Scale Your Infrastructure with Cloud Native Technology

When business is growing rapidly, the necessity to scale the processes is obvious. If your initial infrastructure hasn’t been thought through with scalability in mind, growing your infrastructure may be quite painful. The common tactic, in this case, is to transition to cloud native architecture.

In this post, we will talk about what you need to know when you’re scaling up with the cloud so that you can weigh the pros and cons and make an informed decision. 

What is Cloud Technology?

Cloud computing is the on-demand delivery of IT resources—applications, storage, databases, networking and more—over the Internet (“the cloud”). It has quickly become popular because it allows enterprises to expand without extra work to manage their resources. Cloud services providers can provide you with as much storage space as you need, regardless of how big the organization is. Cloud native computing is a programming approach that is designed to take advantage of the cloud computing model. It uses open source software that supports its three key elements: Containerization, orchestration of the containers and microservices.

Why Do You Need the Cloud in Your Organization? 

In 2021, 94% of companies used cloud technology in some capacity. This huge popularity can be attributed to several reasons:

Convenience

As we’ve already mentioned, scalability is one of the main advantages that make businesses transition to this model. With on-premise storage, you have to purchase new equipment, set up servers and even expand your team in the case of drastic growth. But with the cloud, you only need to click a couple of buttons to expand your cloud storage size and make a payment, which is, of course, much simpler.

Flexibility

Cloud native architecture makes your company more flexible and responsive to the needs of both clients and employees. Your employees can enjoy the freedom of working from any place on their own devices. Having a collaborative space is rated by both business owners and employees as very important. 

Being able to access and edit files in the cloud easily is also crucial when working with clients. Your company and clients can build an efficient working relationship regardless of the geographic location.

Cost

Data that companies need to store accumulates quickly, fueled by new types of workloads. However, your costs can’t grow at the same pace.

Cloud services allow you to spend more responsibly; necessary IT resources can be rented for as much time as you need and easily canceled. Companies that work in industries facing sharp seasonal increases in the load on information systems especially benefit from the cloud.

Types of Cloud Native Solutions

Cloud native solutions is an umbrella term for different services. You can choose the model that works best for you. 

Platform as a Service (PaaS)

Platform as a service is a cloud environment that contains everything you need to support the full lifecycle of cloud applications. You avoid the complexities and costs associated with hardware and software setup.

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)

Infrastructure as a service enables companies to rent servers and data centers instead of building up their own from zero. You get an all-inclusive solution so that you can start scaling your business processes in no time. However, the implementation of IaaS can result in a large overhead.

Software as a Service (SaaS)

In this model, your applications run on remote computers “in the cloud.” These servers are owned and maintained by other companies. The connection between these computers and users’ computers happens via the internet, usually using a Web browser.

Cloud Deployment Models: Public vs. Private

Cloud comes in many types that you can use based on your business needs: public cloud, private cloud, hybrid cloud, and multi-cloud. Let’s find out which one fits your organization.

Public Cloud

Public clouds are run by companies that offer fast access to low-cost computing resources over the public network. With public cloud services, users do not need to purchase hardware, software, and underlying infrastructure—in other words, the service provider decides.

Private Cloud

A private cloud is an infrastructure for one organization only, managed internally or by third parties, and located on or off the organization’s premises. Private clouds can take advantage of public cloud environments and at the same time ensure greater control over resources and avoid the problems associated with working on a collective lease.

Hybrid Cloud

In a hybrid cloud, a private cloud is used as the foundation, combined with strategic integration and public cloud services. Most companies with private clouds will eventually move to workload management across multiple data centers, private clouds, and public clouds — that is, they will move to hybrid clouds.

Multi-Cloud

Many organizations adopt various cloud services to drive innovation and increase business agility, including generating new revenue streams, adding products and services, and increasing profits. With its wide range of potential benefits, multi-cloud environments are essential to the survival and success of the digital era.

Cloud Services as Business Tools

Some companies need the cloud more than others. Industries that can greatly benefit from cloud adoption are retail, insurance, and hospitality. 

Using cloud resources, companies in these industries organize backup data processing centers (RDCs) and ensure the necessary infrastructure for creating and debugging applications, storing archives, etc.

However, any company can benefit from cloud adoption, especially if your employees work collaboratively with documents, files, and other types of content. Small and medium-sized businesses are increasingly interested in platform services, such as cloud database management systems, and large companies organize information storage from disparate sources in the cloud.

How to Make Transformation Painless

Before you transform your processes:

-Start with the education of your team.

-Talk to your teammates about how moving to the cloud will help them perform daily tasks more easily. Your colleagues might not immediately understand that cloud solutions provide better collaboration or higher security options.

-Ensure that they have the necessary resources to explore and learn about new tools.

Any cloud service providers such as Amazon provide coaching. Depending on the resources, you can hire new team members that already have the necessary competencies to facilitate the transition. Just remember that to be painless, cloud migration should happen in an organized and step-by-step way.

There can be quite a few options for cloud migration. At first, you can migrate only part of your workload to the cloud while combining it with the on-premises approach. 

Cloud Transformation Stages

Now let’s talk a bit more about cloud transformation stages. They may differ based on the company’s needs and can be carried out independently or with the involvement of external experts for consultations. 

Developing a Migration Strategy

The first step to a successful migration to the cloud is to develop a business plan where you define the needs of your business, set up goals, and agree on technical aspects. Usually, you perform one or more brainstorming sessions with your internal team and then perfect the model you have with your third-party consultants or service provider. You need to decide which type of cloud product you prefer and choose your deployment method.

Auditing the Company’s Existing IT Infrastructure

To add details to your cloud adoption strategy, you need to audit the company’s infrastructure. Application rationalization is the process of going through all the applications used in the company to determine which to keep and which to let go of. Most companies are doing just that before any efforts to move to the cloud. During this stage, you identify the current bottlenecks that should be solved with the adoption of cloud native architecture. 

Drawing a Migration Roadmap

Together with your team or service provider, you develop a migration roadmap. It should contain the main milestones; for example, it can describe by what time different departments of your company should migrate to the cloud. You might connect with several cloud services providers to negotiate the best conditions for yourself at this stage. 

Migration

Migration to the cloud can take up to several months. However, after migration, you and your employees will transition where you adapt to the new work environment.

Optimization

Difficulties (including technical ones) can arise at every stage. Any migration involves some downtime; that needs to be planned so that the business is not harmed. Often there are problems associated with non-standard infrastructure, or there is a need to implement additional solutions. During the optimization stage, you identify the problems that need to be fixed and develop a defined strategy.

Cloud migration can seem like a tedious process at first. But the benefits that it provides to businesses are worth it. If you choose a cloud product based on your business needs that prepare a long-lasting implementation strategy and dedicate enough time to audit and optimization, you will be pleasantly surprised with the transformation of your processes.

Summing up

Many companies are now transitioning to cloud native technology to scale their infrastructure because it’s more flexible, convenient, and allows cost reduction. Your team can choose from different types of cloud depending on your priorities, whether it be on-premise cloud or IaaS.

Cloud native technology transformation will help you scale your infrastructure and expand your business globally. If you are searching for ways to make your company more flexible to meet both the needs of your employees and your clients, cloud migration might be the best choice for you. 

Join the Conversation!

What’s your cloud transformation story? Join the SUSE & Rancher Community where you’ll find resources to support you in your cloud native journey — from introductory and advanced courses and like-minded peers to offer support.