As an ISV or SaaS company, choosing the right IaaS provider can be a challenge. I hope to give you some things to think about to guide you in your decision.
You can off course always call us if you need help choosing!
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7 things to consider when choosing your IaaS provider for ISV/SaaS
1. So many clouds
7 things to consider when choosing your
IaaS provider
Sirris IaaS breakfast 2014/02/11
http://skyscrape.rs
@skyscrapers
@fdenkens
2. We ...
● help companies figure out cloud for their web
applications (choosing the right cloud, architecture,
etc)
● design, build and manage platforms in the cloud
● are your DevOps partner that integrates with your
team
3. Small disclaimer ...
●
●
●
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We are an AWS Consulting Partner
But are not married to them
We work with various suppliers (Linode, AWS, …)
It all depends on customer requirements
6. Based on … first impressions?
● Like you would choose wine, based on a pretty label?
● Based on the presenters we saw the last few
months?
● The seemingly safe choice?
8. The safe choice?
● The saying used to be: “nobody ever got fired for
buying IBM”
● Maybe today it should be: “nobody ever got fired for
buying Amazon Web Services”
● All the cool kids are doing it, why not us?
10. Or maybe not?
● It seems this Belgian start-up didn’t have a good
business case for AWS. (though I’m not sure if going
for a private cloud was the best choice for them)
● Many other examples of people learning that there is
much to be considered.
12. Oooh, it has lot’s of shiny knobs and lights!
● Don’t let the techie in you decide.
● Technology shouldn’t be your first guiding principle.
● Rather it is a result of the coming exercise.
14. So … how to choose?
● It’s a holistic decision, taking ALL business angels into
account.
● Considering both today and tomorrow
● In other words, it’s a business decision!
● Impossible to give you a one size fits all, but let me
give you some things to think about.
17. Make an inventory
● Inventorise your workloads
● See what they need in terms of scalability, flexibility,
availability, security, async/sync, etc
➔ Allows you to do an initial matching to the
offering of each provider
➔ Required homework for the next steps
19. Your software delivery process
● Waterfall vs Full Continuous Deployment
● The further you go, the more Infrastructure as code
becomes interesting
● But also poses more automation challenges
➔ Will allow you to know how important the IaaSproviders’ automation possibilities (API’s, etc) are
to you.
21. How is your software architected?
● Does it depend on underlying layers
(infra/os/storage) to handle challenges around
scalability, availability and security?
➔
Go with an IaaS provider who also solves these
issues for you and gives you a strong SLA. (Probably at
a higher cost, more complexity and less flexibility.)
22. How is your software architected?
● or at the other of the spectrum: is it a true cloud
design? (designed for failure, loosely coupled, built
for scale, …)
➔
Go with an IaaS provider who provides you all the
necessary blocks to control your own destiny
(Probably at a lower cost, less complexity and more flexibility.)
24. How much wheels (are you inventing?)
● Seek out workloads in your application that can be
considered ‘commodities’ (messaging, queuing, etc)
● Don’t reinvent the wheel
● Potential benefits: no maintenance, faster time-tomarket, better built, higher QoS
● (Risk of lock-in: business decision, not emotional)
➔ Consider the richness of services each IaaS
provider offers (and how far they move up in the
PaaS stack)
26. Compliance and regulation
● We have a customer (bank in NL), they say: “no US
owned company” because of Patriot Act vs personal
data handling/privacy liability
● Think about compliancy on data location
● What standards do your customers care about (HIPAA,
ISO 27001, PCI, etc)?
➔ Might be a reason to go for an EU or regional
company
➔ Consider their certifications
28. Where are your customers?
● Latency is still a reality
● Can have a major impact on the usability of your
product/service
● IaaS is great, gives you access to the world
● But make sure your provider has locations close to
where your customers are.
➔ Check out your providers coverage and network
30. Cost model and control
● It’s a complex topic, a presentation by itself
● AWS (highly variable, flexible) vs ‘classic’ outsourced,
typical model (fixed, inflexible)
● But don’t worry … it’s manageable and predictable by
continuous measurement and evaluation
● If you do it right, you can save a lot of money
➔ In any case: it’s very important that you
understand the cost structure of the chosen
provider and link it to your own cost-model.
34. It’s a voyage
● Know where you are today and where you want to be
tomorrow > make a roadmap
● Include: development process, application
architecture, what IaaS/cloud benefits will you take
up first, business requirements, etc
● Start with an application that's well suited to cloud
● Or get your feet wet with non-critical stuff like your
test-environments
● Go step-by-step as enabled by true IaaS
36. It’s a mindset
● Enjoying benefits of IaaS to the maximum requires a
cultural/mental shift
● Start educating/forming yourself and your team
● Build/evolve your processes and way of working with
what you learn
● Get inspired by looking into DevOps / Infrastructure
as code / Continuous delivery / Cloud centric design /
lean principles / etc
39. And evolve
● Unlike the choice of blue/red pill, with IaaS you can
and will have to evolve all the time
● Everything evolves the whole time: the world, your
market, your business, your knowledge, etc
● Reevalute regularly
● Maybe even go multi-provider? Perfectly possible
today.
● Fear of lock-in: these days the worst kind of lock-in
is contractual lock-in.
41. The main benefit of IaaS, agility
● Main benefit of IaaS is the agility. It is what enables
the cost benefits, scalability benefits, etc
● If your organisation cannot match that agility, it can
become a nightmare (and then you start reading the
posts “why we went back to our own hardware” …)
● and vice versa: make sure your provider has the
same level of agility as you have.
42. Thank you.
Contact us if you want help in making the
right choice.
http://skyscrape.rs
@skyscrapers
@fdenkens
Hinweis der Redaktion
Welcome :-)
Many different IaaS providers
How do you choose?
I hope to give some tips.
Choose on color?
On presentations seen here? The people?
What we think we know?
‘Safe choice’?
“Nobody ever get’s fired for choosing IBM” … now maybe … “Nobody ever get’s fired for choosing Amazon”
Choose what all the cool kids are doing?
Or maybe not?
But for these guys it seemed like a logical choice
Purely a technological decision?
Features, knobs and lights?
I’m technical too, I like them too.
Technology shouldn’t be your first guiding principle, rather a result
It’s a decision that should take everything into account
both for what is there today and what there will be tomorrow
In other words, it’s a business decision!
Impossible to give you a one size fits all, but let me give you some things to think about
Like always, do your homework first
Just a small review of most important things to think about
In no particular order:
Inventorise your workloads
what they need (Scalability, flexibility, availability, security, async/sync, etc)
Allows you to match to contractual flexibility, provider maturity and offering
What does your software delivery process look like?
Automated/non-automated
Full Continuous Deployment vs fixed release schedules
Will allow you to know what ‘IaaS’ ‘level’ you can adapt to
The further you go, the more Infrastructure as code becomes interesting,
but also poses more automation challenges
How is your software architected?
Typical front-end with a database backend?
or designed for cloud
designed for failure
no spof
expect nothing
can live in multiple places
built for scale
seperate data and logic
identify types of workloads and scale differently
stateless components
loosely couples
isolate types of workloads
clear contracts between components
use async where possible
So you know what services and characteristics you should look for in the cloud provider
Seek out workloads in your application that are to be considered ‘commodities’
don’t reinvent the wheel
Might be able to be replaced by services offered by the IaaS provider or another provider > no maintenance, faster development, better built
Moving up the PaaS stack
(risk of lock-in: business decision, not emotional)
We are doing a project for a NL bank, they say: “ NO US company (PAtriot act vs personal data handling/privacy)”
Compliancy on data location for eg financial transactions
Might be a reason to go for an EU or local company
Transparency can also be considered
Where are your customers?
What kind of usage patterns do they have?
Lag is still a reality
IaaS is great, gives you access to the world. But make sure your provider has locations close to where your customers are.
complex topic, but manageable
your costing model will need to be compatible
AWS (highly variable) vs clear outsourced, typical model (fixed)
Mitigatable by continuous measurement and evaluation
In any case, very important to understand cost structure of your provider
If you do it right, you can indeed save a lot of money
Mandatory cloud image
where you are today, and where you want to go.
Make a high-level roadmap
development process, application architecture, what IaaS/cloud benefits will you take up first, etc
Identify an application that's well suited to cloud
Start small with non-critical stuff like your test-environments
Adapt your development processes step-by-step
Tackle one (small) advantage at a time (to start for example just having the flexibility that comes with IaaS)
Enjoying benefits of IaaS requires cultural/mental shift
Start educating yourself
Build/evolve your processes and way of working
DevOps / Infrastructure as code / Continuous delivery / Cloud centric design
Make your choice
And don’t worry, ...
… you can always change
But don’t forget that the world changes the whole time
New players, new requirements, other business, etc
Re-evalute
Go multi-provider? Perfectly possible today.
Don’t lock yourself in too much
Main benefit according to me for IaaS is the agility. Has cost benefits, scalability benefits, etc
If your organisation cannot match that agility, it can become a nightmare and then you start reading the posts (“why we went back to our own hardware”) …
Make sure your provider has the same level of agility as you