Cloud Infrastructure Management Guide: Strategies, Tools, and Tips

Cloud Infrastructure Essentials

Cloud infrastructure combines physical and virtual resources to deliver computing power over the internet. It includes everything from physical servers in data centers to operating systems and web and mobile interfaces for accessing the cloud. 

“When you use a cloud service—whether you’re accessing an app or saving a file to the cloud—your request journeys through the internet to remote servers. They are responsible for storing your data, running computations, or delivering content back to your device. Thanks to the efficiency of cloud infrastructure, this entire process occurs almost instantaneously, making your experience seamless and convenient,”

explains Nazar Kvartalnyi, our Chief Operating Officer. 

Let’s look at the types of cloud deployment and service models, as well as their key components.

Types of Cloud Deployment Models

Depending on your cloud storage and computing needs, as well as your budget, you can choose among several deployment models:

• A public cloud is typically a remote infrastructure owned and run by a third party that provides storage and computing services for a fee. Google Drive, Dropbox, and Apple Cloud are examples of public clouds. 
• A private cloud is an on-premise or remote infrastructure you create and operate to address your business needs. It offers better customization and security but requires a higher upfront investment.
• A hybrid cloud combines public and private infrastructure to ensure stability and flexibility. You can switch tasks between a private and public cloud to optimize the workload.
• Multi-cloud infrastructure comprises several cloud public solutions and private infrastructure to maximize efficiency and lower expenses. At the same time, multi-cloud system management requires additional resources. 

“I’d like to offer a few tips. If you’re looking for minimal costs and initial investments, consider using a public cloud. However, if security is a top priority at this stage, a private cloud is the way to go; it can be configured to handle sensitive data. For those seeking flexibility, a hybrid cloud might be the best choice, especially when your server loads are constantly changing. A multi-cloud solution is an excellent option if you want to avoid dependency on a single provider, but be prepared for the complexities that come with managing it,”

advises Nazar Kvartalnyi.  

Key Components of Cloud Infrastructure

Cloud infrastructure is more than a remote data center. It comprises multiple components ensuring your business’ operational stability. They include:

• Hardware includes servers spread across multiple data centers worldwide and backup devices.
• The computing layer of cloud infrastructure is necessary for running virtual machines, containers, etc. Visualization helps allocate and reconfigure resources to address the dynamic workloads. 
• Networking components let users connect to remote hardware and deliver cloud and hybrid applications.
• Security measures identify threats and prevent data breaches through encryption, access control, authentication, and other means.
• Storage services let you keep your business data on remote servers, access it as needed, and scale performance according to the workload.
• Cloud management tools typically include a web or mobile interface for monitoring, configuring, and scaling your cloud infrastructure.

Cloud service models

Unlike traditional IT assets you purchase and maintain, cloud infrastructure is available on a subscription or pay-as-you-go basis. Depending on your business needs, you can choose one or several of the common cloud service models:

• IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service) provides access to cloud hardware and software that you can configure according to your needs and use like on-premises assets. Most cloud providers, such as Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud, IBM Cloud, and Microsoft Azure, offer IaaS for disaster recovery, eCommerce, IoT, and other solutions. 
• PaaS (Platform as a Service) provides a platform for application development, running, and management. PaaS includes servers, OS, databases, frameworks, and development tools. AWS Elastic Beanstalk, Red Hat OpenShift, and Google App Engine are common PaaS solutions for API management and Agile cloud-native or hybrid development.
• SaaS (Software as a Service) covers cloud-hosted applications accessible through desktop, web, or mobile interfaces. SaaS includes hardware and software for app running and data storage. Most email and social media apps are SaaS, while common business solution examples include Salesforce, Slack, Trello, and Canva.

Pros and Cons of Cloud Infrastructure for Your Business 

Before you start using cloud infrastructure management best practices, it is important to know its advantages and downsides. Here are some key benefits and hurdles of cloud infrastructure management compared to on-site setups.

“In 2023, spending on public cloud services soared to $599 billion, and that’s a strong signal that this type of infrastructure offers significant advantages for companies. For example, during our work with clients migrating to the cloud, we saw them increase their revenue by over 10%. This remarkable growth was made possible by the new opportunities that the cloud environment unlocks,”

— comments our COO. 

Discover some of the B2B cloud platform advantages!

Cloud Infrastructure Management Best Practices

Cloud infrastructure management practices are really beneficial for your software integration. Many different features are in charge of the successful management of IT resources. Here are some key components of cloud platform management.

Compliance

Cloud service providers operate on a shared responsibility model. They ensure hardware and data center security while you are responsible for your OS, application, and network compliance. Depending on your customers, business, and data center locations, you may need to comply with data protection regulations, such as GDPR, FedRAMP, NIST, or HIPAA. Despite their differences, if you follow cloud compliance best practices, you should be safe from data breaches and legal repercussions. 

Cloud security basics include:

• Data encryption for storage and transfer
• Privacy by default system design and data processing
• The principle of least privilege for data and asset access for all users
• Zero-trust authentication, authorization, and monitoring policy for all users, apps, and endpoints
• Continuous compliance monitoring and adjustment
• Incident response plan for breach detection and recovery
• Compliance documentation and audit reporting for smooth regulatory reviews

Security

Cloud security awareness and tools have advanced significantly, but you cannot be too careful. A poll by Cloud Security Alliance shows that 95% of 600 American and European organizations suffered a cloud-related security breach in the past 18 months. 99% of them identified insecure identities as the cause of the breach.

Luckily, cloud security best practices align with data protection compliance efforts. These include multi-factor authentication, identity and access management, continuous monitoring and logging, and data protection in storage and transit. As human error is often the cause of data breaches, personnel training, and the offboarding process should also incorporate best security practices. 

“It’s important to recognize that cloud security goes beyond just technology; it’s about fostering a specific culture within your organization. Taking simple steps, such as implementing regular security training, can greatly reduce the chances of unpleasant incidents occurring,”

explains Nazar Kvartalnyi.

Cost optimization

According to the survey, cloud infrastructure management cost optimization was the top challenge of cloud adoption for 82% of businesses. And McKinsey claims companies can save 15% to 25% of their cloud expenses. You can optimize cloud costs by: 

• Analyzing your cloud billing reports to identify trends and anomalies
• Identifying idle and unused resources and employing automatic scaling tools to manage cloud services  used
• Reducing data transfer fees by optimizing the data retrieval process and minimizing redundant transfers
• Looking for deals and offers, like reserved or spot instances, or making the most of volume discounts
• Educating your personnel on the cloud infrastructure costs and educating the team of effective resource usage.

Performance optimization

Making the most of your cloud infrastructure resources starts with defining your performance requirements and performance monitoring and analysis. Depending on your goals, you can optimize computing, storage, networking, database, or analytics performance. Moreover, the potential for optimization will depend on your choice of cloud service provider. For example, using Google Cloud, you can optimize compute performance by autoscaling resources, turning off simultaneous multi-threading (SMT), using GPUs, or choosing compute-optimized machine types.

Disaster recovery

Disaster recovery can help restore your business after a natural disaster, cyberattack, power outage, or human error that disrupts or stops business operations. Implementing disaster recovery ensures business resilience and maintains reputation and competitiveness while also keeping customers happy.

Cloud infrastructure is an integral part of an effective disaster recovery plan, as it can

• Automatically create and update remote data backups at set intervals
• Store data backups and point-in-time data snapshots for fast restoration
• Create a replica of your IT infrastructure before the disaster on virtual machines to resume operations

Most cloud service providers offer disaster recovery-as-a-service (DRaaS) to automate these tasks.

Automation

Continuous cloud monitoring and management can reduce its return on investment and limit performance efficiency. Automating these tasks will free up resources and yield optimization benefits. For example, using infrastructure as code (IaC) tools helps control infrastructure through configuration files. Automated security policies ensure regulatory compliance and reduce cybersecurity risks. And we’ve already covered the benefits of automated performance and cost optimization.

Monitoring and logging

Monitoring and logging are critical for all the practices above, from cost management to performance optimization and disaster recovery. Moreover, security and data protection compliance require continuous monitoring and logging. You can maximize their benefits by:

• Centralizing log storage for easier analysis and trend identification
• Using structure logging for faster parsing and queries
• Managing cloud services log file size to prevent storage overload
• Encrypting log data in storage and transit and setting role-based access control
• Automating log analysis through machine learning to identify trends and anomalies.

“Monitoring gives you real-time insight into your systems and sends alerts when issues arise, allowing you to resolve them quickly. Logging, on the other hand, is crucial for looking back at past events. If something goes off track, logs help you quickly figure out what went wrong and why,”

— comments Nazar Kvartalnyi. 

Main Cloud Infrastructure Management Tools

Cloud infrastructure management tools help engineers managing cloud infrastructure and operations, as well as resolving issues. With their help, you can fully control all the processes and environments. Here are some features of cloud infrastructure management tools.

Cloud platforms

AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud Platform remain the leaders among the public cloud providers. They offer data storage, processing, networking, and security functionality through remote hardware and software solutions. 

• AWS is a mature cloud ecosystem with global reach and advanced scalability thanks to its data center network. AWS services range from web hosting to advanced machine learning analytics to IoT.
• Microsoft Azure is the top choice for on-premises and hybrid cloud deployments, with seamless Microsoft product integration and Windows-based virtual machines. Azure is known for its robust security features, making it a good choice for industries with severe compliance requirements. 
• Google Cloud Platform leverages its network to ensure low latency and provides advanced analysis tools for big data processing and machine learning solutions. Thanks to Google’s familiarity with Kubernetes, GCP is a top choice for container-based applications. 

IaC Tools

Infrastructure as code (IaC) solutions help businesses reap the benefits of cloud deployment through backups and data recovery. Moreover, IaC tools ensure cohesive and efficient infrastructure management in cloud computing across hybrid and multi-cloud setups.

• Terraform is an advanced provisioning tool supporting immutable infrastructure. Terraform has a steep learning curve with a declarative language (HCL), and it’s highly dependable on state or lifecycle management. It supports a wide selection of resources and suppliers and works well for hybrid and multi-cloud setups.
• Ansible is a popular open-source configuration tool that supports mutable agentless infrastructure. It uses procedural language (YAML) and fully supports templating and packaging. Ansible Galaxy hosts community-maintained modules and playbooks.
• CloudFormation is part of the AWS support plans and seamlessly integrates with multiple AWS services and resources. State management is implemented through stacks, and modules aren’t supported. 

Configuration management

The tools help developers set up all the necessary hardware and software resources. They can spin up a new server, install an operating system, and distribute storage resources for specific needs.

• Chef is a highly scalable master-agent configuration management tool that supports continuous delivery automation and robust security management. Chef uses Ruby DSL, and its installation requires time and experience with Chef Workstation.
• Puppet is a flexible tool for code and node management, automated provisioning, configuration automation, visualization, and reporting. Signing the master-agent certificate makes the installation process time-consuming and requires administrator expertise. 
• Ansible is a cross-platform automation IaC tool supporting agentless operation and push architecture. It’s easy to set up and operate, but its user interface is somewhat limited, just like its Windows support. Moreover, Ansible does not offer state management functionality.

Monitoring and logging

Your environment becomes absolutely visible to you if you use appropriate tools for infrastructure management in cloud computing. They help you check system health and performance, create analytics, and provide you with notifications and alerts.

• Datadog is an advanced multi-cloud security, network, and performance monitoring tool with flexible log management tools and end-to-end visibility of user journeys. DataDog offers multiple third-party integrations, but its node-based pricing can be hard to decipher.
• New Relic is a freemium infrastructure monitoring tool with limited log management and security monitoring functionality. It’s known for its APM features and accuracy, but the UI isn’t very intuitive and has a steep learning curve.
• CloudWatch is an AWS monitoring tool that prioritizes metrics from AWS services, unified metrics visualization and setting alarms for correlating log patterns with specific metrics. 

“There are plenty of tools available, and choosing the right one can be tough. In that case, focus on how easily they can integrate with your existing workflows and systems—that can make all the difference,”

— advises our COO. 

Extra Tips for Flawless Cloud Infrastructure Management 

It is already clear that cloud infrastructure management in cloud computing is highly beneficial for software integration. Now it’s high time to consider the best practices of cloud management. Here are some of the key practices Inoxoft recommends.

Audit existing infrastructure

Before choosing a cloud platform and management tools, consider the resources you already have at your disposal and align your selection accordingly. You should also account for third-party integrations and on-premises hardware to maximize asset use. For example, if you rely heavily on Microsoft products and your legacy desktop apps are based on .NET, Azure should be the obvious choice. It would mean seamless integration and lower transfer costs. 

“Imagine your company is already using several tools—project management software, communication apps, and document storage. Now, if you decide to switch to a cloud platform, it’s essential to pick one that seamlessly integrates with what you’re already using.

For example, if you’ve got project management software and need a cloud solution for file storage, choosing a platform that integrates with your existing tools means you can easily share documents and updates without any extra hassle.

When a new employee joins, all the necessary access can be set up automatically, so they can hit the ground running with the same tools everyone else is using. It’s a huge time-saver and makes the whole process much smoother for the team,”

— explains Nazar Kvartalnyi.

Adjust your business operations

Do not treat cloud infrastructure as a backup, or you’ll miss out on most of its benefits. Instead, work it into your daily processes. For example, leverage DevOps practices by establishing easy and fast communication between operations and development teams. You can also prioritize cloud-based or hybrid development or microservices architecture that’s better suited for scalability and maintenance. 

“This approach ensures better communication and flexibility. For example, if you’re developing an app, the team will immediately know when the developers make changes, keeping everyone on the same page,” — explains our COO. 

Ensure continuous improvement

Managing the cloud infrastructure is not a one-and-done process. Your cloud infrastructure should adjust to these changes as your business needs, target audience, and sales numbers fluctuate. You can achieve continuous improvement through automatic optimization but amend it with ongoing security upgrades, adding new regions to your deployment model, introducing content delivery networks (CDNs), or upgrading your disaster recovery protocols. 

Consider Inoxoft Your Trusted Partner

With over a decade of desktop and mobile development experience, we are no stranger to managing the cloud application infrastructure. As more and more of our clients choose to store and process data in the cloud, we implement efficient, scalable, and cost-effective solutions. Here’s one example of our successful projects.

Cloud-Based Solution for an AI-Powered HealthTech App

We helped an Israel-based HealthTech startup develop a platform for diagnosing cardiovascular conditions based on AI-powered analysis of patients’ voice recordings. Our team developed a doctor-facing web platform and a patient mobile app, which was amended with a cloud storage and processing solution. 

Doctors can use the web platform to set up questionnaire schedules, while patients can download mobile apps and access them through individually generated QR codes according to HIPAA requirements. Patients receive push notifications with reminders to complete their surveys and record their oral responses. 

Considering the HIPAA data protection and Microsoft integration requirements, our team suggested Azure Blob Storage as the best choice for setting up a voice recordings database. Medical professionals have easy access to the database, while the library of validated recordings increases voice analysis accuracy and diagnosis relevance. 

Conclusion 

Cloud infrastructure unlocks significant capex savings, advanced scalability, and flexibility while also ensuring regulatory compliance and letting businesses recover from disasters without losing their reputation and clients. But to reap these benefits, you must choose an appropriate cloud deployment and service model, as well as a suite of management tools tailored to your needs. 

We can help you make sense of your options and set up a sustainable and cost-effective cloud infrastructure. Contact us to schedule a consultation!