Teradata transitioned to the cloud to prevent disconnection from contemporary cloud-based databases.
I will demonstrate the Teradata Cloud solution in AWS and its resolutions for crucial aspects such as security, backups, and sizing.
Is the Teradata architecture in the cloud the same as before?
The basic architecture is the same.
The database software is unchanged. Teradata has been adapted to the infrastructure of AWS.
On an on-premises Teradata, all services are executed on hardware servers. Each node runs on a computing instance (a virtual server) in the AWS cloud.
This means certain limitations (BYNET is not running on Infiniband in AWS) and new previously unavailable features.
While an on-premise Teradata system is optimized for IO throughput, this is not true in the AWS Cloud.
What components of AWS are used to emulate an on-premise Teradata system?
EC2 instances provide the nodes. Data is stored in Elastic Block Stores (EBS).
Teradata uses only SSD in the cloud to optimize IO throughput (in principle, hard disks would also be provided).
How secure is my data in AWS?
Fallback Protection is activated if at least two nodes exist.
The EBS is automatically replicated within the availability zone. This is equivalent to mirroring data (Raid 1).
Backups can be created on the S3 file system.
The data on an EBS is also stored encrypted.
How can a Teradata system be expanded in the cloud?
Compute nodes (EC2 instances) can be exchanged (upscaling), or Instances can be added (out scaling).
Adding storage space is associated with the usual problems of a shared noting system. This is one of the reasons why Teradata has introduced the MAPS architecture.
The MAPS architecture makes it no longer necessary to redistribute data as soon as storage space is increased, but this process can be delayed.
Nevertheless, Teradata can keep up with the elasticity of modern cloud databases like Snowflake, which scales immediately.
How is the Hot-Standby Node implemented?
These are available but no longer necessary in AWS.
Since instances can be booted, the so-called Node Failure Recovery Feature exists. A computing instance is started as soon as a node crashes, and the Elastic Block storage from the failed node is coupled to the new node.
Does Teradata have the same workload management in the AWS cloud as on the on-premise systems?
The Base license has no workload management; the Advanced license only has Teradata Integrated Workload Management (TIWM).
Only the Enterprise License comes with TASM.
