The power of cloud computing cannot be overestimated. It provides organisations with scalable resources, promotes operational efficiency by allowing real-time collaboration, and reduces IT costs, thereby enabling businesses to focus more on their core competencies and innovation.
However, improper configuration of your cloud infrastructure can result in numerous complications down the line. Being aware of these potential problems allows you to prevent such difficulties and ensures a successful cloud deployment. In this blog, we will highlight some of the most common errors businesses encounter during their cloud implementations, providing you with the insights needed to avoid these same pitfalls.
Mistake 1: neglecting security measures
Cloud security is a vital part of any setup. It can be easy to assume that you’re simply covered by your cloud provider when it comes to security, but that’s far from the case.
Cloud providers work on a ‘shared responsibility’ model, which means that the different security responsibilities fall upon different parties. For example, your cloud provider will protect and maintain the physical servers, but the onus is on your organisation to handle client-side security.
Failing to consider this could lead to catastrophe in the long run. This is why investing time and resources into good security, such as multi-factor authentication, security monitoring, and regular audits, is vital to ensuring that your organisation’s security posture isn’t left vulnerable.
Mistake 2: ignoring cost management
The cloud does have a number of different costs that you’ll need to consider. While usually being far cheaper than the other alternatives, these costs are still a part of your organisation’s expenditure, and failing to ensure that they’re managed properly can lead to costs quickly escalating.
The best cost management consideration is utilising a ‘pay-as-you-go’ model which will only charge you for the resources that you use. This means that you’ll only ever be charged for what you use and nothing more. While this is usually more expensive as a base rate, the savings that you can make by doing so will usually outweigh this extra cost.
By monitoring your organisation’s costs, you can ensure that they don’t spiral out of control. Learn more about optimising cloud costs in our Principal Systems Architect’s article featured in Compare the Cloud ‘The Three Guiding Principles for Optimising Cloud Costs’.
Mistake 3: overlooking data backup and recovery
Data backup and recovery are vital. Data loss can be catastrophic for your organisation, and ensuring that you’re protected can be the difference between recovering effectively and not.
There are many different types of data recovery options available, from cloud-based backups and offsite storage to more thorough disaster recovery plans, making sure that all of the options that you have are heavily considered is essential.
By developing your organisation’s data recovery strategy and ensuring that it’s both stringent and can be relied upon should the worst happen, you’ll further ensure a successful cloud implementation.
Mistake 4: lacking a continuous improvement strategy
Stratification is important for any part of your business, and this includes cloud computing. The cloud is constantly evolving, as are the needs of your organisation, and failing to adapt could leave your organisation falling behind the competition.
By reviewing your strategy on an ongoing basis and advancing both the technology used and your business’ implementation of this technology, you can set the path for long term growth.
Establishing a culture of constant innovation will help your organisation here - the aim is to stay ahead of the curve and not fall behind the times, and always striving to push ahead can make a massive difference. Education is also vital, as staying knowledgeable about current trends and happenings in the industry will let you be at the forefront and take the lead.
Mistake 5: inadequate performance monitoring
Ensuring that your cloud setup is working properly and performing well is essential to success. Without monitoring and keeping your cloud implementation at peak performance, your whole business will slow down, from simple day-to-day tasks to major business operations and customer experience. Slipping up on this could cause major delays and negatively impact your business, so being on top of it is vital.
Real-time monitoring will allow you to keep track of your cloud performance, as well as providing quick visibility if something is not as it should be, enabling you to rapidly react. Setting up these alerts and monitoring regularly will help you work out exactly what capacity you need and adjust your resources if you need to.
By proactively planning the resources allocated to your cloud implementation, you can ensure that there is enough capacity for the systems that you’re running while also not overspending on capacity where you don’t need to, leading to more long-term cost benefits for your organisation.
The Cloud Adoption Framework
Microsoft have created the Microsoft Cloud Adoption Framework (CAF), which is a set of best practices and guidelines designed to help businesses adopt cloud computing, specifically Azure, in a structured and organised manner. The framework provides a comprehensive set of guidelines, tools, and processes to help organisations successfully adopt Azure and realise its full potential.
How does the framework help?
The Microsoft Cloud Adoption Framework provides a structured approach to cloud adoption, helping businesses overcome the challenges mentioned above. Some of the key ways in which the framework helps are:
- Clear guidance: the framework provides clear guidance on how to plan, design, and implement an Azure adoption strategy. This includes guidance on governance, security, compliance, and migration
- Best practices: the framework includes best practices and proven methodologies to help businesses adopt Azure successfully
- Tools and resources: the framework provides tools and resources to help businesses assess their readiness for Azure adoption, plan their migration, and manage their Azure environment
- Continuous improvement: the framework emphasises the importance of continuous improvement, helping businesses optimise their Azure environment and maximise the value they get from it
Advanced are offering a Strategy and Governance workshop run by subject experts in line with the Cloud Adoption Framework (CAF), which will help accelerate your journey to Microsoft Azure. Want to get started? Simply contact us to enquire about the workshop and our experts will be in touch to arrange next steps.