Cloud architectures are akin to the designs and blueprints of a building, informing engineers and construction crews where certain components are, how systems are threaded throughout the larger infrastructure, and offers a means for understanding the whole system in detail that can be shared and referenced. In much the same way as building designers, cloud architects begin with a use case and then architect a system to meet the needs that support that use. Then they will pull together the server components, networking infrastructure, and application software that will compose the physical infrastructure, and create the cloud virtualizations served to its users. In this analogy, like every building, each cloud architecture is unique though they’re made of standard materials. Clouds can be constructed for personal use, or for public use—like homes or stadiums, each requires a cloud architecture design suited to its purpose.
Before architecting a cloud solution, organizations need to perform a comprehensive requirements analysis, and answer the basic question of “what do we need this cloud to do for us?” Cloud architects must consider in their designs: user and business requirements, compliance requirements, cloud security requirements, and budgetary requirements. Careful reflection and planning can lead to useful specifications like user requirements documents (URD), and business requirement documents (BRD), which are helping in guiding the new cloud system. In one way, these documents can be used to map requirements against multiple cloud-vendor capabilities to determine appropriate solutions.
When considering compliance and security requirements include the following sub-concerns:
After compiling the requirements for the new cloud architecture, cloud engineers can begin designing a solution based on those requirements. The solution design should include security design, technical design, integrations, and acceptable downtime.
Cloud architectures support the implementation designs of several different types of cloud service models. The main benefit of cloud architecture is the ability to effectively and efficiently supply these services and shared resources to multiple users across the globe. Cloud service models are IT-related services that provide particular cloud services under pre-defined mutually agreed service level agreements (SLA). Popularly there are three types of service modes, Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS), Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS), and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS). However, the concept of XaaS, anything-as-a-service, extends cloud service models to virtually any aspect of IT and delivers those services via the Internet.
The physical components and user interface are the most visible parts of a cloud system, but cloud architecture encompasses more. In the most general sense, cloud architects concern themselves with the following categories:
Cloud deployment models articulate how cloud services models (IaaS, PaaS, SaaS, or any XaaS) will be implemented in relation to business requirements, whereas the service models are implementations serving the cloud consumers. There are two main cloud deployments: private, and public. Hybrid and multi-cloud deployments are combinations of those two main deployments. The following describes each:
Managing the cloud, or cloud governance also must be considered during cloud architecture planning. The following six principles for cloud governance provide a framework for cloud architects.
Cloud platforms are designed to make deployments and the worries over managing and securing them easy. Below are some of the top cloud service vendors that provide solutions for many standard and custom deployments. Many share the same features, and capabilities, but technologies do differ, so, it is always advisable to perform a comprehensive requirements analysis and compare multiple vendors to find the right fit.
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