Chapter 8:

From analysis to action

The evidence presented throughout this paper leads to a clear and urgent conclusion: maintaining a legacy or proprietary DBaaS architecture is no longer a sustainable strategy. The compounding costs, escalating risks of vendor lock-in, and the persistent drag on developer velocity represent a significant and growing liability.

The path forward is a strategic migration to an open source database platform on Kubernetes. While this transition is not without its challenges, it is achievable through a phased, deliberate approach. The following recommendations provide a clear, actionable roadmap for CIOs to lead this transformation.

1. Assess your current maturity

The first step is to conduct an honest assessment of your organization's current state. Use the Database Modernization Maturity Model from Chapter 1 to benchmark your existing data platforms. Identify where your critical systems fall: are they in Level 1 (Legacy Ad-Hoc) or Level 2 (Basic DBaaS)? This diagnosis will clarify the specific risks your organization faces regarding operational overhead, vendor lock-in, and compliance fragmentation, providing the foundational data needed to justify a change.

2. Build the business case internally

To secure executive buy-in, the argument for change must be framed in financial terms. Use the TCO model from Chapter 5 as a template. Go beyond the direct infrastructure savings and quantify the cost of inaction. Specifically, model the cost of human capital and operational drag by calculating the internal cost of your current, ticket-based provisioning process. This translates the abstract concept of "lost agility" into a hard dollar figure that will resonate with the CFO and the board, demonstrating that the "cost of doing nothing" is a significant, recurring operational expense.

3. Initiate a pilot project with an enterprise-grade open source operator

A full-scale migration is a daunting prospect, but the most effective way to de-risk the transition and build internal skills is to start with a pilot project. Select a single, non-critical application and deploy its database on Kubernetes using a proven, enterprise-grade open source operator. The goal of this pilot is twofold: first, to demonstrate the automation capabilities of the operator for complex Day 2 operations, proving the technology's value to internal stakeholders; and second, to provide your team with a hands-on opportunity to develop the Kubernetes skills necessary for a broader rollout.

4. Develop a platform engineering strategy

Frame the adoption of Kubernetes for databases not as a one-off migration project, but as a step toward building a unified, internal data platform. The ultimate goal is to empower a platform engineering team to provide a standardized, self-service experience for all databases, just as they do for stateless applications. This approach creates massive operational leverage, improves security and governance, and positions the organization to manage its entire data estate with a consistent, automated, and cost-effective model.

These steps provide a clear path for turning your database from an anchor on innovation into an engine for growth.

The final chapter details a complete, integrated platform of software and services designed to support every stage of this journey.

Chapter 9: Percona for Cloud Native