Question 1

Is Teradata Vantage offered as-a-service on Teradata IntelliFlex?

Accepted Answer

Yes, Teradata Vantage on Teradata Cloud is a managed cloud service for analytics at scale. It provides secure, scalable, single-tenant environments in which Teradata provisions and maintains the Vantage system with Teradata IntelliFlex infrastructure so that customers can focus on answers, not IT. Consuming as-a-service enables users to get going quickly while scaling as they evolve.

Question 2

What are the business benefits?

Accepted Answer

As-a-service consumption of Vantage was designed from the ground up to deliver business benefits in four critical areas:

Performance: Vantage is the most performant analytics software for always-on analytics in the cloud. No alternative comes close to its chart-topping throughput and response times.
Security: Security is the number one priority for Teradata when it comes to the as-a-service environments provisioned and maintained for customers. Teradata invests in third-party audits to demonstrate compliance with GDPR, PCI, HIPAA, ISO 27001, and SOC 1 and 2.
Availability: Teradata contractually guarantees the uptime of Vantage on Teradata Cloud environments. A Service Level Agreement for 99.9% uptime translates into more productivity and higher satisfaction for business analysts and data scientists.
Operations: Teradata handles infrastructure-level tasks—software patches, version upgrades, daily backups, performance reporting, and support ticket resolution—so customers can focus on managing the business.

Question 3

What capabilities come with it?

Accepted Answer

Vantage on Teradata Cloud features are comprehensive:

Flexible capacity pricing model with monthly, 1-year, and 3-year options
Subscription to world-famous Teradata Vantage software
High-performance purpose-built infrastructure managed by Teradata
- Secure, compliant environment audited for GDPR, PCI, HIPAA, ISO 27001, and SOC 1 and 2
Service availability guarantee for 99.9% uptime
Management console
Comprehensive infrastructure services:
- Onboarding assistance
- Provisioning assistance
- System monitoring
- System maintenance
- Patch management
- Software upgrades
- Encryption of data in motion and at rest
- Daily backups administered by Teradata

Question 4

What are the use cases?

Accepted Answer

Customers use Teradata as-a-service offers for Vantage for all the same use cases as other Teradata deployment options:

Production analytics
Test and development
Quality assurance
Cloud data labs
Disaster recovery

Go to the Customers section to read success stories and watch customer testimonials.

Question 5

Where is Vantage available as-a-service on Teradata Cloud?

Accepted Answer

Vantage on Teradata Cloud is available from anywhere across the globe. The two U.S. data centers in which Teradata Cloud infrastructure is hosted are US East (N. Virginia) and US West (Las Vegas).

Question 6

Why choose as-a-service for Vantage?

Accepted Answer

As-a-service delivery of Teradata Vantage offers the most performant and secure analytics platform in the cloud, enabling users to get going quickly and scale as they evolve. Because Teradata manages the environment and guarantees system availability, internal teams can save time, focus on delivering actionable insights, and get the most value from the organization’s investment.

When contemplating alternatives for enterprise analytics in the cloud, it’s easy to become distracted by bold claims about cloud benefits yet lose sight of the original business requirement: getting answers from data leading to better business outcomes. Teradata recommends selecting a portable solution that can support both current and future hybrid cloud needs and does not require internals teams to re-code, re-train, or re-orient the company’s entire analytic ecosystem.

Question 7

What is the performance and storage capacity?

Accepted Answer

Performance and storage limits for Vantage delivered as-a-service:

Compute and I/O can scale from 26 TCore to just about anything that is needed.
Storage can scale from 26 TB to just about anything that is needed.

Fallback and compression are enabled by default for all user tables. Actual compression rates will vary depending on data demographics — however rates of 3X or higher are common.

Question 8

Why should I select Teradata Cloud?

Accepted Answer

Dedicated, purpose-built Teradata hardware provisioned and managed by Teradata Cloud Operations
Independent scaling of compute and storage; high availability with hot standby node capability
Low-latency connectivity with applications and other infrastructure co-located in the same data center

Question 9

What Teradata software releases are supported?

Accepted Answer

All new as-a-service subscriptions support Teradata Vantage.

Question 10

What is the minimum number of TCore in a system?

Accepted Answer

The minimum amount of TCore that can be specified in a single as-a-service system is 26.

Question 11

I need more TCore. How do I scale my system?

Accepted Answer

Easy. As-a-service systems are elastic in that they can be scaled up and down (adjusting TCore) depending on resource availability. The Console is the web-based interface for monitoring and adjusting flexible system capacity.

Question 12

Data security is extremely important. How do you handle security?

Accepted Answer

Security is the number one priority when it comes to the as-a-service environments that Teradata provisions and maintains for customers. Teradata delivers across-the-board support for every facet of cloud security including physical security, network security, data protection, monitoring, and access controls.

Teradata service architecture was designed to comply with – and is successfully audited annually for – strict international standards including:

General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)
Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA)
International Standards Organization (ISO) 27001
Payment Card Industry (PCI)
Service Organization Control (SOC) 1 and 2

The Information Security Management System gets annual third-party verification to ensure compliance with standards. These audit reports and the latest certifications are available upon request.

Question 13

Has Teradata undergone any compliance audits to verify security?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Teradata has invested in rigorous third-party audits of our as-a-service offerings to demonstrate compliance with industry security regulations and industry best practices such as GDPR, PCI, HIPAA, ISO 27001, and SOC 1 and 2.

Please visit the Cloud Security page for more information. Read the press release on 3rd party audits for security and compliance.

Question 14

What authentication methods are available?

Accepted Answer

As-a-service systems are LDAP ready. By default, systems will use a native database authentication method.

In Teradata Vantage, users DBC (superuser), SYSDBA (database management), and SECADM (security administration) are provided with TD2 authentication and default passwords. It is important to change passwords for these users as soon access is granted. User SYSBACK is created on all Teradata systems and its password is secured by Cloud Operations. The SYSBACK user’s password should not be changed because it is used to execute daily backup operations on the system.

Question 15

Does Teradata Cloud Operations have access to my data?

Accepted Answer

No. The Teradata Cloud Operations team does not have visibility or access to customer data.

Question 16

Will my data ever be transferred to or backed up in another country?

Accepted Answer

No. Customer data is never transferred across country borders.

Question 17

Do as-a-service subscriptions come with an availability SLA?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Teradata will use commercially reasonable efforts to make Vantage on Teradata Cloud systems generally available 7 x 24 x 365. Teradata targets a Service Level Agreement (SLA) (excluding planned downtime) of 99.9% measured monthly. Please consult the Cloud Service Description for more details.

Question 18

What availability techniques are utilized?

Accepted Answer

Teradata Vantage is configured to use Fallback protection on all tables. Fallback provides a layer of protection that extends beyond just a loss of redundant hardware. With Fallback, a secondary copy of data exists on a different node. The system will go through a restart and continue to function with a reduction in performance. Once the failed infrastructure is replaced or restored, Vantage will rebuild using the Fallback data copies.

Question 19

Will I have access to my Teradata system during scaling?

Accepted Answer

Some scaling operations may be accomplished with just a restart, which is a brief period. For other during scaling operations, Teradata systems are available for read-only operations during which you cannot load or change data but can continue to run queries and reports. When the new resources are ready, there will be a few minutes of scheduled downtime to transition from the former to new resources.

Question 20

How often are my data backed up?

Accepted Answer

As-a-service systems are backed up daily by default. The two most recent backup copies are replicated to a secondary storage environment, typically in the other U.S. data center.

Question 21

Are backups automatically configured?

Accepted Answer

Yes. The “sysback” user in Vantage is used to perform backups. To change passwords for the “sysback” account, users must coordinate with Teradata Cloud Operations via a change management ticket in the Console to ensure uninterrupted backups.

Question 22

What if I need my data restored? How is this process accomplished?

Accepted Answer

Simply place a request for restore (either at table, database, or full system level) via the Console.

Question 23

Who are Teradata Cloud Operations and what do they do?

Accepted Answer

The Cloud Operations team performs activities such as:

Onboarding assistance
Provisioning assistance
System monitoring
System maintenance
Patch management
Software upgrades

Cloud Operations continually monitors and administers the as-a-service environments to help ensure security, availability, backups, and data recovery.

Question 24

Does the Teradata Cloud Operations team provide DBA services?

Accepted Answer

No. Database Administrator services are typically the responsibility of the customer, but, customers are welcome to engage with Teradata Services to perform DBA and other value-add activities.

Question 25

How do I monitor the performance of my Vantage system?

Accepted Answer

The Console is the web-based interface for monitoring and adjusting resource allocation for systems at the account level. Teradata Viewpoint is the primary operational view for monitoring and managing cloud systems. This instance of Viewpoint can only monitor as-a-service based systems.

The Console enables you to:

View status of all as-a-service systems in one location
Monitor and manage as-as-service resources
See database site metrics such as compute and storage utilization
Open and monitor support tickets
Add or delete user accounts

To learn more, consult the Console section in these FAQs.

Question 26

What does Teradata Cloud Operations monitor for me?

Accepted Answer

Cloud Operations monitors platform availability, backups, and security of the as-a-service environment.

Question 27

What systems are provided during provisioning?

Accepted Answer

Vantage on Teradata Cloud customers get three (3) servers along with the Teradata-provisioned infrastructure:

A load server running Teradata load utilities
Preconfigured Viewpoint server for management of database resources including predefined views:
- Dashboard with a high-level view of as-a-service systems
- Current activity for monitoring active sessions
- Capacity view for managing space and resource utilization trends over time
Utility server (via remote desktop access) which is preconfigured with Teradata client tools for data access, database management, and load/unload functions.

Question 28

Who performs hardware/software maintenance on my as-a-service systems?

Accepted Answer

Complete support for hardware and software is provided by the Teradata Cloud Operations team, which informs customers when updates to Teradata software or operating systems are recommended. Cloud Operations will coordinate incidents and change control with users (for implementation of software updates) as required. Note: testing of software updates is the customer’s responsibility.

Question 29

During software maintenance, will my system be available?

Accepted Answer

As-a-service system(s) will not be available when software maintenance is performed on systems during a planned maintenance window. Customers will receive ample notice prior to such planned maintenance taking place.

Question 30

Does Teradata Cloud Operations have visibility to my data or access to my backups?

Accepted Answer

No. The Cloud Operations team does not have visibility or access to customer data or backups.

Question 31

Will my data ever be transferred to or backed up in another country?

Accepted Answer

No. Customer data is never transferred across country borders.

Question 32

What is the Console?

Accepted Answer

The Console is an easy-to-use web interface for monitoring and managing as-a-service systems. There is no additional charge for the Console and all as-a-service deployment types and regions are supported.

Question 33

How do I get my Console credentials?

Accepted Answer

Console credentials will be sent to users via email once an as-a-service account is created. Upon receiving and changing credentials per the instructions in the email, users can log in to the Console using a Chrome web browser.

Question 34

Where can I find documentation for the Console?

Accepted Answer

Documentation for the Console is available here.

Question 35

How do I start using the Console?

Accepted Answer

Existing as-a-service customers can use their Teradata Support credentials to log in to the management web console via Chrome. New customers are provided with credentials once their systems have been set up and are ready to use.

Question 36

What features does the Console support?

Accepted Answer

Available features include:

Resource summary and configurations
Compute elasticity: Scale TCore
Storage expansion
Disk and CPU utilization
Usage metering
Availability reporting
Event notifications
IP info: CIDR, Vantage, Viewpoint
Backup history and management
Backup storage metering
Support ticket management
User management

Question 37

What user access management policies can I implement in the Console?

Accepted Answer

Service owners and access managers are able to assign users to specific roles with limited access.

Question 38

Can I use ServiceNow instead of the Console to handle support tickets?

Accepted Answer

Yes, both options can be used to open/update/monitor support tickets. The Console provides a more filtered, simpler view of tickets; for detailed views, click on a ticket to open it in ServiceNow.

Question 39

How can I contact support when I find a problem with my Teradata instance?

Accepted Answer

Customers can leverage existing Teradata Support channels or open a new request using the Support ticketing section of the Console.

Question 40

What is the minimum time interval granularity for the data that the Console receives and aggregates?

Accepted Answer

Most system and database metrics are received and aggregated in 5-minute intervals.

Question 41

What does the Backup section of the Console show?

Accepted Answer

The Backup section displays all registered backup jobs as well as the ability to edit the parameters of the backups. The most recent backup event logs are also available from this view. Backups can have weekly reports sent every Wednesday to the email assigned to the Technical Contact role registered in ServiceNow; submit a new service ticket to opt in to this weekly backup report.

Question 42

What are the connectivity options for my cloud system(s)?

Accepted Answer

One site-to-site VPN up to 100Mbps is provided for connecting a network and the Teradata data center which leverages publicly routable IP addresses. Additional options include:

More site-to-site VPN connections
Bandwidth up to 10Gbps
Dedicated network edge router hosting
1 or 10Gbps dedicated network connectivity
1 or 10Gbps data center cross-connect

Question 43

Is 100Mbps over VPN enough for my data movement needs?

Accepted Answer

Whether or not your workload will need more bandwidth than 100Mbps depends on how much data you plan on moving into or out of your as-a-service system. Follow this link for a simple calculator to help understand data transfer bandwidth needs better.

Please also note that while site-to-site VPN connections over the Internet are secure, actual bandwidth will vary. For guaranteed bandwidth, users need to use a dedicated private circuit as described above.

Question 44

What is needed to set up a site-to-site VPN?

Accepted Answer

A Teradata site-to-site VPN form must be submitted to Teradata Cloud Operations before a VPN tunnel can be established. This form will be given to users by Teradata team upon order placement. Two global public IPs are required for routing return traffic on the site-to-site VPN.

Question 45

What&rsquo;s the best way to access my as-a-service environment?

Accepted Answer

Upon provisioning an as-a-service Vantage system, instructions will be provided on how to access the environment. Users get a list of IP addresses to their database systems, load server (if applicable), Viewpoint server, and utilities server along with instructions on how to access each one. The load, Viewpoint, and utility servers will be preconfigured to access database system(s) from within a user’s Vantage system.

External IP addresses will be provided to access database systems directly from servers or desktops within a user’s own network, and users can download Teradata Tools & Utilities.

Database access to Teradata is available through any of the following drivers and utilities:

ODBC, JDBC, OLE DB Drivers
Net Data Provider
Teradata CLIv2
Teradata Plug-in for Eclipse
BTEQ – command line query tool
Teradata Studio – Eclipse-based database query tool

Question 46

Will I be provided a load server for loading my data?

Accepted Answer

Yes, a 100 GB load server will be provisioned with your Vantage on Teradata Cloud environment.

Question 47

I need to load large and concurrent data volumes. What&rsquo;s the difference between the load server included in the base price and an enhanced load server?

Accepted Answer

If users expect to have large load volumes on a regular basis, Teradata Cloud Operations can optionally provision an &ldquo;Enhanced Load Server&rdquo; which is configured with 1TB of storage space. Teradata Tools and Utilities are included with both load servers.

Question 48

Will I be able to load custom scripts on the load server?

Accepted Answer

Question 49

How do I load data into my as-a-service system?

Accepted Answer

As-a-service load servers support SFTP (Secure File Transfer Protocol) to move data files into the cloud. All necessary load/unload utilities are provided on the load server. Data loads are accomplished in the following ways:

Teradata Parallel Transporter – (recommended)
- Load Operator to insert data into empty tables (fastest)
- Update Operator to insert/update data into populated tables
- Stream Operator to insert data into tables concurrently (enhanced option)
- Inserter Operator to insert BLOB data

Legacy stand-alone tools – (for support of legacy scripts)
- FastLoad
- FastExport
- MultiLoad
- TPump (enhanced option)

Question 50

What is the best way to load large files to my Vantage on Teradata Cloud system?

Accepted Answer

Portable storage devices from Teradata can be used to transfer large amounts of data into an as-a-service environment. Please review the Cloud Import/Export document available from the Cloud Service Desk for further details. Teradata Parallel Transporter can load data files in delimited or fixed width formats.

Customers with an existing Teradata system can use ARC (ARCMAIN utility) to create a copy of data to load into the external device by using an ARCHIVE command for each source database. The external device is then encrypted and sent to the Teradata Data Center where it is mounted. Users can then load the data from the drive to the Teradata environment. Requests for receiving and mounting the drive can be made through the Cloud Support Portal.

Another option is “Teradata Direct Connect” for initiating a connection from your data center to the Teradata Cloud environment. Optional 1Gbps or 10Gbps connection ports are available for data transfer.

Question 51

What are the as-a-service support hours?

Accepted Answer

Teradata provides Cloud Service Desk services 7 x 24 x 365 at 1-877-MY-TDATA (1-877-698-3282).

The Console and the Teradata Cloud Service Portal are also available 7 x 24 x 365 for the submission of incidents, changes, and requests for information.

Business Day: Monday-Friday 9:00 AM EST-8:00 PM EST.

Next Business Day: Example: If a S2 or S3 incident is opened in the Teradata Cloud Service Portal after 8:00 PM EST on Friday, Teradata Staff will respond to this incident on Monday at 9:00 AM EST.

Question 52

How do I request support on my as-as-service systems?

Accepted Answer

Up to five (5) customer users will be provided with access to the Console and Teradata Cloud Service Portal for submitting requests for information and tracking incidents and changes.

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