News

Couchbase Introduces Fully Managed Database Service

• By John K. Waters
• February 6, 2020

Couchbase on Thursday unveiled a new fully managed Database-as-a-Service (DBaaS) designed to simplify DB management by deploying, managing and operating the enterprise edition of the company's namesake NoSQL database across multicloud environments with a few clicks.

Couchbase Cloud, which goes into limited release this spring, provides a fully automated control plane (user interface) that connects with a separate data plane to conduct activities such as multicloud orchestration, user management, cluster management, monitoring and billing. But unlike other DBaaS offerings, explained Scott Anderson, Couchbase SVP of product management and operations, the data plane resides within the customers' own virtual private cloud (VPC), which leaves them in control of their data.

"This is a very important distinction we've made," Anderson told ADTmag. "The data remains completely under the customer's control within their VPC. The information coming to Couchbase is alert metrics and logs as needed for the resolution of any support case. This gives them a lot of flexibility in terms of the topology of how their application relates with the database and allows us to more easily do things like on-prem-to-Couchbase cloud replication of data for disaster recovery."

Because the data is co-located with the application itself, Anderson said, latency is reduced while performance is improved. And security is enhanced, because the customer can revoke access from the control plane to the data plane at any point. This extra layer of security also makes it easier to meet the latest data governance and compliance requirements.

Couchbase Cloud is built on open source technologies, including the Kubernetes orchestration platform, the Prometheus event monitory tool, and the Grafana metric analytics and visualization suite, Anderson said. The service uses an autonomous Kubernetes operator to deploy, manage and update Couchbase database instances.

The company expects the Couchbase Cloud to become generally available sometime in June. It will launch initially with support in the data plane for Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure. The beta preview is based on the Couchbase Server 6.5 release that became generally available on Jan. 21. Couchbase Server 6.5 adds multiple features to the NoSQL database platform, including distributed ACID transactions and query enhancements.