How to Build a Cloud Computing Infrastructure
Swarnita Tyagi
October 9, 2019
The way IT services are delivered, and large data sets are analyzed have been wholly transformed today. It has already been two decades that cloud computing has existed. Although it has existed for nearly as long as the internet, it is only in recent times that it has gained widespread use for businesses.
The significance of data in the digital 21st century is one prominent reason for cloud application services to gain widespread application. Flexibility (control options, scalability, and storage options), efficiency, security, mobility, disaster recovery, increased collaboration, quality control, loss prevention, insights, and a competitive edge are some of the benefits that cloud technology offers, though these benefits vary according to individual businesses.
What is Cloud Infrastructure?
Complete cloud infrastructure is a combination of hardware and software components such as servers, software, network devices, and a lot of other storage resources that are required to set up a cloud computing model.
Before You Put Your Head in The Cloud
Before investing in the cloud technology for your business, it's important to consider requirements such as the availability, budget, control offered, type of deployment, privacy and data security, compliance, compatibility, data backup needs, data export needs, and training, among others. To deploy the cloud technology in your enterprise and to ensure to make use of it fruitfully, strategizing and planning are two most important steps.
- In the strategizing phase, the value proposed by the technology is ascertained. It ensures whether the technology simplifies IT management processes, reduces costs, and brings innovation in the existing business model. Once the value proposition is analyzed, and you have made the strategy, it is documented appropriately so the customer gets instant solutions to the problems he might encounter at a later point in time while using the cloud technology.
- The planning phase follows the strategizing period and majorly involves analyzing the risk and problems associated with switching to cloud technology. It consists in finding out whether the client has met their desired business goals using the technology or not. At this phase, the development of the business architecture, IT architecture, and the transformation plan completes.
Finally, after the above two phases, the technology is deployed by selecting an appropriate provider of cloud and ensuring the maintenance of technical services.
Designing A Cloud Computing Strategy
The decision to incorporate cloud computing technology into your enterprise could tempt you to start its use immediately without any considerations. However, it is essential to realize that not every design works well for every company. Before jumping into cloud technology, designing a cloud computing strategy that works best for your business is essential.
Some of the most important factors to consider before you design a cloud computing strategy for your enterprise:
- Choosing between private, public, and hybrid cloud is an important consideration before designing the cloud strategy for your business. Applications of all three types differ, and this selection should be made carefully since the use-case differs from business to business. Determine the type of cloud which would be most suitable for your business model.
- When an enterprise uses cloud technology, it needs to be kept in compliance. For this purpose, the cloud hosting provider adheres to specific rules and regulations. Finding out these rules and regulations is essential before designing the cloud strategy for your enterprise. Figure out what these rules are that your cloud hosting provider will need to adhere to.
- When implementing the cloud technology into your enterprise, the data would migrate from your data center into the external clouds. Before you develop the cloud computing strategy for your business yet, it is vital to figure out how you plan to control this data. Consider all the risks involved in this step and how you plan to overcome them.
- Also, consider the efficiency and effectiveness of your current data center before designing your cloud computing strategy. Before you design your cloud strategy yet, make sure you find the value of your existing data center and how successful is it.
These considerations will help you understand the existing gaps, and you can accordingly start designing your cloud strategy in a way that it fills those gaps, which is essential for your business growth.
Building A Dedicated Cloud Computing Infrastructure for Your Enterprise
- Virtualization is the leading technology used for cloud computing, and it is undoubtedly the first most crucial step towards building a dedicated cloud computing infrastructure for your company. Firstly, you need to decide the technology for your on-demand application infrastructure as it will impact your ability to monitor and control your cloud computing infrastructure at a later point in time.
- The delivery infrastructure- Determining this, too, is a critical decision for building your cloud computing infrastructure. This will ensure scalability and will protect users from the highly dynamic environment of the cloud infrastructure.
- The network infrastructure- Preparing for this will make it possible to deal with the on-demand application infrastructure. To prepare the network infrastructure, ensure to correctly configure the network in a manner that no human intervention is required to handle cloud applications. Constant optimizations in the system would prove helpful in providing this.
- The fourth step involves determining how and from where you will collect data. The on-demand infrastructure must-know details about what is running to be able to evaluate available resources. This will further help in the automation of management tasks.
- Once all the previous steps get completed, move onto the last step of enabling the infrastructure to act on-demand, which is a bit complex part. It involves integrating and automating all the pieces of the infrastructure. It is almost like putting the last piece to complete a jigsaw puzzle. This may require constant monitoring of the application infrastructure.
On A Final Note
If you want to leverage the benefits of building a cloud computing infrastructure within your enterprise, consider going with the best hosting provider for this since it requires investing a good amount of resources. Build a dedicated cloud infrastructure for your business to reduce your investments in hardware and utilities and to enter the next wave of digital development.
Swarnita Tyagi is a Content Writer at Intelegencia.
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