more secure (particularly from side-channel attack) than solutions running on Intel hardware.

IBM Cloud Databases Feature Ratings

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Worry-Free PostgreSQL cloud deployment with IBM Cloud Databases for PostgreSQL

Modules Used