You're managing a large business. How can you ensure your cloud-based infrastructure is up to the task?

1. Prior to choosing the right cloud provider, or a service model, you must first, understand the 5 key drivers of the business, which are as follows: - Cash flow - Profit - Assets - Growth - People Understanding this, will help you visualize how even the most complicated business's can be analyzed and improved.

To ensure your cloud-based infrastructure meets your business needs, start by assessing what your company requires in terms of storage, computing, networking, and applications. Consider your control preferences and migration plans. This analysis will guide you in choosing the right type of cloud – public, private, hybrid, or multi-cloud – that best fits your business goals and future growth.

Compreender as metas e requisitos de negócios é uma etapa crucial antes de escolher um provedor de nuvem ou um modelo de servi?o. Cada organiza??o tem necessidades e objetivos únicos, e a escolha certa dependerá de vários fatores.Identifique claramente os objetivos de negócios da sua organiza??o. Isso pode incluir redu??o de custos, melhoria da eficiência operacional, expans?o de servi?os, aumento da flexibilidade ou qualquer outro objetivo estratégico.

The following strategies can aid in maintaining a stable, secure, and efficient cloud-based infrastructure for large businesses: 1. Scalability: - Easily adjust to changes in demand with features like auto-scaling. - Monitor performance to optimize resource use. 2. Reliability and Redundancy: - Set up redundancy across multiple zones or regions. - Test failover procedures regularly. - Backup critical systems. 3. Security: - Use robust security measures to protect data and infrastructure. - Encrypt data in transit and at rest. - Regularly audit permissions to prevent unauthorized access.

Before diving into a cloud solution, it's crucial to have a clear vision of your needs and aspirations. The key areas to consider, Storage: What type of data needed to store? Unstructured (e.g., videos, logs)? Structured (e.g., databases)? How much storage space currently needed and anticipate needing in the future? Advanced features like high availability, disaster recovery, or data archiving? Computing: What kind of workload is needed to run? CPU-intensive, memory-intensive, or something else? Do you need virtual machines, containers, or serverless functions? Networking: What are your bandwidth requirements? Do you need a dedicated network connection? What level of security and compliance do you need for your network?

To ensure your cloud-based infrastructure is up to the task you need to first assess your business goals and current ROI with your current provider. Look at your cloud bills over the past 2 years and decide if it makes sense to invest in your own servers. If you are concerned about security, latency or cost for your large business, you might benefit from a hybrid cloud model. Once you have decided on the best approach for your business I would also recommend structuring your current cloud architecture with open source tools. This creates the ability to 'lift and shift' your service between clouds, which will give you the freedom to quickly transition to a provider who will give you the strongest competitive advantage.

To ensure your business's cloud infrastructure is reliable, choose a reputable provider. Assess their service quality, performance, and security features. Prioritize high availability, redundancy, and disaster recovery options. Check service level agreements for uptime guarantees, support, and latency. Compare pricing models and be aware of hidden costs. Verify compliance with standards and assess how the provider manages data privacy and security.

Pesquise a reputa??o do provedor no mercado. Avalia??es de clientes, relatórios de análise de mercado e feedback de outros usuários podem fornecer insights sobre a confiabilidade e a qualidade dos servi?os.Verifique o histórico de tempo de atividade do provedor. Um provedor de nuvem confiável deve oferecer uma garantia de tempo de atividade (SLA) consistente. Avalie as práticas de seguran?a do provedor. Avalie a qualidade do suporte técnico e atendimento ao cliente.

Choosing a reliable cloud service provider is crucial for seamless operations. Evaluate providers based on factors like uptime, support services, and compliance certifications to ensure they align with your business goals and can provide the necessary infrastructure support.

?????? Key factors to consider when selecting a reliable cloud provider: ?? Security - Choose a provider with strong physical security controls, certifications and the ability to integrate your existing security solutions. ??♂?Performance - Look at the provider's global infrastructure, track record and whether they can meet your performance and uptime needs. ???? Services - Consider the breadth and maturity of services offered like compute, storage, databases, etc. ??Experience - Go with a provider with a long history in cloud, proven experience at scale, and depth of services to rely on for critical workloads. ??? Support - Check support options, SLAs, documentation resources and whether it provides professional help.

To ensure your cloud-based infrastructure is up to the task, regularly check and improve its performance. Use tools to measure efficiency, speed, and quality of cloud services. Track resource utilization, throughput, and response time. Improve performance with load balancing, caching, and CDNs. Streamline operations with automation, orchestration, and DevOps practices.

Optimizing performance involves continuous monitoring and fine-tuning of your cloud resources. Utilize tools and analytics to identify bottlenecks, optimize configurations, and enhance overall efficiency, ensuring your infrastructure meets the performance demands of your business applications.

Ao seguir as práticas de monitoramento e otimiza??o, você pode garantir que sua infraestrutura baseada em nuvem esteja sempre ajustada para atender às demandas de desempenho, seguran?a e eficiência do seu negócio. Este é um processo contínuo que acompanha a evolu??o dos requisitos de sua organiza??o e as mudan?as no cenário tecnológico.

Continuously optimize the performance of your cloud infrastructure. Monitor resource usage, identify bottlenecks, and employ performance tuning strategies to ensure efficient operations.

Utilize robust monitoring tools to keep track of key performance metrics, including resource utilization, response times, and error rates. Establish baseline performance metrics during normal operations. Configure automated alerts based on predefined thresholds. Regularly review and analyze your infrastructure's capacity to handle current and future workloads. Continuously assess the allocation of resources such as computing power, storage, and networking. If applicable, leverage CDNs to distribute content geographically. This reduces latency and improves the overall performance of web applications, particularly for users located in different regions. Regularly perform security audits to identify vulnerabilities.

In-Transit Encryption: Use secure communication protocols (e.g., TLS/SSL) to encrypt data during transmission between clients and cloud services. At-Rest Encryption: Implement encryption for data stored in databases, file systems, and storage services. Many cloud providers offer encryption options, including server-side encryption and managed key services.

Seguran?a é uma das maiores preocupa??es quando se trata de infraestrutura baseada em nuvem. Embora os provedores de servi?os em nuvem invistam significativamente em medidas de seguran?a, é responsabilidade das organiza??es implementar práticas sólidas de seguran?a para proteger seus dados e aplicativos.E uma jornada contínua que requer aten??o constante, adapta??o a novas amea?as e ades?o a práticas recomendadas. Ao adotar uma abordagem proativa em rela??o à seguran?a, as organiza??es podem aproveitar os benefícios da nuvem de forma segura e confiável.

??Authentication is paramount in safeguarding?? cloud-based ? data. It ensures that only authorized individuals or systems gain access to sensitive information and resources. By implementing robust authentication mechanisms such as multi-factor authentication (MFA) or biometric verification, organizations can significantly mitigate the risk of unauthorized access. MFA requires users to provide multiple forms of identification, such as passwords, security tokens, or fingerprints, adding an extra layer of security. Additionally, integrating single sign-on (SSO) solutions streamlines access management while enhancing security by centralizing user authentication processes.

Data Governance is of prime importance and there should be data Governance in an automated manner which can prevent unauthorised access, non-encrypted persistence of PII data and so on. Also there should be alerting system in place to notify stakeholders in the scenario of data breaches.

Securing your data is paramount in a cloud environment. Implement robust security measures, including encryption, access controls, and regular audits. Stay informed about the latest security threats and updates to keep your infrastructure resilient against potential risks.

When architecting workloads on cloud for scalability, there are primarily two types of options, vertical scaling and horizontal scaling. Designing scalable solutions on public cloud platforms needs to be done from a much broader vantage point rather than traditional form of just compute based auto-scaling mechanisms underpinned by application or network load balancers that distribute traffic to backend virtual instances. e.g VMs/Containers that are offered by hyperscale cloud providers such as AWS, MS Azure and GCP. For example, AWS delivers horizontal scaling for databases via read replicas and RDS Proxy to increase capacity. Also scaling of networking constructs with TGWs that can connect upto 5000 VPC attachments instead of VPC peering.

Increase the size or capacity of individual resources, such as upgrading to larger instances with more CPU, memory, or storage capacity. Vertical scaling is suitable for workloads that require additional resources on the same instance, such as memory-intensive applications or database servers

???Cloud computing allows businesses to instantly scale their IT infrastructure based on demand. No longer constrained by on-premise hardware limitations, companies can now flexibly grow and shrink their computing power, storage, and databases as needed. This means businesses experiencing seasonal fluctuations or rapid growth can seamlessly handle peak loads without over-provisioning expensive hardware sitting idle the rest of the year. ?The cloud's pay-as-you-go model eliminates the risks and costs associated with trying to predict infrastructure capacity requirements months in advance. ?Companies pay only for what they use, adding resources with a few clicks as traffic spikes and removing them just as easily when loads lighten.

Scalability in cloud computing offers flexibility to adjust resources to meet changing demands, but effective management is key: Plan Resource Allocation: Anticipate peak and off-peak periods to allocate resources effectively. Utilize Auto-scaling: Employ auto-scaling features to adjust resources automatically based on predefined rules and triggers. Leverage Elasticity: Use elasticity features to dynamically add or remove resources as needed. Adopt Microservices and Containers: Modularize cloud applications with microservices and containers to enhance scalability. In Short, go for Application Modernization approach on cloud.

A escalabilidade na nuvem é uma ferramenta poderosa que capacita organiza??es a responderem de maneira ágil às demandas dinamicas do mercado, melhorando a eficiência operacional e proporcionando flexibilidade para inova??o e crescimento. Essa capacidade de dimensionar recursos rapidamente é fundamental para a agilidade e competitividade no cenário de negócios moderno.

Regularly reviewing your cloud strategy is essential for long-term success. Evaluate the effectiveness of your current setup, identify areas for improvement, and adapt your strategy to align with evolving business goals and technological advancements.

Periodically assess and challenge the strategy as a function of market dynamics, business and landscape you operate in. Ideal sweet spots, if supposedly achieved, are ephemeral in current landscape. For leadership, regular cadences with stakeholders, partners and sales team will give a birds eye overview with feedback to fuel stronger strategy. For the implementation specialists baselining performance, security posture, and audits to iterate and innovate solutions to have optimization from all quarters in place.

Ensure your cloud strategy aligns with current business objectives. Regularly review business goals and adjust your cloud infrastructure plans accordingly to support these objectives. Stay informed about emerging technologies and trends in cloud computing. Regularly assess whether new tools or services can enhance your infrastructure's performance, security, and cost efficiency. Conduct regular performance reviews of your cloud-based infrastructure. Evaluate metrics such as response times, uptime, and resource utilization to identify areas for improvement or optimization. Ensure that your cloud infrastructure complies with relevant industry regulations and data protection standards.

For long-term success, you must regularly examine your cloud strategy. Assess how well your existing arrangement is working, pinpoint areas that could use better, and modify your approach to take into account new developments in technology and changing company objectives.

Regularly review and update your cloud strategy to align with evolving business goals and technological advancements. Ensure that your infrastructure is in line with the latest industry best practices.

1. Establiing a COE that should include members from business and ensure that the cloud strategy is actually meeting business needs. 2. The COE should also publish metrics on the local Intranet .That would not be possible without a mature monitoring/observability program. 3. Partner with technology leading firms for identifying use cases where the cloud can make a difference and bring them to business via POCs or similar programs.

Disaster Recovery Plan: Develop a comprehensive disaster recovery plan to mitigate potential data loss or service interruptions. Regularly test the plan to validate its effectiveness. Cost Management: Continuously monitor and manage costs associated with cloud usage. Utilize cost optimization tools and practices to ensure efficient spending. Compliance: Stay informed about regulatory requirements relevant to your industry. Ensure that your cloud infrastructure complies with data protection laws and industry standards.

Disaster Recovery und Notfallpl?ne werden h?ufig stiefmütterlich behandelt. Mit "infrastructure as code" und einem extrem hohen Automatisierungsgrad lassen sich auch komplexe Einstellungen auf User Ebene sichern und auch Grosse Umgebungen schnell wieder aufbauen. In anderen Regionen, oder sogar bei anderen Anbietern.

The article is very high level and many aspects are to be done together and not after we move the workload to cloud. Example: Security, observability, Scaling and Disaster Recovery requirements, opex Cost management etc.

Building a large infrastructure should be done using some form of ‘Infrastructure as code’. This leads to uniformity in the design, the setup and even the naming of the components. Deploying manually instead will lead to human error and will hamper your efforts to upgrade, move or reconfigure in the future.