Cloud Blueprint
Our detailed Cloud Blueprint drills down into the nine core elements that should be considered when either building from scratch, optimising or maintaining an existing cloud environment. Explore these elements below:
Your Cloud Blueprint: 9 simple steps
Your business is unique, which means you need an IT infrastructure setup that works for you.
We’ve created a guide with nine key considerations for creating your ideal cloud environment.
The 9 elements of your Cloud Blueprint:
Scalability
This is one of the main drivers for migrating to a cloud-based solution. If your traffic is increasing or your workloads are growing, you need to be able to respond quickly and cost effectively in order to maximise performance.
Think about where your business is likely to be in the short- and long-term future to decide whether your cloud environment will consistently be a good fit.
Budget
Tracking cloud spend against your assigned budget is vital. Are you spending exactly what is needed, or are you below the mark in maintaining an efficient cloud environment?
Calculate your cloud TCO (Total Cost of Ownership) in the planning stages and continue to monitor post deployment.
Maintenance
Technical and expert guidance from an experienced IT team is crucial when it comes to maintaining your cloud environment. If it’s not managed correctly, you could risk straining budget and resources.
Performance monitoring, security and resource planning are just a few of the factors you to consider when it comes to proficient cloud maintenance.
Want to talk to a cloud architect?
Migration
To carry out a successful cloud migration, find a time where there is going to be the least amount of disruption to avoid affecting crucial business operations.
Ensure you have backups in place. If something unexpected happens during the migration, you need to know that your data is retrievable.
People
If you are adopting – or have already adopted – a cloud environment, it is crucial to have the necessary technical skills within your workforce across database management, security and migrations.
If you don’t have these skills in house, then you should consider employing a third party to manage cloud support and maintenance.
Security
Cyberattacks often happen out-of-hours to circumvent organisations who are monitoring on a 9-5 basis.
It is crucial that your cloud environment and its security log data is continuously monitored to understand what alerts are relevant, what takes priority and what you need to do if there is an incident.
Try our Cloud Blueprint Builder
Take our three-minute questionnaire about your existing IT infrastructure setup. Our expert architects will then advise you on what steps to take next to maximise the benefits your organisation can obtain from the cloud — with a personalised Cloud Blueprint delivered straight to your door.
Compliance
Data sovereignty refers to the laws that are applicable to data dependent on the country where it is located.
Despite data sovereignty and compliance being extremely hot topics in the world of cloud computing, there is a lack of standardised guidance here. Therefore, your business needs to be fully aware of the regulations within your geographical location and your industry.
Risk profiling
Disaster recovery/business continuity plans should be put in place by all businesses to mitigate the impact of unexpected events.
Minimising risk through security is also crucial. Whether your data is being stored or being transferred, it is paramount that protective processes are in place to mitigate any identifiable information being leaked to an external party.
Infrastructure
Choosing the right materials and resources for your cloud environment will allow you to sufficiently meet the needs of your business. To do this, you need to map out your organisation and clearly understand your objectives and resources.
It is important that you also understand how growth and rise in demand may affect this, and whether the chosen cloud solution will give you flexibility and scalability in order to adapt.
10 Questions
Take the questionnaire to build your personalised Cloud Blueprint.
What is the Cloud Blueprint Builder?
The Cloud Blueprint Builder consists of a series of questions which will ask you about your existing IT infrastructure setup. It’ll only take a few minutes to complete.
It will enable you to define the current state of your organisation’s IT. You can then share this result with our cloud architects, who can advise you on how to move forward and design a cloud solution that supports your current and future business goals.
Once your answers are submitted, they will be reviewed and a personalised Cloud Blueprint will be sent directly to you. Feel free to use this on your future cloud journey.
