Cloud Foundation: 10 Tips for A Faster and More Efficient Cloud Migration

2023/05/18 02:13

When migrating infrastructure to the cloud, businesses need to build a solid foundation to support this migration process.

While many businesses have successfully implemented cloud computing, some have found themselves trapped in a vicious cycle of short-term gains and long-term pains. To keep up with the rapidly evolving technology landscape, many businesses have hastily executed the computing process without fully optimizing the potential value of cloud computing. Focusing solely on these short-term gains can have serious long-term consequences. Many businesses have paid the price for not having a suitable infrastructure architecture in place to transition to cloud computing, resulting in slow and inefficient computing processes. On the other hand, implementing the right cloud platform from the outset can lead to a computing process that is eight times faster and, in the long run, can reduce deployment costs by up to 50%.

It can be seen that building a strong cloud platform as part of the computing process is crucial to the success of the entire transition strategy. In this article, we will explore how to address this issue and build a stronger platform to help your business successfully transition to cloud computing. If your business is planning to implement cloud computing, do not overlook the following tips. And if your business is experiencing this issue during the computing process, do not hesitate to pause the transition process and focus on strengthening the cloud platform.

10 Essential Steps to Building a Strong Cloud Foundation 

1. Optimize operation by automation 

Outdated working methods can cause delays in the production process, whether your business uses cloud computing or traditional data centers. Therefore, automate as many steps as possible, including setting up firewalls, managing identities and access rights, and so on. In particular, the cloud computing model has many available tools to facilitate easy automation, which businesses should take advantage of.

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Automating the steps in cloud deployment and management can help improve efficiency and reduce errors caused by humans
2. Using cloud which can easily scale up

An effective cloud platform should be designed to meet the sudden growth of a business in a short period of time, which can start from a small group and expand to support hundreds to millions of users. Using public cloud is an effective solution to help businesses easily and flexibly scale up. With the public cloud model, scaling infrastructure up or down is done quickly and simply with just a few mouse clicks. In addition, using public cloud also helps to minimize investment costs and infrastructure operations, improve work efficiency, and thereby increase the competitiveness of businesses in the market. The public cloud model is a smart and effective choice for businesses to easily scale up.

3. Operating a business to fit the cloud architecture

According to Conway's Law, the system of a business will affect the design of the technology system that the business builds. If individual units within the business operate separately, it can lead to slow and inconsistent adoption of cloud computing. Instead, the IT department should design the cloud architecture first, then deploy it throughout the entire business. Synchronized and comprehensive implementation will make it easier to manage data, secure and maintain infrastructure. In addition, units within the business need to be trained to have a better understanding of the procedures and regulations in using cloud applications and services.

4. Utilizing the available advantages of cloud computing

Cloud computing brings many benefits to businesses, including the ability to integrate built-in data recovery. During business operations, there are often unforeseen situations such as system failures, data loss, or cyberattacks. Using the built-in recovery tool of the cloud helps businesses to recover data quickly and easily. This becomes even more important when businesses store large amounts of data, especially sensitive data such as customer information, financial transactions, and other important documents.

5. Creating cloud products

Businesses can leverage their cloud ecosystem to create products and solutions that meet the needs of their customers. Cloud products are developed to address specific issues in various fields such as education, healthcare, manufacturing, and retail. For example, a cloud product may be designed to help universities manage student information, documents, and tuition more efficiently. Another cloud product may be developed to help doctors and healthcare professionals access patient data from anywhere to make more accurate diagnosis and treatment decisions.

Creating cloud products also allows businesses to enhance their competitiveness and optimize their workflow. This is achieved by developing unique cloud products that leverage the special features of the cloud platform. In particular, cloud products can be designed to be compatible with various applications, from web applications to mobile applications.

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In order to develop and manage cloud products, businesses should have a product management team with experienced architects and engineers
6. Do not change the design and deployment of cloud applications

When deploying cloud applications, proper design and deployment are extremely important. However, some businesses often make the mistake of changing the design and deployment of cloud applications without a valid reason.

Changing the design and deployment of cloud applications requires time and money investment and can also cause instability to the system. This also means that there will be interruptions in the service delivery process to customers, causing not only additional expenses but also potential damage to the reputation of the business.

7. Use isolation zones

In cloud computing, isolation zones are used to separate different parts of the system and ensure the security of the service.

Isolation zones can be used to partition system resources such as CPUs, memory, storage, and network connections. These isolation zones are protected by the security mechanisms of cloud computing systems, including firewalls and access controls.

The use of isolation zones in cloud computing has many benefits. It helps minimize security risks, as applications and services are separated into separate parts and cannot access other areas. This helps reduce the impact of a system attack, as it only affects a specific isolation zone.

Furthermore, using isolation zones also helps improve the performance and reliability of the system. Because resources are efficiently partitioned and managed, it helps avoid overloading and crashes.

8. Build capabilities once and reuse them across all clouds

This is an important strategy for optimizing cloud computing for businesses. Instead of building separate applications for each cloud platform, developers can focus on building foundational capabilities and using them across all cloud platforms.

Building these foundational capabilities once simplifies the deployment and management of applications across multiple cloud platforms. It also saves time and costs for businesses because employees do not need to learn how to deploy and manage applications on multiple platforms. Instead, they only need to learn how to use foundational capabilities and deploy them.

9. Speed integration of acquisitions

When undergoing an acquisition, the process of merging IT assets can be challenging and lengthy. However, implementing a "integration-base foundation" in the cloud can simplify and expedite the process. This involves creating a foundation that can support the acquired company's assets and enable their existing policies to remain in place for network, security, IAM, and compliance. This approach allows the acquired company's workloads to continue functioning normally while being gradually migrated to the main base.

By adopting this strategy, companies can effectively manage both their core cloud estate and the acquired company's assets using the same software with a different configuration. As a result, integration time can be reduced from 2-3 years to a more manageable 3-9 months.

10. Security and Compliance on Cloud Computing Platforms

Businesses need to implement modern security processes and architectures to protect workloads on the cloud. This can include security in the form of code (SaC), which is an effective method in securing cloud computing. SaC is a method that applies the knowledge and tools of programmers to ensure information security during software development. It involves integrating security checks and solutions into the software development and deployment process, often referred to as the CI/CD process. With SaC, security vulnerabilities can be detected early in the development process and fixed before software deployment, reducing security risks for businesses. Additionally, this method also helps automate security testing processes, thereby increasing the efficiency of both the development and security teams.

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To protect resources on the cloud, businesses must apply the latest security procedures and architectures, such as Secure as Code (SaC)

To successfully implement cloud computing, businesses must establish a strong foundation from the beginning. This requires designing and building a flexible, scalable platform that can support all of their IT workloads and has strong security capabilities. By approaching it this way, businesses can maximize the benefits of cloud computing.

At VNG Cloud, we understand the challenges of transitioning infrastructure to the cloud and provide solutions that can help businesses make the switch faster and more effectively. Learn more about VNG Cloud's products and services here.