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11: Data Management in the Cloud

  • Page ID
    128104
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    Cloud computing has transformed how organizations store, manage, and analyze data. In traditional on-premises settings, data management focused on centralized databases and direct-attached storage. In contrast, cloud data management emphasizes distributed systems, scalability, and resiliency to meet the demands of modern applications. This chapter explores the principles and practices of managing data in cloud environments, blending academic concepts with practical applications relevant to cloud project management. We will cover fundamental cloud data management principles, examine different cloud storage models (block, object, and file storage) and distributed file systems, compare SQL, NoSQL, and NewSQL databases, discuss data replication strategies and consistency models, outline backup and recovery approaches in the cloud, and delve into name services and metadata management in distributed systems. Throughout, real-world examples (such as Netflix’s cloud architecture and Google’s Spanner database) and cloud provider services (AWS, Azure, GCP) are included to illustrate these concepts in practice.

    Learning Objectives 

    After completing this chapter, students will be able to:

    1. Explain cloud data management principles: durability, availability, scalability, consistency, security, and cost efficiency.
    2. Compare cloud storage models: object storage, file storage, and block storage, including their trade-offs.
    3. Describe distributed file systems (HDFS, CephFS) and their role in big data and analytics.
    4. Differentiate between SQL, NoSQL, and NewSQL databases and select appropriate types for given workloads.
    5. Analyze data replication strategies and consistency models (strong, eventual, causal) in distributed systems.
    6. Design backup and disaster recovery strategies for cloud-based data.
    7. Evaluate real-world cloud data architectures including Netflix and Google Spanner.


    This page titled 11: Data Management in the Cloud was last modified on Sat, 12 Sep 2026 08:40:20 GMT and is shared under a CC BY 4.0 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by Felix Amoruwa.

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