Navigating Migration to Cloud and Data Access in Retail Loyalty

By Fatima Roels Glen, Global Product Manager for Loyalty, NCR Voyix

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One frequently asked question that shows up in my inbox more and more often is: When moving from on-premise to cloud-hosted Loyalty, will my users still have direct access to the SQL database?

Of course, the short answer is No. But there's so much more to it than a binary yes or no answer. I would like to use this blog post unpack the rationale behind why cloud-hosted solutions are managed so differently from on-premise solutions, and illustrate why no direct DB access is less of a denial of access and more of a change in ways of working.

When we migrate a retailer's loyalty solution to a cloud-hosted environment, we know that the process is offering retailers an opportunity to modernize systems… and we're also aware that it introduces the odd technical hurdle, in this instance we're focusing on data accessibility.

Recognizing and addressing these challenges is part of our project approach when enabling our retailers with a new, cloud-based solution: yes, we leverage APIs and analytics services to provide more agile and insightful ways to interact with loyalty data… But, before we skip ahead to the answer, let's start by talking about the reasons why it's not good practice to enable direct access to the database of a cloud-hosted solution.

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Direct DB Access - Why Not?

1. Security and compliance
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