In the last decade, technological advancements have shaken the world. The days of struggling over repetitive and monotonous jobs are long gone with the onset of machines and cloud infrastructure. Businesses all over the world are adopting the cloud-first strategy for full automation and effortless proceedings.

What is a Cloud-first strategy?

Recent times have seen a lot of fuss about cloud-first strategy. They are operations in which teams move most or all of their infrastructures to cloud-computing platforms. These platforms include AWS, Google Clouds, Microsoft Azure, and so on. As the name suggests, it is about prioritizing cloud-based solutions over others. These are very different from traditional server clusters. The teams house all kinds of resources in the cloud. This is a radical transformation from the erstwhile method of tying the servers to a physical location. Cloud-first mainly helps to fulfil business functions.

Why opt for Cloud-first security?

There are many reasons to choose cloud-first security. The importance varies from business to business. Some choose cloud-first for its cost-effectiveness while others choose it for scalability. Some of the important reasons to choose cloud-first are listed below:

1.    Scalability

Auto-scaling helps the cloud provider to scale resources central to an application. The cloud provider detects both the application’s CPU as well as memory usage. If it turns to be high then one is bumped to the next tier. This is all done automatically without any human involvement. In case of huge traffic, the server hardware is automatically upgraded. This helps in customer satisfaction. The costly package is balanced out by increased customer traffic.

2.    Configurability

Cloud-first strategies help its teams to do away with the age-old problem of trying to get a new service online. This usually involved getting in touch with an IT team. They in turn had to get in touch with the manager for signing off to provision a new server. Meanwhile, you would have to wait in a queue. Everything is waived off when cloud-first strategy comes into the picture. This is because getting a new service requires only the approval for capital expenditure. You can define the entire infrastructure right within your code. Your team is allowed to determine what you need for your software. Then a pipeline is allocated to handle the rest of the tedious task.

3.    Reproducibility

Clouds-first strategy cuts the concern about switching from version A to version B. Teams with dedicated hardware have an entire set up of test environments that they maintain. In these kinds of environments, hardware changes can prove to be a push. But these environments are stateful. The team spends time brainstorming how to apply the patches in new software features. Countless hours are spent traversing from the old version to the new version. If this fails, the company incurs significant losses. But in cloud-first, this isn’t a problem. Developers can spin up an entirely new environment running a new version. As soon as the new version starts receiving customers, the older version is retired. Some even have two production environments running simultaneously.

4.     Cost

The basic business goal is to receive profits irrespective of whether they are on the cloud or not. Businesses try to ward off such operations that add to their cost. Cloud computing is one such cost-effective way to host infrastructure. There is a beforehand provision of cost calculation. Businesses located outside major cities have additional benefits with regards to internet connectivity and many more. When on the cloud, costs related to renting physical space, power, and so on are easily subtracted from the list of expenditures.

5.    Observability

While running hardware, a lot of different application and device log sources are connected. This is a tedious task but with cloud-first, it is not even half this complicated. Tools like SolarWinds Loggly integrate and corporate with cloud providers. The software combines logs into a single dashboard. The team continuously knows how the application is performing without much work. This keeps employees up to date and gives more insight into the working of the software. Hence the loop is always maintained.

Other benefits of using a Cloud-first strategy

The most obvious benefit of using cloud-first is the maintenance of the IT structure. Anything from equipment, services to OS is all done easily on cloud-first. The team does not have to worry about the updating and upgrading of the hardware and OS. This is usually the case of businesses maintaining physical hardware. All of this is handled by the cloud provider. The major burden on IT specialists is reduced as the provider handles most of it. Services are deployed quickly and there is no purchasing of hardware and software involved. Hence the time of bringing new products to markets is reduced significantly.

Conclusion

Keeping everything in mind, it needs to be pointed out where this strategy is headed to. A cloud-first strategy allows complete automation. This aids in streamlining both major and minor applications. If a cloud-first strategy is implemented, time consumption will be lessened. With minimal losses incurred, it is a step into the future; a future where serverless and quantum computing are commercialized.