Why do businesses need Cloud Ops solutions?
The statistics report that the cloud computing market will be worth $1 trillion in the coming few years. Moreover, around 63% of the small businesses work processes are operated within public cloud environments.
Are you planning to shift to cloud systems for enhanced business efficiency? MUZTech is offering a range of Cloud Ops services to scale business processes and achieve ROI.
In this guide, we will discuss the importance of Cloud Ops, its processes, tools, advantages, drawbacks, and best practices. Moreover, do check out the guide for implementing cloud operations for your business.
What is the role of Cloud Ops?
Cloud Ops utilizes tools and best practices for the management and optimization of cloud-based applications, data and services. After 2019, there’s a shift in the business world, and organizations are embracing cloud solutions. Understanding the significance of cloud operations is required to migrate, deploy, scale, and manage data and applications on cloud servers.
CloudOps experts ensure the security and scalability of business processes and applications in the cloud infrastructure. Cloud operations are used in many cases, like private cloud, multi-cloud, public cloud, and hybrid cloud environments.
Cloud Ops is similar to DevOps for the management and optimization of applications that are based on the cloud. However, it focuses more on automation and collaboration with the FinOps and DevOps teams to strengthen a company’s cloud strategy.
Moreover, cloud operations also help organizations align with the service level agreements (SLA). Cloud Ops engineers help businesses in securing their assets and compiling with the regulatory standards.
Cloud solutions also utilize AI technology for reducing IT sprawl, automating systems, and to achieve measurable ROI. The expert monitors cloud sources to enhance cloud performance.
What are the main tasks of Cloud Ops for engineers and developers?
The CloudOps engineers are teams focus on the management of all the cloud tasks, including the following:
Cloud Migration
Since many organizations still rely on traditional legacy systems, the first step in adapting a cloud approach is migration. Cloud Ops engineers ensure the cloud environment is compatible with an organization’s system.
Once the cloud environment from multi-cloud, hybrid, private or public is finalized, the systems and data are migrated to cloud. During cloud migration, the experts ensure the security and compliance laws are met properly.
The process of cloud orchestration includes the automation of resource provision and deprovision. Organizations leverage this feature to ensure efficient customer experience and cost-effectiveness.
Cloud Security
Cloud governance depends on the cloud experts who build plans and security policies to secure cloud-based data and applications. Since cloud environments are often the target of malicious actors, cloud experts utilize strategic disaster recovery plans. These incident response plans help experts in reducing downtime and securing organizational assets.
Moreover, cloud experts also focus on the security and scalability of native cloud applications and migrated systems. They ensure that applications are aligned with business objectives and are optimized for growth.
Cloud Management
After cloud migration and assurance of security protocols Cloud Ops experts collaborate with DevOps teams. The cloud engineers are involved in the entire process of cloud management. They ensure that applications and systems on the cloud are automated for management, optimization, and deployment.
Moreover, cloud engineers use monitoring tools to observe the performance of applications or services within cloud environments. They also design charts and visual graphs to help stakeholders understand cloud performance.
Cloud experts also focus on troubleshooting or eliminating errors within cloud operations and implementing security strategies or patches.
According to statistics, around 95% of businesses reported that they use automation for various CloudOps tasks.
What are the advantages of using cloud operations?
Organizations who want to scale their business processes should focus on migrating to cloud systems, since they provide the following benefits:
Improved Security
The biggest cloud service providers offer cloud infrastructure that is highly secured from cyber-attacks and data exfiltration. They stay compliant with security regulations and ensure that the cloud infrastructure is aligned with all the security protocols. Moreover, Cloud Ops engineers ensure full security of organizational assets during cloud migration.
Cost-effectiveness
Cloud computing helps organizations in saving expenditures for establishing and managing personal data centers to cater to user demand. However, cloud services mostly have a pay-as-you-go pricing structure; this helps the organizations in purchasing advanced features according to requirements.
Flexibility and Scalability
Cloud computing gives businesses an option to scale along with increasing customer base and user demands. This helps organizations in being agile and fulfilling user demands as they occur through the automation of resources provision.
Constant Access
The best thing about cloud operations is the availability and access of cloud services or applications through the internet. It eliminates the need to get access from on-premises systems.
Enhanced Automation
Businesses can leverage the automation feature of Cloud Ops and help with the optimization of a variety of tasks. Cloud engineers automate the provision of servers and systems in the cloud.
They also optimize cloud performance by automating the testing of cloud services or native applications. Moreover, they also automate cloud monitoring, troubleshooting, and recovery processes.
Enhanced RPO and RTO
Public cloud environments offer features like data backup and recovery, which is ideal for organizations. The availability of data backup helps in the reduction of recovery point objective (RPO) and recovery time objective (RTO). This aid organizations in recovering from huge server load and availability for a vast customer base.
Easy Upgrades
Organizations can benefit from easier updates without any service disruption for their client base. Moreover, cloud computing helps in streamlining business processes even during functionalities upgrade or maintenance of servers or applications.
What are the limitations businesses face while using Cloud Ops solutions?
Even though Cloud Ops solutions and strategies are efficient for businesses, they have several limitations as well:
Security Risks
The cloud environment is often targeted by malicious actors and cyber criminals resulting in data theft or compromise. Organizations need to migrate their applications and data to servers that are secure from threats.
Moreover, staying compliant with industry regulations is critical. It requires constant cloud monitoring to analyze and eliminate security vulnerabilities.
Complex Management
Many organizations and their data or applications require reliance on various cloud service providers. Managing multi-cloud environments is difficult for organizations if they lack skilled professionals.
Moreover, every cloud service provider offers different features and tools to solve different issues. Cloud management in such a situation requires highly expert professionals to maintain and optimize business processes.
Skills Gap
Cloud computing requires a variety of skills set for automation, migration, deployment, monitoring, and optimization. Many organizations lack skilled professionals in particular areas, making it difficult for them to consider cloud computing.
Complex Automation
Even though cloud environments are flexible and cloud management helps with the automation of various tasks, sometimes it causes complications. Sometimes there is a high chance of inefficiency within an automated process or misconfiguration.
It is essential for cloud Ops engineers to constantly monitor the automation processes to avoid any inefficiency.
Vendor Issues
Sometimes businesses migrate their systems and applications to cloud servers without clear strategies and become dependent on them. Issues like vendor lock-in occur when an organization is unable to shift from one service provider.
Moreover, Cloud experts should be careful while utilizing proprietary tools to avoid vendor lock-in.
Continuous Updates
Cloud infrastructure is always updated with new features and settings by the cloud service providers for better experience. The challenge for organizations is to be able to update their systems along with the servers to avoid disruptions.
What are the tools for managing cloud operations?
There’s a set of tools used in Cloud Ops for different purposes, such as:
Cloud Infrastructure
- Google Cloud
- Amazon Web Services (AWS)
- Microsoft Azure
Infrastructure as Code (IaC)
- Terraform
- Docker
- Juju
- Ansible
- Puppet
Container Orchestration
- Kubernetes
- Docker
- OpenShift
- Rancher
- Google Cloud Run
- AWS Fargate
Continuous Integration/ Continuous Deployment
- Jenkins
- GitLab
- Docker
- AWS CodePipiline
Cloud Monitoring
- Prometheus
- App Dynamics
- New Relic
- Google Cloud Operations Suite
- Azure Monitor
How different is Cloud Ops from DevOps?
DevOps teams manage the operations of the developers and the IT operation teams. The DevOps team ensures stakeholder visibility and collaboration during the entire software development lifecycle (SDLC).
The DevOps department reduces the time-to-market for a product with quick collaboration by eliminating workplace silos. Moreover, it uses CI/CD delivery to enhance the deployment and development of software applications or products.
However, with the shift in businesses and adaption of cloud environments, there was a need for skilled professionals to execute operations.
The Cloud Ops engineers utilize the strategies and best practices of DevOps and apply them for cloud management. The cloud operations team handle the following tasks for organizations:
- They migrate organizational systems, applications, and data to the cloud.
- Optimize cloud performance for seamless processes.
- They ensure compliance and alignment with SLAs.
- The CloudOps team focuses on data recovery systems in case of attacks or operational inefficiencies.
- They automate the entire cloud management processes for smooth operations.
- Maintain applications and data security with strict protocols and monitoring.
What are the best practices for using cloud operations?
Cloud experts can use the following practices to scale organizational processes within cloud environments:
Enhanced Monitoring
Cloud Ops teams use advanced observability and monitoring tools to analyze cloud performance and gather data. They track the progress of applications and services to collect critical performance insights for optimization.
The tools help critically gain insights regarding key performance indicators (KPIs), bottleneck issues, and user traffic patterns. Moreover, the process can be automated with tools by setting up alerts associated with potential risks.
Workflow Transparency
A good cloud management strategy and Cloud Ops practices require transparency of processes for all stakeholders. It is recommended to have personalized dashboards that are used for presenting visual data ensuring visibility for all.
Moreover, transparency in cloud operations helps in collaborating with other teams including DevOps or FinOps, eliminating workplace silos. Hidden processes often lead to security failures and compliance issues that can be tackled with transparent workflows.
Additionally, having a collaborative setup helps in driving innovation and business growth by sharing various insights.
Anywhere Access
The use of dashboards and data insights is essential for the optimization of cloud operations. The best part about Cloud Ops is that systems can be accessed from any device that fulfills organizational protocols.
Moreover, the enhancement of accessibility for cloud resources and tools simultaneously increases collaboration among teams. The anywhere access feature in cloud management helps in eliminating the reliance on legacy systems.
System Automation
The cloud systems need constant monitoring for their optimization, security, and management. However, cloud operations use automation for threat detection, troubleshooting errors, and providing cloud resources. Moreover, the implementation of Infrastructure as code (IaC) for the provision of infrastructure offers operational efficiency.
The cloud experts automate systems that observe the network traffic for avoiding potential performance bottlenecks and effectively provisioning resources.
Cloud Training
Cloud computing reduces the issues of maintaining on-premises systems with a variety of skills. However, it increases the demand for cloud computing skills that are required for carrying out cloud operations.
These operations include deployment, resource provisioning, troubleshooting errors, and more. Organizations can invest in their in-house members by providing training and upskilling opportunities for them.
Migration plans
Cloud migration can be a difficult process if organizations lack clarity regarding their goals. Different systems require different environments, such as micro-service applications. These applications require a multi-cloud approach since they need multi servers’ accessibility.
Meanwhile, many services or systems require a specific cloud service provider due to their features or geographical accessibility for clients.
How to implement Cloud Ops solutions for your business?
Cloud operations help in optimizing and streamlining business processes within cloud environments. Here’s a step-by-step process for utilizing Cloud Ops for your business:
Define your Strategy
Before considering a shift to the cloud environment, an organization should access their on-premises systems and objectives. It is important to analyze the weak points and strength of current IT infrastructure and requirements for cloud migration.
Analyzing the areas and key performance indicators that can be improved with cloud computing helps in defining goals. Moreover, it also helps in aligning the cloud strategy with business objectives.
Develop CloudOps processes
Develop a clear system for Cloud Ops processes including disaster recovery planning, deployment, monitoring plans and resources provisioning system.
Cloud Orchestration and Automation
Cloud engineers can utilize orchestration and automation tools for streamlining and automating cloud processes. Automation helps in reducing workload and resource provisioning without human intervention.
Use Infrastructure as Code
Infrastructure as code helps cloud engineers in deciding the state of cloud infrastructure and resources utilized within it. IaC focuses on code-based configuration and helps with the provision and configuration of cloud infrastructure.
Businesses use IaC for enhanced version control and team collaboration. Moreover, cloud experts use it for monitoring changes and performing code optimization. It can be easily deployed and optimized for future scalability.
Continuous Integration and Deployment (CI/CD)
The CI/CD pipelines are used for the automation of the development and deployment of applications within cloud systems. These pipelines conduct code tests, scanning vulnerabilities, and packages before deployment.
CI/CD pipelines are used by cloud experts to update applications on cloud servers efficiently while avoiding risks in deployment.
Monitor your CloudOps processes
It is essential to perform constant cloud monitoring to identify bottlenecks and performance issues. The analysis and identification of issues help experts in taking proactive measures to resolve future issues. The areas the Cloud Ops engineers monitor include performance, resources, insights, and opportunities for optimization.
How MUZTech is improving the cloud strategy for organizations?
If you’re considering cloud migration or looking for skilled cloud engineers, then the following services are for you:
Cloud Strategy and Consulting
As we’ve discussed earlier, it is important to have a clear cloud strategy. We offer extensive consulting services and strategy planning to ensure cost-effectiveness and architecture requirements for your business.
Cloud Migration
We focus on reducing the downtime during the migration of legacy systems to cloud infrastructure. Our experts utilize lift and shift or re-architecture processes to ensure seamless cloud migration.
Infrastructure as Code
We leverage infrastructure as code (IaC) to ensure scalable and robust cloud infrastructure. Moreover, we automate processes like code configuration, resource provision, and more.
Cloud-native Development
Our experts use containerization, serverless computing, and other techniques to build cloud applications from scratch.
Monitoring and Cloud Security
Cloud Ops engineers utilize security protocols, constant monitoring, and analysis to protect your applications from performance bottlenecks or service disruption.
Managed Cloud Services
We offer ongoing support and maintenance services to optimize your systems for future growth. Moreover, we offer full-time availability, troubleshooting, and support for your cloud systems.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q. What are the four types of cloud services?
Cloud deployment includes a range of services, such as:
- Infrastructure-as-a-Service: In IaaS, the cloud infrastructure is operated by a service provider while businesses buy and manage their systems or applications.
- Platform-as-a-Service: PaaS is mostly used for the development, management, and testing of cloud applications.
- Software-as-a-Service: SaaS is owned by service providers who offer pre-built software solutions for organizations.
- Serverless Computing: It is also known as FaaS and used for the development of simple applications without any requirement for scaling.
Q. What are the seven phases of DevOps?
The IT operations and Software developers team collaborate to produce efficient software applications. The DevOps lifecycles include the following stages:
- Continuous Development
- Continuous Integration
- Continuous Testing
- Continuous Deployment
- Continuous Monitoring
- Continuous Feedback
- Continuous Operations
Q. What is the main purpose of cloud storage?
The cloud storage service providers offer cloud infrastructure for storing and managing data and services for constant access. Cloud storage solutions are cost-effective and help businesses in storing and securing their data without any on-site data centers.