Getting things right early is always a good idea, as is reusing good designs from elsewhere. In most cloud technology organisations, the same things are done multiple times in different places, whether at an architectural component level like a firewall or at a large system level like a Kubernetes-based web application or a data dashboard.
Your cloud support function can make life easier for everyone - and really drive quality, security, cost and performance standards - by defining patterns and building templates for the whole organisation to make use of.
Each service in the organisation could then be measured as:
- Platinum: uses a central service managed by the cloud function, maybe a central Kubernetes cluster
- Gold: Not a central service but uses the IaC scripts built by the cloud function to create a pre-defined service
- Silver: Uses a defined pattern but some custom components
- Bronze: Knocked together from scratch Time on service assurance, whether from a cost, performance or quality/security perspective, can then focus on the lower tiers where there's less confidence.
Good ideas can keep feeding into and improving the patterns, and the cloud support team goes from being perhaps a reactive function to one which is proactively driving business performance from the very start.
Also worth having a look at some of our recent case studies where we have saved our clients Millions of pounds in cloud spend.
