Your business is expanding rapidly. What cloud-based systems management tools can help you keep up?

Cloud providers have their own native monitoring systems, for example CloudWatch for AWS. Also you can use different monitoring systems and your choice is depend only from metrics and aims. For example: Zabbix (classic monitoring system), Prometheus (good for k8s), New Relic (Applications monitoring), DataDog (good logs aggregation), OpsGenie (Alerting). It makes sense to look at third-party solutions when you lack the capabilities of cloud native monitoring, logging and alerting systems. For example, for AWS you can try to start from using services like CloudWatch, CloudTrail and SNS. And later start using other (Amazon Inspector, Amazon Detective, Amazon GuardDuty - Security. AWS Cost Explorer, AWS Budgets - cost opt) if necessary.

Here are some key tools we are considering to help us keep up with our expanding operations: 1. Amazon Web Services (AWS) CloudWatch 2. Microsoft Azure Operations Management Suite 3. Google Cloud Operations Suite 4. Datadog 5. PagerDuty 6. HashiCorp Terraform 7. Cisco Intersight 8. Ansible by Red Hat By strategically incorporating these cloud-based systems management tools into our operations, we aim to enhance efficiency, maintain a proactive stance on potential issues, and ensure a smooth and scalable business expansion.

For effective performance monitoring in a rapidly expanding business, consider utilizing cloud-based system management tools like AWS CloudWatch, Google Cloud Monitoring, or Azure Monitor. These tools offer real-time insights into your infrastructure, helping you identify and address performance bottlenecks, optimize resource utilization, and ensure seamless scalability as your business grows. To dive deeper into performance monitoring, check out this insightful article on "Best Practices for Cloud-Based Performance Monitoring in Growing Businesses.

It should be a combination of cloud native and enterprise monitoring tools e.g. Cloudwatch + Appdynamics or azure monitor + datadog and Prometheus can also add value.

To manage the growing complexity of your expanding business, leverage cloud-based configuration management tools such as Ansible, Chef, or Puppet. These tools automate infrastructure provisioning, ensuring consistent setups across your expanding environment. This not only streamlines operations but also enhances scalability. For more in-depth insights, explore the article "Navigating Business Expansion: Effective Configuration Management in the Cloud" to learn best practices and strategies for maintaining a well-configured and scalable infrastructure.

Terraform,puppet, chef and CDK some of good examples of configuration management tools. These tools add end to end automation in configuration cycle

We need to replicate on premises security in the cloud as well using cloud security services. Most used security services are : IAM,WAF,EDR,SIEM,CDN, vulnerability assessment and penetrations testing.

Security and Management in Cloud Expansion: - Opt for cloud-based tools like AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM), Google Cloud Identity and Access Management, or Azure Active Directory for robust security controls. - Implement centralized management to efficiently handle user access, permissions, and authentication across the growing infrastructure. - Leverage features like role-based access control (RBAC) to ensure a secure and organized expansion. - Regularly audit and monitor security configurations using tools like AWS Config, Google Cloud Security Command Center, or Azure Security Center.

- Employ cloud-based backup solutions such as AWS Backup, Google Cloud Backup, or Azure Backup for seamless data protection. - Establish automated backup schedules to ensure regular snapshots of critical data as your business expands. - Utilize versioning and retention policies to manage and recover historical data effectively. - Implement a robust disaster recovery plan using features like AWS Disaster Recovery, Google Cloud's Site Recovery, or Azure Site Recovery for business continuity. - Regularly test and validate your backup and recovery processes to guarantee their effectiveness in the event of unforeseen incidents.

- Leverage cloud-native cost management tools like AWS Cost Explorer, Google Cloud Cost Management, or Azure Cost Management to monitor and analyze spending patterns. - Implement resource tagging to track and allocate costs accurately across the expanding infrastructure. - Explore reserved instances or committed use discounts to optimize costs for predictable workloads. - Utilize auto-scaling capabilities to dynamically adjust resources based on demand, ensuring efficient resource utilization. - Regularly review and optimize your cloud architecture to eliminate unnecessary resources and identify opportunities for cost savings in the rapidly expanding business environment.

It is a responsibility of the sys admin or cloud architect to design the whole infrastructure of any business and monitor on daiky basis the performance and resource allocation of virtual machines running and to optimize cost by saving some disks, memory, hardware usage, running services in addition to the backup and restore procedures.