Precautions while deploying your product on the cloud

Cloud is the new way of distributing, managing scaling the platform and the application. After rigorous evaluation and phase of development and testing, your problems are yet existing in the final distribution resources. According to a survey of 400 IT professionals conducted by iLand, up to 57% of Amazon Web Service (AWS) users have reported stalled or failed cloud adoption. The number drops to 44% with Microsoft Azure users. Netflix, one of the earliest AWS clients, went down on a Christmas Eve back in 2012 due to massive outrages at Amazon.

It is evident that the cloud is expanding. Since we live in a digital age, where data discovery and and big data simply surpass the traditional storage and manual implementation and manipulation of business information, companies are searching for the best possible solution for handling data. Traditional spreadsheets no longer serve their purpose, there is just too much data to store, manage and analyze. Be it in the form of online BI tools, or an online data visualization system, a company must address where and how to store its data. Even the most traditional sectors have to adjust:

“In an effort to do everything from offer better in-store customer service to fully leverage advances in manufacturing, companies from even most traditional and change-resistant sectors are seeing the writing on the wall: Cloud technology strategies cut cost and risk.” – Lalit Bhatt, Project Leader at Maruti Techlabs.

Let's get straight to the point we know cloud and upcoming technologies are now in here for a while and we would have to work closely on the strategies we are using to make sure our product is not a victim of cloud strategies. Investing time, business value, development, and time-space used to develop a business case, research, and product, the last thing we would want is a failed deployment and not able to cope-up with the loss which is not only in the term of users.

What are the challenges of cloud computing?

1. Security - As data breaches being a common issue with the cloud and with the COVID Year 2020, these breaches are to be more intense leading to more data leaks, hacks. Security has now turned into the most essential component of cloud deployment. As per my experience, I have seen many products with the least security which are being used by the mass users would not like to name them. The motive is to make owners aware of the issues which are resulting in hacks and leading to loss of proprietary data.

Even if security policies are being worked out before deploying the product, irregular monitoring is becoming increasingly alarming. Security should be well planned and structures using expertise. The average cost of a data breach in 2020 is $3.92 million.

2. Architecture - Succeeding deployment architecture which involves careful planning of the deployment model which includes how the cloud resources would be used and how they will maintain integrity between them and not hampering the performance or the transference or the proprietory data. Architecture plays a key role in a product's success which defines how it would optimize the business resources and makes sure the product does not fall in the production environment.

Careful planning of architecture involves using proper expertise and knowledge and not just the basic architecture which only makes the product accessible on the cloud.

3. Scalability - Working out the above steps you should be focussing on the scalability of the platform on the cloud. Scalability involves the product being able to handle the ups in downs in the traffic of the platform and keeping resource optimization policy intact which makes the best possible use of the financial resources and saves cost for the product.

A proper planned scalability plan would take care of the increasing demand for cloud resources and cross-region traffic demands. Many businesses don't have a proper scalability plan or business which do have them only contains old models which do not contain the latest benefits and strategies that could really benefit the business model.

4. Distribution - A scalable model also keeps in mind the product distribution strategy both work hand in hand to make this a success. Distribution models should consist of:

a. User traffic estimation model - Includes how much percent of users would be of which region comprising marketing model b. Cache - How often platforms change their content and assets c. Location-specific Cache - Cache according to different locations, this could use point a while deciding the strategy d. Financial threshold - A threshold could be reserved in advance which would remind the business to review the plan periodically e. Assets versioning - Business could include multiple files and transfer but a policy should be in place on how often specific file or in how much duration files are less accessed by the users which would save resources of the business, which without a policy can lead to the loss not imagined

5. Business Model - Managing cloud spend is becoming hard due to less attention given while using the services and model suitable for the product. Not using explorer and checks at exact points leads to cost outrages and business being billed already before even knowing what caused or any alarm or triggers which tells that the bill is going to be higher for the coming billing cycles. All the plans which are discussed prior to the business model are integrated while planning the business model for the cloud.

Cloud deployment is not just deploying the product at a stage where the product is working successfully. It is just a part of it and not the full thing. Due diligence should be given to the planning and execution and expert advice and planning should be used in the coming future of increasing breaches. Happy learning.

If interested we could give a free cloud formation stack and policies for easy deployment and maintenance.

Rohan Girdhani

Your Sherlock Holmes