Cloud Infrastructure Optimisation Done Right

Digital transformation is all about using the latest technologies to improve productivity and drive operational excellence. And the first step in that direction is to ensure that the cloud infrastructure, the fulcrum on which all modern technologies rest, is optimised and performing at its peak. Indirectly, this is critical for providing customer satisfaction, ensuring cost-efficiency, and improving resource utilisation.

Today, CIOs are going with a multi-cloud strategy – choosing to go with cloud platforms like AWS, Azure or Google Cloud Platform (GCP) for certain types of services. Sometimes they stick to one cloud infrastructure partner, but in other cases depending on the nature of applications being used, they are okay with bringing on multiple cloud platform players. Additionally, for legacy applications like an ERP, they may stick to an on-premise Oracle or SAP-based solution.  

Keeping in mind the range of cloud services available today, CIOs are often struggling to decide how to decide the right platform for their purpose. There is also the option of setting up a private cloud to tackle privacy or compliance reasons.  

Broadly speaking, it is critical for CIOs to embrace a cloud infrastructure strategy that takes into account two factors: one, performance and reliability of applications; and two, cost and ROI.  

Consistent delivery of applications that perform as per the specifications is essential to delight customers, build brand reputation and grow revenues at an accelerated pace. To achieve this, the applications need to be deployed on cloud infrastructure that is optimised and keeps costs under control.  

However, businesses often find that cloud billing is way beyond their expectations, with benefits not commensurate with the costs.  

In this blog, we will highlight a few best practices to follow for better cloud infrastructure optimisation.  

Key Best Practices for Cloud Infrastructure Optimisation

Our data experts at Merit say “While cloud solution providers like AWS, Azure and GCP offer a wide-range of services, CIOs and technology decision-makers are dealing with a paradox of choice! For instance, if your enterprise is looking for a cloud platform to manage AI/ML workloads, there’s a tough battle going on among these three platforms. The final decision rests of several factors – internal expertise of the team on a specific cloud platform, talent availability, cost implications and specific AI algorithms being built. The point is there is no easy decision.  

In some cases, the right decision may be to embrace a multi-cloud strategy, but that will also depend on several factors. Taking into consideration the factors listed below will help you get closer to the right decision.  

Map Business Goals with Cloud Infrastructure Decisions

Each business has a different cloud infrastructure need. Therefore, it is important to identify the business goals and invest in tools and technologies that help to achieve those goals. Right at the drawing board stage, resources should be planned and the architecture designed to optimise resource utilisation, application performance, and scalability. 

Tracking & Monitoring

That which cannot be measured cannot be improved – and therefore, monitoring and measuring key parameters is essential to ensure cloud efficiency. This requires determining the key parameters, establishing the quantifiable metrics to assess performance, and tracking to ensure it is performing as expected. Such a system will enable identifying any deviations, latency or performance issues so that timely and appropriate action can be taken to set things back on track. Timely troubleshooting will also prevent performance issues from affecting customer experience. 

Capacity Management

Identify critical resources, develop policies around the important workloads, assign owners of these tasks, and empower them with tools to manage them. This will help ensure that the existing resources are leveraged to the capacity. Additional investments should be approved only if there is a compelling business case, duly vetted by a team of experts set up for the purpose. 

Storage Utilisation

Create storage tiers so that data can be classified based on their relevance and stored based on their value to reduce demand on critical workloads and provide easy access to important data quickly. This will also make storage more efficient and cost-effective. Reducing overloads on the storage and server will improve infrastructure performance. 

Remove Unused or Unattached Resources

Review cloud resources to ensure that there are no unused or unattached resources that may slow down the system while increasing costs. These should be turned off or removed to optimize cloud infrastructure performance.  

Heat Maps for Crests and Troughs

One of the advantages of the cloud is that users pay based on their usage and that it is flexible and scalable. Businesses can quickly scale up when there is a need, and when the need is over, they can revert to the old usage pattern. Heat maps can help administrators identify patterns and turn on or off servers based on when they see the peaks and valleys of computing demand. 

Automation for Optimisation

Automating infrastructure management can improve its utilization and enhance responsiveness while keeping costs under control. Machine learning-based configuration optimization and performance testing can help automate cloud infrastructure optimisation without compromising app performance or reliability. 

Merit’s Expertise in Cloud Technologies and Infrastructure Optimisation

Merit works with a broad range of clients and industry sectors, designing and building bespoke applications and data platforms combining software engineering, AI/ML, and data analytics. 

We migrate legacy systems with re-architecture and by refactoring them to contemporary technologies on modern cloud ecosystems. Our software engineers build resilient and scalable solutions with cloud services ranging from simple internal software systems to large-scale enterprise applications. 

Our agile approach drives every stage of the customer journey; from planning to design development and implementation, delivering impactful and cost-effective digital and data transformations. 

Over the years, we have helped a range of clients in Europe optimise their cloud infrastructure, with a deep understanding of their financial budgets, ROI expectations and overall business goals.  

To know more, visit: https://www.meritdata-tech.com/service/code/digital-engineering-solutions/