Riding the cloud database wave Article By Cliff Saran The adoption of cloud databases $$ those delivered via a cloud consumption model $$ is ramping up$.$ Referred to as dbPaaS $($database platform as a service$)$ by analyst Gartner, the market for cloud databases is dominated by public cloud providers. Amazon Web Services $($AWS$),$ Microsoft, Google, Oracle and Alibaba are among the leaders identified by the analyst firm in its Magic quadrant for cloud database management systems, published in December $2023.$ Broadly speaking, these providers offer a range of data management capabilities. Other leaders identified by Gartner include MongoDB, which specialises in non$-$relational database technology, and Snowflake and Databricks, which focus on data warehouses and data lakes. According to Gartner$$s August $2023$ Forecast analysis: Database management systems, worldwide, the market for database management systems $($DBMS$)$ is set to grow at a compound annual growth rate of $16\mathrm{.}8\%$ through $2027$ to reach $$203\mathrm{.}6$bn$,$ accounting for $27\%$ of the total infrastructure software market spend in $2027.$ The forecast shows that the percentage of spending on cloud dbPaaS will grow from $55\%$ of the total DBMS market in $2022$ to $73\mathrm{.}5\%$ by $2027.$ According to Gartner, the transition of DBMS software purchasing $$ moving from legacy, centralised IT groups to decentralised lines of business within an enterprise $$ is driving this increase in DBMS spending. Traditionally, with centralised IT services, different areas of a business shared a DBMS$.$ Gartner notes that they now have been given the freedom to choose their DBMS based on their own unit$$s criteria and then build their own databases rather than using shared systems. However, Forrester vice$-$president and principal analyst Noel Yuhanna warns that some cloud databases are built on proprietary technology, which makes it challenging to migrate to other databases. There is also a lack of visibility in cost$.$Without monitoring and management, excessive usage of the infrastructure can lead to unexpected costs,$$ he says. Yuhanna recommends IT decision$-$makers consider the ability to customise cloud databases compared with on$-$premise databases, since some impose customisation constraints.

QUESTION $1(20$ Marks$)$ Evaluate the potential risks and benefits of adopting cloud database platforms $($dbPaaS$)$ as described in the article, considering how decentralised IT spending and the autonomy of businesses in choosing their own cloud databases impact organisational agility and efficiency. Additionally, as part of your solution, deliberate on the implications of vendor lock$-$in and cost visibility challenges for long$-$term strategic planning.