6 min readThe cloud is vital for every organization that wants to keep a competitive edge and achieve goals faster. As the driving force behind many of today’s greatest innovations, cloud computing gives businesses access to advanced technology without big upfront investment. But, transitioning to the cloud without a plan isn't always easy.
Without clear guidelines and best practices, you'll run into issues early in the adoption process. Similarly, without a solid deployment plan, maintaining infrastructure becomes difficult, leading to three major challenges:
- Security vulnerabilities
- Performance issues due to poor architecture planning and lack of monitoring
- Higher costs for services that aren’t used to their full potential
The issues will continue to escalate, turning the cloud into a lawless wild west.
A PURPOSE-DRIVEN APPROACH
To successfully adopt cloud technologies, you need a proven and consistent approach. Microsoft’s Cloud Adoption Framework for Azure provides this. However, with only recommended practices and no strict guidelines, it’s hard to navigate independently. That’s why expert support is needed.
As a Microsoft Solutions Partner, SoftServe has extensive experience helping clients with cloud adoption. To bridge the gap, we developed Cloud Foundation, a tailored version of Microsoft’s Cloud Adoption Framework. We follow Microsoft’s recommendations, processes, and best practices, and customize solutions to meet each client’s needs.
6 STEPS TO CLOUD CONFIDENCE
Cloud Foundation simplifies adoption with six independent services. Whether you pick one step or all six, you’ll have a clear roadmap with defined actions and expected results at each stage.
Strategy and planning: Gather requirements, define the cloud adoption strategy, and build an action plan. This process helps you understand the benefits of cloud adoption and turn your goals into actions.
Landing zones: Convert the cloud strategy into practical tools to apply actionable plans to the cloud. This sets a foundation for moving future workloads to the cloud.
Optimization: Guarantee best practices are followed to stay agile, competitive, and make the most of resources.
Cloud governance: Make sure cloud environments are consistent and compliant. We apply organization and security standards centrally to preserve a well-managed cross-cloud environment.
Security: Protect workloads and ensure systems and processes meet security requirements.
Managed services: Set up processes to verify products are healthy and reliable while implementing and reviewing expected operational behaviors.
BUILT-IN AUTOMATION FOR FASTER RESULTS
From our experience working on many projects, we outlined key steps to make cloud onboarding easier. To save time and effort, we developed automation for the most common tasks. These best practices and tools act as accelerators and tackle essential activities found in every cloud adoption project quickly and efficiently. With accelerators, you’ll move to the cloud faster and spend less money. This approach, offered as a service called Accelerated Cloud Foundation, is available on Azure Marketplace.
Strategy and Plan
Review the current assessment approach and create a plan to move forward
Landing Zones
Terraform-based platform and application landing zone accelerators
Cloud Governance
Terraform-based audit-only cloud governance accelerator
CLOUD FOUNDATION DELIVERS VALUE
A phased approach combined with accelerators tackles three big problems:
- Stronger security: The Terraform-based audit-only governance accelerator finds vulnerabilities in real time.
- Optimized performance: Workloads are carefully distributed across cloud regions to improve application speed and scalability.
- Lower costs: Automation tools reduce repetitive tasks and identify and eliminate unused cloud resources.
It also opens the door to innovation with a cloud-based data platform and AI solutions.
If you want to innovate and streamline operations, cloud technology is essential. However, cloud adoption doesn’t need to be challenging. With a well-executed adoption strategy, you will transition smoothly and avoid common pitfalls.
Cloud Foundation makes the process more transparent and delivers results. At the same time, it follows Microsoft’s Cloud Foundation Framework best practices.
