How to build your enterprise architecture using the cloud
Cloud is King. Enterprises around the globe are practically sprinting to trade in their existing legacy technology architecture in favour of service-based cloud deployments or hybrid models.
It’s simple really. As enterprise decision makers continue to grow their understanding of the cloud, the seemingly endless scale of benefits that the cloud can offer is becoming impossible to ignore.
Swapping out your legacy infrastructure in favours of cloud-based deployments is by no means a small step to take – you will likely encounter a slew of technical hurdles along the way. But as consultants who have been on the forefront of the cloud movement for years, we can tell you without equivocation that the destination is worth the journey.
There are plenty of resources in place to help you build an efficient, cost-effective and scalable technology infrastructure using the cloud. The first of which are the cloud providers themselves, who will provide a wide range of services to help you to build an enterprise architecture which is perfectly aligned with your business needs.
Before you get to that level of specific services though, it is important to decide on your overall priorities – such as, what kind of an enterprise architecture do you want? By asking yourself these types of questions early on, you’ll be able to establish a tenet (or tenets) to build from.
But what are tenets, exactly? Read on and find out!
Tenets are guiding principles which help ensure that your enterprise architecture is properly aligned with your business priorities. All five factors listed below will need to be balanced, however establishing a hierarchy of tenets is key: this will enable your business to prioritise correctly when any conflicts arise, helping you overcome any analysis paralysis that may set in.
For example, if availability is your number one tenet, you will likely benefit from an AWS Direct Connect, a highly-redundant connection from either your on-prem or colocation centre directly into AWS.
This is the tenet will likely resonate most with your CFO, as it ensures that all architectural decisions are fully cost-aware. It also has the capability to essentially guarantee cost effectiveness. Keep in mind that both capital and operational expenditures (CAPEX & OPEX) will need to be carefully determined for every workload so that your business will see the most profit for the least amount of expense.
Prioritising a cost-centric metric helps to keep businesses competitive because they can pass savings down to their clients. It will, however, result in slower, more conservative developments, with some potential improvements forced to the shelves if cost implications are unknown.
If business availability is your highest priority, you should focus on the geographical and technological aspects of your deployment. Public cloud service providers address this need by offering the option to set up your network in different countries and regions. This will result in multiple redundant connections and route optimisation. The result? High availability, low latency and high throughput.
If you’re in a highly competitive and consumer-centric businesses, then agile development and flexible deployments may be your first priority.
For businesses sold on the cost-saving, availability and agility benefits of cloud deployments, a ‘cloud first’ tenet can accelerate movement away from costly legacy architecture. Following a cloud-first tenet will ensure that new business applications won’t be deployed within a non-approved cloud architecture.
Due to the risks and implications of cybercrime and data breaches, many businesses are opting for a security-first tenet – and rightly so. The emphasis will be making sure that data is as secure as possible, both while in transit and during storage. In addition, all workloads may need to be authorised by the security team prior to deployment.
