Wake Technical Community College

John R. Wetsch

As cloud environments continue to expand in an organization managing the cloud can easily become a daunting experience for any organization.  The onset of cloud complexity is due to practical decisions on cloud use.  Organizations do not want to have vendor lock-in on cloud services, they want to have more control over their data, and getting applications to the cloud are all drivers that impact cloud complexity. This results in having on-prem cloud services, implementing multiple service providers, container management, and dealing with multiple cost models for cloud services. 

In cloud speak, an organization is managing hybrid and multi-cloud environments, and this is where complexity becomes apparent.  Organizations need to know where their data is stored, what applications are in what cloud environment, and communications between applications and users (i.e., customers and employees).  For applications, communications within a specific cloud environment can extend to other cloud environments.  This is due to the fact that cloud application development and deployment does not embrace the large monolithic application; but rather, implements microservices that are essentially a segment of an application put into a container.  Container management and communication take advantage of the benefits of the cloud but, at the same time, add an additional level of complexity to deployed services.

Consider a cloud scenario where a customer enters an application through the Internet to place a product order.  Order processing, payment, fulfillment, shipping, and feedback can all be addressed using cloud services that fit within the business processing model.    However, what is happening within that process?  Data is captured, stored, and moved between systems.  This involves multiple lines of communication through different cloud environments as well as multiple levels of security.  On the security front, data can move from a less secure cloud environment to a more secure cloud environment and vice versa.

To be able to manage hybrid and multi-cloud implementations, there are many actions a business can implement to handle cloud complexity, as follows:

● Have an interdisciplinary cloud information governance group.  This group, consisting of business, cybersecurity, and cloud professionals, needs to be empowered to establish and enforce policies and procedures on how and where data is processed, stored, and secured.

● Have a well-defined cloud strategy.  Cloud adoption and growth require being on top of your cloud utilization and the direction the organization is going with cloud use.  Know where your applications are, their lines of communication, security implementations, as well as communication, and CPU utilization rates. 

● Cloud Engineers and Cloud Architects need to work closely together to ensure policies are implemented, and procedures are followed.  Cloud engineers need to maintain the technologies used, and the architects will understand how the cloud service is deployed and used.

● Document your cloud architecture. There are multiple tools available, and some tools will work across different cloud platforms.  Do your research and implement tools that will ensure all operational resources are known to include: containers, applications, protocols, software versions, and data entry and exit points across cloud infrastructure, platform, and software services.

● Understand your cloud spending.  On outsourced cloud services, be sure to understand service-level agreements.  They need to be understood and applied well to ensure that needed cloud services are provided and how the organization is being charged for services.

Implementing recommendations to manage the cloud can be easier said than done.  Setting all of this up before cloud adoption would be great, but typically, an organization grows with the cloud and must face cloud complexity.  Every completed cloud project will result in a change to cloud costs, security, and provided needed support.  Unexpected costs and risks will pop up when strategy and governance are not well applied. Organizations should have focused groups to support specific cloud implementations with overriding cloud governance to provide oversight to the cloud environments.

In conclusion, cloud management needs to go beyond the traditional IT organization as it requires strong business and technology support.  In a nutshell, each cloud environment needs to be well understood from the business and technology perspectives so that the cloud can be maintained and continues to provide intended services.  These cloud environments must be supported by an overarching cloud architecture group that knows how cloud environments are interconnected so that changes to the cloud ecosystem through the addition or subtraction of cloud services can be managed and not adversely affect operational cloud services.