Cloud Engineering
Define your Cloud strategy
The use of cloud technologies is becoming ubiquitous in business. Using cloud to host business services, classically hosted on dedicated equipment in physical data centers, vastly improves the speed of deployment while significantly reducing upfront costs.
Using cloud allows businesses to focus their efforts on areas that add business benefit e.g. application development and operation, and leave areas with less direct business benefit e.g. server build and maintenance, to the Cloud Services Provider.
Why move to the cloud?
The use of cloud technologies has become ubiquitous over the last few years. Rather than saying “why should I use cloud”, organisations now say, “why shouldn’t we use it?”
Using cloud to host business services, classically hosted on dedicated equipment in physical Data Centres, vastly improves the speed of deployment while significantly reducing upfront costs.
Using cloud also allows businesses to focus their efforts on areas that add business benefit e.g. application development and operation, and leave areas with less direct business benefit e.g. server build and maintenance, to the Cloud Services Provider.
It involves applying software engineering and infrastructure automation practices to provision, manage, and maintain the underlying hardware and software resources that support cloud applications. The ultimate goal of cloud engineering is to help organizations leverage the full potential of cloud computing to deliver robust, secure, and scalable applications and services to their customers.
Cloud engineering can be as simple as enabling on-prem to cloud connectivity, or as complex as implementing a full cloud landing zone using a DevOps methodology to deliver account, infrastructure, authentication and security components.
What is Cloud Engineering?
Cloud engineering is the practice of designing, building & maintaining cloud environments using cloud service providers such as AWS, Azure & GCP.
It involves applying software engineering and infrastructure automation practices to provision, manage, and maintain the underlying hardware and software resources that support cloud applications. The ultimate goal of cloud engineering is to help organisations leverage the full potential of cloud computing to deliver robust, secure, and scalable applications and services to their customers.
Cloud engineering can be as simple as enabling on-prem to cloud connectivity, or as complex as implementing a full cloud landing zone using a DevOps methodology to deliver account, infrastructure, authentication and security components.
Not only are the physical and logical security controls put in place extremely strict, the provider’s also ensure they hire the best cybersecurity experts available.
Examples include managed databases and load balancers where the cloud service provider manages the health, security and availability of the services.
Benefits of Moving to the Cloud
Security
Cloud Service Providers treat security as one of their a top priorities.
Not only are the physical and logical security controls put in place extremely strict, the provider’s also ensure they hire the best cybersecurity experts available.
Resilience
Cloud platforms offer the ability to deploy services across multiple resilient zones and regions, allowing single points of failure to be eliminated.
Ease of Management
Cloud allows a business to consume services that they wouldn’t normally have the capability to manage.
Examples include managed databases and load balancers where the cloud service provider manages the health, security and availability of the services.
Cost Control
With a Cloud deployment, you only pay for what you use, allowing businesses to significantly reduce the upfront costs of deploying a new service.
Flexibility
Cloud provides the ability to flex resource up and down as required. In addition, it allows the use of technologies such as load balancing without the need to purchase dedicated equipment.
Scalability
Cloud offers the ability to scale services such as compute and storage from the very small, to the very large with the click of a few buttons.
Benefits of moving to the Cloud
Scalability
Cloud offers the ability to scale services such as compute and storage from the very small, to the very large with the click of a few buttons.
Cost Control
With a Cloud deployment, you only pay for what you use, allowing businesses to significantly reduce the upfront costs of deploying a new service.
Flexibility
Cloud provides the ability to flex resource up and down as required. In addition, it allows the use of technologies such as load balancing without the need to purchase dedicated equipment.
Security
Cloud Service Providers treat security as one of their a top priorities. Not only are the physical and logical security controls put in place extremely strict, the provider’s also ensure they hire the best cybersecurity experts available.
Resilience
Cloud platforms offer the ability to deploy services across multiple resilient zones and regions, allowing single points of failure to be eliminated. Our managed database and container services have resilience built in as standard.
Ease of Management
Cloud allows a business to consume services that they wouldn’t normally have the capability to manage. Examples include managed databases and load balancers where the cloud service provider manages the health, security and availability of the services.
Increased Costs - Businesses often see a substantial, and generally unplanned, increase in monthly charges as additional services are implemented by staff who may not have visibility of the final cost
Complexity - The ease of deployment of new services often results in each service sprouting up without any centralised throught or design, leading to very complex and hard to manage environments
Poor Security - Most worryingly, a lack of central control can lead to flawed security, with one poorly deployed, and often innocious service, providing an easy access point for an attacker to access the business's most vital data
Risks and Challenges of Cloud Deployment
Despite the clear benefits of cloud, it does come with some challenges. The speed and apparent simplicity of cloud deployment often leads to significant creep, with more and more cloud components being implemented with less and less control. This often leads to:
Increased Costs – Businesses often see a substantial, and generally unplanned, increase in monthly charges as additional services are implemented by staff who may not have visibility of the final cost
Complexity – The ease of deployment of new services often results in each service sprouting up without any centralised thought or design, leading to environments that are very complex and hard to manage.
Poor Security – Most worryingly, a lack of central control can lead to flawed security, with one poorly deployed, and often innocious service, providing an easy access point for an attacker to access the business’s most vital data
• Understand your existing environment
• Assess the requirements and identify the priorities
• Design a solution that delivers the required benefits in a manageable, cost effective and structured way
Our experienced engineers focus on demystifying the technical deployment of cloud services by firstly understanding what business benefit our customers are seeking, and then delivering the suitable technical solution in the most appropriate way, whether than be in a DevOps manner, or simply as a stand-alone delivery.
Understanding your requirements allows us to design a solution that allow you to add services in a secure and manageable manner, ensuring that your cloud environment can grow and develop in way that minimises security risks, while not stifling the speed of implementation that allows your business to react to new opportunities.
Let us guide you to the cloud
Our experience in cloud engineering allows us to:
- Understand your existing environment
- Assess the requirements and identify the priorities
- Design a solution that delivers the required benefits in a manageable, cost effective and structured way
Our experienced engineers focus on demystifying the technical deployment of cloud services by firstly understanding what business benefit our customers are seeking, and then delivering the suitable technical solution in the most appropriate way, whether that be in a DevOps manner, or simply as a stand-alone delivery.
Understanding your requirements allows us to design a solution that allow you to add services in a secure and manageable manner, ensuring that your cloud environment can grow and develop in way that minimises security risks, while not stifling the speed of implementation that allows your business to react to new opportunities.
a scalable, flexible and secure cloud environment today.
