A poorly managed cloud infrastructure can cause performance issues, scalability barriers, security vulnerabilities, and compliance challenges. Adopting the best practices in cloud management can prevent these issues from even happening. It’s important for any organization, especially SMBs, to ensure that their cloud systems can support the business’s growth.
Using cloud-based tools offers significant benefits that will ultimately boost the productivity and collaboration of remote and hybrid teams. For many, cloud technology is essential not only for day-to-day business operations but also for enabling innovation to create better products and solutions.
Read on to discover best practices and learn how to approach cloud management so you can fully leverage your cloud investment.
The subscription-based and on-demand or pay-as-you model of most cloud systems allows cost savings, as there is no need to invest large amounts of capital in IT infrastructure and specialist hardware or software. It is expected, however, that there will be initial set-up costs for customizations and other upfront fees for system upgrades.
Another thing to consider is the maintenance of the cloud systems—which can be cumbersome without the right processes in place, and finding skilled professionals to manage these systems can be challenging. But it’s necessary to set up oversight mechanisms to make sure your cloud systems are properly integrated, and continuously optimized for performance and maximum use.
Here are the 7 best practices and tips for developing an effective strategy for managing your cloud resources.
Embracing automation in your cloud management strategy can transform remote teams by boosting efficiency and productivity. This will allow you to streamline your operations by automating repetitive tasks like provisioning, monitoring, and scaling cloud resources.
By automating processes, you save time and create space for more innovative projects. This is particularly beneficial for teams with limited IT support that aim to accomplish more with fewer staff.
Automating resource provisioning can ensure consistent and quick deployment of resources while reducing the risk of errors and misconfigurations. Monitoring automation enables you to receive real-time insights into the health and performance of your cloud infrastructure for proactive issue resolution. Additionally, by scaling up and down through automation, you can adjust resource capacity dynamically to deliver top-notch performance and cost efficiency.
Overall, automation empowers executives to zero in on strategic initiatives and projects that add real business value instead of getting bogged down in manual administrative and other simple routine tasks.
Centralized governance policies are essential for optimizing resource allocation and utilization in the cloud. These policies establish clear guidelines for resource provisioning, usage monitoring, and cost management to ensure your efforts align with your business objectives.
In addition, a comprehensive governance framework can help you identify and mitigate risks associated with cloud usage by assessing potential threats to data integrity, system availability, and regulatory compliance. With clear responsibilities and procedures for risk management defined in advance, you can promptly address issues as they arise and minimize disruptions to your business operations.
You should perform a baseline inventory to identify resources and maintain good oversight of the overall cloud environment. Managing your current cloud inventory will allow for improved incident response, and will help with cost savings by only keeping resources that are necessary.
An additional key objective is continuing to keep this inventory up to date and current by identifying all resources, including those that are critical to the operation of the cloud computing environment. This inventory and analysis will aid in bolstering single points of failure and help identify areas for improvements in security.
Maintaining security in remote work environments is critical due to the heightened risk of security breaches. As you and your team members access cloud resources from various locations and devices, your business must remain vigilant against cyber threats that are constantly evolving and becoming more sophisticated.
You can effectively mitigate these risks by implementing security protocols such as multi-factor authentication (MFA) and virtual private networks (VPNs). MFA verifies user identity, while VPNs encrypt data transmission over untrusted networks.
Effective cloud management requires a comprehensive understanding of your cloud assets, including their deployment status, associated costs, and utilization patterns. Cloud management tools are crucial in providing visibility into your cloud environment to enable you to monitor your assets.
You should regularly monitor and analyze your cloud resource usage and performance to identify potential areas for improvement and take action to enhance your cloud infrastructure management.
You can use monitoring and analytics tools to gain insights into resource utilization patterns and identify optimization opportunities. These tools allow you to track resource usage and identify underutilized or overprovisioned resources. With this information, you can make informed decisions on resizing or right-sizing your cloud infrastructure, which can help you save costs and enhance overall cloud performance.
A comprehensive disaster recovery and business continuity plan must be in place to ensure uninterrupted cloud operations and protect data integrity.
Getting a customized data recovery plan for your remote work setup is essential to protect your operations and data from potential disasters. This involves creating backup systems and protocols that can quickly bounce back from any issues, whether a hardware failure, a data breach, a natural disaster, or other unforeseen event.
Regularly testing and updating your recovery plans are necessary to ensure their effectiveness and adapt to evolving threats. You should conduct regular mock drills to test your recovery plans and identify any gaps or weaknesses. This will help you fine-tune your plan and ensure your team members are well-prepared to respond to crises.
Cloud management responsibilities can be offloaded using managed cloud services, which provide access to specialized resources and expertise. This partnership grants you access to enterprise-level services and technologies without significant upfront investments or additional hiring.
They offer flexible plans to fit your specific needs and budget. Whether it’s basic infrastructure management, advanced security services, or comprehensive cloud migration support, you can choose the level of support that best aligns with your requirements. These services streamline your operations through proactive monitoring, maintenance, and support, ensuring the reliability and availability of your cloud resources, thus minimizing downtime and disruption.
BlackPoint IT provides various cloud solutions to support remote teams in effectively managing their cloud.
Our team of cloud experts will collaborate with you to understand your unique business requirements and create a comprehensive cloud strategy tailored to your needs.
We will help you define your migration roadmap, determine which applications and data are best suited for the cloud, and provide guidance on optimizing your cloud environment. We can take the burden of ongoing cloud management off your team as our experts will handle monitoring, patching, upgrades, and troubleshooting, ensuring your infrastructure remains optimized and secure. Contact us to learn how we can help you efficiently manage your cloud infrastructure.
