There are benefits in shifting one’s digital business operations from a purely on-premise set-up to having the flexibility of running them on the cloud. These include better security, increased flexibility to scale operations, and catalysing a culture of innovation. Smart cloud databases allow customers to quickly adjust to operational fluctuations or upticks in transactions as customer geographical footprints expand.

When it comes to cloud migration, it is imperative that companies explore open-source technology options that can help them prevent future vendor lock-in scenarios.

Open source is not owned by one entity, and its overall framework is common to all consumers. Any updates to its core files have an impact on all projects. A business can simply migrate its application environment to the cloud without worrying about its open-source-powered backend environment. Applications and services developed or deployed by different businesses and vendors can be seamlessly integrated, kept patched and secure, and remain available at all times.

Adopting open-source technology during cloud migration also ensures interoperability with other enterprise solutions located elsewhere (such as on-prem in other data centres or on different clouds). This interoperability enables the reuse of software stacks, libraries and components. Such interoperability makes it seamless for businesses to deploy multi-cloud environments.

Creating relevant and data-intensive applications through the cloud

Aiven plays an integral role in ensuring a smooth cloud migration. Since 2016, Aiven has enabled organisations worldwide to create relevant and data-intensive applications through its open-source cloud data platform. Startups can now set up and manage their cloud data infrastructure in as fast as 10 minutes, giving them the freedom to pick from various cloud providers at their fingertips.

Teams can tailor their setups according to their preference by integrating open-source solutions. Aiven offers Apache Kafka, Apache Cassandra, PostgreSQL, MySQL, OpenSearch, Redis, InfluxDB, Grafana, and M3 in more than 90 regions around the world on AWS, GCP, Microsoft Azure, DigitalOcean, and UpCloud cloud platforms.

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For instance, Apache Kafka is a standard technology in modern software architectures but requires a sizeable effort to deploy and operate. Startups often outsource this to third parties with the right expertise and experience. The Aiven experience offers these building blocks of the best technologies. It takes care of operational concerns, freeing up teams and enabling them to focus on developing key builds for their business to get ahead.

With Aiven, enterprises can have more reliability in their tech operations, with their track record of high uptime stats and round-the-clock customer support. It is also kept secure and certified with the help of encryptions and dedicated virtual machines. Customisation is also easier with Aiven, enabling better ease of integration, availability of multiple options for cloud solutions, and the ability to swiftly ramp up cloud operations to an unlimited scale with minimal downtime through their automated scaling feature.

The perks of automation

Aside from making things more convenient for application developers and database administrators, there are broader organisational gains to be had. Tasks such as routine changes, installations, upgrading, and maintenance can be automated. This would then free the operational tech team to focus on performance optimisation. According to an IDC report, Aiven enables teams to perform more efficiently, reduce direct infrastructure costs, and provide improved database performance, agility, and scalability with significant impacts on the bottom line. The report finds an average ROI of 340% over three years, breaking even after only five months.

The study also cites how business customers have seen a 37% decrease in operational costs and a 78% decrease in staff time allocations for database deployments.

Many reputable global brands have trusted Aiven, including Toyota, Atlassian, Comcast, and Wolt. In Southeast Asia, GoTo Financial, a fintech provider under the GoJek group, turned to Aiven’s technology to help them optimise user experience across millions of customers while maintaining operational uptimes.

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As they were rearchitecting data pipelines and assembling everything into one system, GoTo Financial wanted to set up Apache Kafka within the region. Still, it was hard to find this anywhere else. Aiven offered this, and GoTo Financial has been happy with the uptime levels, realising better cost control and predictability. This migration with Aiven enabled easy scalability in the operations of GoTo Financial, which allowed adjustments for spikes and lulls in usage quickly and easily.

Another Aiven customer is Swift Solutions, a Jakarta-based logistics company offering delivery and order fulfilment services in Indonesia and is part of the Tokopedia Group. Using Aiven enabled them to streamline the data infrastructure components they needed and realised convenience by managing these multiple components through one console within Aiven. Another customer, Vidio, a streaming giant in Indonesia, was able to rapidly and efficiently deploy new services and features and scale their databases across fluctuations in user volume, ultimately improving customer experience.

Olivier van Grembergen, Aiven’s Regional Vice President for the Asia Pacific, shares with e27, “Aiven helps organisations by collecting all necessary components under one umbrella, offering integrations between services, ensuring that the systems are available, maintaining compliance with all major data regulations, and providing better data governance.”

A leader in cloud solutions

Headquartered in Helsinki, Aiven has been named by Forbes as part of its 2022 Cloud 100, being part of the top 100 private cloud companies in the world. It has also recently raised its $210M Series D funding round led by Eurazeo and joined by funds and accounts managed by BlackRock as well as existing investors IVP, Atomico, Earlybird, World Innovation Lab, and Salesforce Ventures, catapulting Aiven’s pre-money valuation to $3B.

Aiven was conceptualised after the founders’ own experiences as developers working with open-source technologies, encountering situations where data infrastructure tasks were getting in the way of focusing instead on innovating, problem-solving, and optimising product offerings. Allowing developers to make open-source technologies easier to adopt was the precedent to how Aiven was built. “At its core, Aiven’s vision is to establish a true, open-source data cloud that organisations can then use to build modern data infrastructure, enabling them to grow from prototyping to worldwide scale at greater velocities,” Olivier added.

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Aiven’s strategic outlook and integrations are becoming more dynamic. Alongside their international expansion in Asia Pacific, they also announced accelerated growth of over 100% and a headcount increase of over 200% since October 2021. With strengthening security features a key priority, they recently acquired Kafkawize in September 2022, an open-source governance tool for Apache Kafka. This aligns with their goal to advance their open-source stewardship. 

They also recently announced the beta launch of Aiven for Clickhouse, a fast, open-source cloud data warehouse that is fully open-source. Clickhouse can help generate real-time analytical data reports using advanced SQL queries and has already been adopted by leading companies such as Spotify, Deutsche Bank, and Uber. In their pipeline is a launch of their global sustainability program to empower the Aiven community to build more sustainable cloud applications.

“The future is bright for the state of open-source in the Asia Pacific. The region as a whole is rapidly maturing from a technology perspective. Businesses are adopting cloud technologies and turning to open-source as part of their digital transformation to drive growth and innovation. Aiven is excited about the opportunities that are abound in APAC. We are committed to continue growing our footprint, working with the most progressive digital natives, elevating service delivery, and pushing the envelope further when it comes to the stewardship of open-source,” added Olivier.    

To learn more about Aiven and its offerings for startups and scale-ups, visit https://aiven.io/.

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This article is produced by the e27 team, sponsored by Aiven

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