It has been a couple of weeks since I’ve blogging about taking the first steps into cloud computing, but here we are at step number 3, cloud architecture planning. As you recall, step number one is to take inventory of your infrastructure. Step two, is to compare cloud computing providers.
When it comes to cloud architecture planning, this is something that I would hope your trusted partner (cloud provider) would help with. But to get started, these are some of the vital questions that need to be answered regarding the application you are going to host in your cloud environment (whether it’s in a private cloud or public cloud):
All of these questions (and more) will become major factors in how the cloud computing environment should be architected. Unfortunately I can’t really tell you HOW to architect the environment because that would be giving away BlueLock’s special sauce. What I can tell you is that you really must take into consideration the level of uptime you need, how dynamic the app is and what security measures are absolutely vital for the functioning of the application. That will get you going on the road to architecting your cloud environment.
When it comes to cloud architecture planning, this is something that I would hope your trusted partner (cloud provider) would help with. But to get started, these are some of the vital questions that need to be answered regarding the application you are going to host in your cloud environment (whether it’s in a private cloud or public cloud):
- How important is the application to your business? The application or its data can range from being extremely vital to running day-to-day operations to being not so important. Think about it in terms of how long you could go without the application or data. If your app is your business, the answer is obvious and this will determine the service level agreement you might need.
- Does the application contain time sensitive data? Does it need to be accessed in real time, or are delays acceptable?
- Does the application have regulatory requirements?
- How many users in your organization have access to the application and how heavily is that access controlled?
- How many systems interact with the application?
- How dynamic is the data and/or users in the application and do you forecast and increase or decrease in the volume of users and/or data?
- How old is the application?
All of these questions (and more) will become major factors in how the cloud computing environment should be architected. Unfortunately I can’t really tell you HOW to architect the environment because that would be giving away BlueLock’s special sauce. What I can tell you is that you really must take into consideration the level of uptime you need, how dynamic the app is and what security measures are absolutely vital for the functioning of the application. That will get you going on the road to architecting your cloud environment.
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