Essentials of Modern Cloud Governance

When embarking on a cloud journey, it is crucial to establish a robust governance framework. Neglecting to address key components can lead to significant challenges that are often difficult to rectify. This article outlines four essential elements that should be considered when developing a governance structure for your cloud environment:

1. Subscriptions Matter
2. The Network Must Be Prioritized
3. Security Is Paramount
4. Automation Is Inevitable

1. Subscriptions Matter

In Huawei,Azure,AWS,Google, the subscription serves as the fundamental container for resources. Determining the appropriate number of subscriptions is a critical first step. Most organizations start with three subscriptions and expand beyond this number based on specific conditions:

• Capacity Limits: When subscription capacity is exhausted.
• Geographical/Regulatory Constraints: When Huawei,Azure,AWS,Google resources are acquired and owned in multiple geographical, political, or regulatory jurisdictions.
• Cost Considerations: When the "thing" being deployed to Huawei, AWS, Azure, Google is part of your company’s "cost of goods sold."

Resource containers, such as Azure subscriptions, AWS accounts, Google Cloud projects, and Huawei Cloud projects, are the foundational units for organizing cloud resources. Determining the appropriate number of these containers is crucial and depends on factors such as capacity limits, geographical distribution, and regulatory requirements.

• Azure Subscriptions: Ideal for managing resources with specific access controls.
• AWS Accounts: Facilitate multi-account strategies for security and governance.
• Google Cloud Projects: Organize resources for billing, access control, and isolation.
• Huawei Cloud Projects: Enable efficient resource management and access control.

For instance, a company deploying global services might use multiple containers to adhere to regional regulatory standards and optimize cost structures.

For most companies, the initial setup includes:

• Production Subscription: This is where no standing security access exists, except for CI/CD runners, and only Reader roles are granted.
• Non-Production Subscription: This subscription houses coordinated non-production tiers such as Dev, Test, Int, Stage, and PreProd, with security measures that escalate as the environment approaches production.
• Hub Subscription: This is where core networking components, such as ExpressRoute circuits, are housed and strictly controlled.

Visual Studio subscriptions should be provided to developers and IT professionals for learning and experimental work. However, strict policy locks should be in place to prevent data exfiltration. When developers or IT professionals are ready to integrate with the broader environment, they should move into the controlled Non-Production subscription.

2. The Network Must Be Prioritized

A stable network topology is foundational to effective cloud governance. Regardless of how much serverless or PaaS infrastructure you deploy, proper network design, operation, and control are non-negotiable. Network design dictates how applications operate securely, fail over, and recover from data loss. Disregarding network architecture is a costly and avoidable mistake.

While traditional hub-and-spoke models are still viable, modern network security solutions, such as Huawei cloud Eye, Azure Security Center, Monitor, and Advisor, offer more sophisticated introspection and threat prevention capabilities. These tools provide detailed, real-time insights into your environment, making them indispensable for maintaining security and compliance.

• Azure Virtual Networks (VNet): Enable secure and scalable network configurations.
• AWS Virtual Private Cloud (VPC): Provides a virtual isolation for AWS resources.
• Google Cloud VPC: Offers flexible and secure networking options.
• Huawei Cloud VPC: Supports secure and customizable network environments.

Best practices include implementing secure routing, traffic management, and intrusion prevention mechanisms tailored to each provider's offerings.

3. Security Is Paramount

Implementing the principle of least privilege access and conducting regular account reviews are essential for maintaining security. Role-Based Access Control (RBAC), particularly when applied at the resource group level via automation with zero standing access to production, is a powerful tool for preventing unauthorized access.

Adopting an "assume breach" mindset is crucial. This approach shifts the focus of data protection efforts to the source system, where they are most effective. Subscription-level access should be tightly controlled, limited to automation accounts, break-glass accounts, and audit solutions (read-only). Privileged Identity Management (PIM) and Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) should be the norm for sensitive operations.

In production environments, the need to manually "see" resources via the portal or CLI should be minimized. For example, SQL administrators may require only Reader rights or access to emitted logs, rather than full permissions to the resource groups where SQL servers are located. Any change to production should be automated; manual changes render your disaster recovery strategy.

• Azure IAM: Offers role-based access control (RBAC) and multi-factor authentication (MFA).
• AWS IAM: Provides fine-grained access control and identity management.
• Google Cloud IAM: Supports role-based access and security controls.
• Huawei Cloud IAM: Ensures secure access management and compliance.

Implementing least privilege access, regular audits, and comprehensive monitoring tools are essential for maintaining a secure cloud environment.

4. Automation Is Inevitable

Managing and governing the cloud without automation is impractical. The complexity and scale of cloud environments make manual management inefficient and error-prone. Automation should be integrated from the development tier onward, where teams can craft automation scripts that include both the application and its infrastructure.

As you progress closer to production, access rights should be progressively reduced until only access to emitted logs remains. This final step is challenging and represents an ongoing journey. While exceptions to automation may arise, these should be integrated back into your CI/CD pipelines to maintain an automated state for deployments, monitoring, and recovery.

• Azure Resource Manager (ARM) Templates: Facilitate infrastructure as code (IaC) for Azure.
• AWS CloudFormation: Enables automated provisioning of AWS resources.
• Google Cloud Deployment Manager: Supports IaC for Google Cloud.
• Huawei Cloud Deployment Manager: Automates resource deployment and management.

Integrating CI/CD pipelines and automation scripts is crucial for efficient governance and scalability.

In summary, a well-structured cloud governance framework is built on the foundation of thoughtful subscription management, a robust network architecture, stringent security measures, and comprehensive automation. By addressing these elements, organizations can navigate their cloud journey with confidence, minimizing risks and maximizing efficiency.

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