Roadmap to the Efficient Cloud: 3 Checkpoints for the Modern Enterprise
Roadmap for the Modern Enterprise As your AWS environment grows, the importance of instilling governance and following best practice is critical. In order to stay lean, organizations need to understand how to optimize costs, ensure proper controls are in place, and minimize waste. You need to ensure that your foundation is strong so that you can go fast and stay safe. Key areas that will be focused on: 1 2 3 Ensuring Right Sizing Minimizing Administrative Privileges Reducing Cloud Sprawl
Cloud Management for the Modern Enterprise Cloud First Enterprises are adapting to the world of cloud computing the same way that software developers adapted to mobile computing. Just as the Mobile First trend saw developers creating applications specifically for native mobile or responsive mobile friendly websites, savvy enterprises are taking a Cloud First approach to computing resources. Rather than acquiring new server hardware and local storage, public cloud infrastructure is the new norm. Cloud First is a smart idea, as businesses can scale up or down as easily as clicking a button. The cloud has the potential to eliminate overhead, waste, security risks, and human error, without the hassles of running a traditional data center. The cloud can also be a major competitive advantage, enabling organizations to stay lean and increase operational efficiencies, mitigate risks, and save money as they grow. 3
New Concerns That is not to say that operating in the cloud is without its own set of concerns. It s true that cloud-based enterprises no longer need to worry about real estate, physical security, server sprawl, firewalls, software updates, power, heating and cooling traditional data center issues. Still, moving to the cloud introduces new issues in addition to some familiar ones. For example, enterprises were told they can save money by moving to the cloud. However, it s still easy to overspend on the cloud, perhaps more easily than with a traditional data center. Instead of putting out an RFP for new equipment, any authorized employee can now just spin up new instances and your cloud spend will increase without any formal oversight. It s easy to trade server sprawl for cloud sprawl. 4
Benefits of a Cloud Management Platform This is why modern enterprises need a Cloud Management Platform (CMP). There are a host of benefits that a CMP offers. A CMP can recognize when resources could be better allocated to improve efficiency. Additionally, CMPs enable sophisticated security controls, such as minimizing Administrative Privileges, to make sure only a small set of authorized and current users are able to make changes. Not all CMPs are created equal. Some merely address operational efficiencies; others address only security. Many CMPs focus purely on cost savings for the cloud. It s rare to find a single CMP that can address all of those needs. Fortunately, CloudCheckr has 400+ Best Practices to optimize your cloud utilization, increase security, and save on your cloud spend. The last thing modern enterprises want is to work with multiple vendors that don t integrate with each other. After all, that s why businesses move to the cloud in the first place, for seamless worry-free infrastructure. Cost & Billing Security & Compliance Cloud Management CloudCheckr saves customers an average of 30% on their AWS bills. http://cloudcheckr.com/platform/cost-expense-management/ 5
Security for the Modern Enterprise The Cost of Securing Your Cloud You may have seen one of those witty bumper stickers that states If you think Education is expensive, try Ignorance. The same is true for security: if you think security is expensive, try getting hacked! As we often say, you can t manage what you don t know about. The cost of not paying enough attention to cyber security can be devastating. Last year s Phenomenon Cost of Data Breach study estimates the costs related to a breach have risen 29% since 2013 and are exponentially larger for large enterprises. In just the past few months we ve learned about Yahoo s breach of over one billion email accounts. Yahoo s security failures are expected to result in If you think security the loss of 925 million dollars as Verizon looks to acquire is expensive, try Yahoo for far less than originally agreed to. Target, Home getting hacked! Depot, even the US Postal Service have had their own such breaches. Remember the hack of the Democratic National Committee s emails, and the uproar over Hillary Clinton s private server? Arguably she lost out on a really nice job, with lots of benefits, because of server security issues. 6
Your Job Could Be Next Those security breaches are well publicized, because they affect millions of people, or well-established internet companies, or politicians. Clearly, organizations of scale are just as susceptible as anyone to anonymous hackers, corporate espionage, and disgruntled employees if they fail to make security a priority. Without the infrastructure and process to support security in a dynamic environment, any organization is at risk. Modern enterprises need to take proactive steps to mitigate risks and prevent threats. The move to IaaS shifted some of the security responsibility to the cloud provider, but there are still important Organizations of scale are just considerations for the enterprise. as susceptible as anyone to Enterprises must worry about rogue anonymous hackers or poorly trained employees. Perhaps the biggest danger is from hackers, competitors, or disgruntled former employees. Since the cloud means they don t need physical access to access your infrastructure, you don t have the same barriers you did when all of your data was inside your facilities. Do you know how to Hackproof Your Cloud? http://cloudcheckr.com/document/hackproof-cloud-preventing-2017-threats-new-security-paradigm/ 7
Cloud Security Costs for Enterprises So the obvious question is, why wouldn t you make every effort to secure your infrastructure? Usually, it comes down to cost. It s true that security comes with a price. Cloud Security professionals cost over $100,000 per year, or even twice that amount. Then of course, there s the cost of technology to enforce appropriate identity access management (IAM), policies, and permissions. But security doesn t have to hurt your bottom line. When cloud security is combined with cloud cost management, enterprise organizations can ensure their infrastructure spend goes farther, enabling them to grow the business faster while staying safe and compliant. Security doesn t If you can make the case for increased security, while saving significantly, you don t have to worry about losing your job. (In fact, you might even get a promotion!) have to hurt your bottom line Ensure cloud security and compliance across your entire cloud infrastructure. http://cloudcheckr.com/platform/security-and-compliance/ 8
Cost Management for the Modern Enterprise Modern enterprises embraced the cloud primarily as a way to save money. But just as Server Sprawl was a problem with data centers, Cloud Sprawl can quickly become a concern; managing a constantly growing and evolving set of public cloud services in a dynamic environment can easily get out of hand. In an ephemeral environment, resources can easily become under-utilized or wasted negating any potential cost savings in the cloud. To further complicate the cost of the cloud, instances can be purchased at different rates, depending on how and when they are used. When left to individuals across different departments, teams, and business units, purchase decisions are less than optimal. They say you shouldn t shop for groceries when you re hungry, at risk of over-buying. The same applies to acquiring instances: buying On-Demand instances is the most expensive way to use the cloud, but Reserved Instances (RI) require long-term commitments to achieve discounts and savings. Read our Buyers Guide to Reserved Instances http://cloudcheckr.com/document/buyers-guide-aws-reserved-instances/ 9
A Little Help From Your Friends A cloud management platform can examine usage, recognize trends, predict patterns, and help enterprise businesses make optimal purchasing decisions, automatically. A CMP can also enforce best practice checks to make sure only authorized users are spinning up instances, ensuring your cloud stays in check even at scale. Some CMPs go even further and can rebalance Reserved Instances across multiple organizations, leveraging those discounts. Other cloud management solutions can also bid on and safely manage Spot Instances, leveraging surplus cloud resources available at significant discounts. The really expensive option is to not use a CMP CloudCheckr customers typically report saving 30% by optimizing their use of Reserved Instances, or even as much as 80% with CloudCheckr Spot Management. The real cost does not come from adopting a cloud management platform; the really expensive option is to not use a CMP. Enterprises today need to be quick and lean. That s why the cloud is so attractive. But you need to stay safe as you grow which is why a comprehensive cloud platform should unify cost and security management. With a full-service CMP, modern enterprises can reduce cloud sprawl, right-size their cloud, and enforce security best practices to see the financial benefits they were promised. 10
About CloudCheckr The CloudCheckr cloud management platform unifies cost, security, and inventory management with visibility and intelligence to mitigate security risks, optimize costs, and increase operational efficiencies across cloud infrastructure. With continuous monitoring, 400 best practice checks, and built-in automation, CloudCheckr enables IT, Security, and Finance teams to manage their AWS environments with confidence. Government organizations and Global 2000 enterprises trust CloudCheckr to unify their native AWS data and deliver the most robust cloud management platform in today s marketplace. Try CloudCheckr for free for 14 days to start saving on your cloud spend, today! https://app.cloudcheckr.com/signup