When you just relocate a programme as is, it’s challenging to fully realise the advantages of cloud computing. Consider redesigning your app instead, and begin with these five steps.
Here are five crucial considerations for people who need to restructure current apps for the cloud.
1. Equalize the workload and application components
It’s normally desirable to divide apps into numerous components in order to optimise them for the cloud, but doing so can drastically raise costs. The expenses increase because you must individually host several components. Moreover, network connections are required to connect application components into workflows, which might increase the cost. Review the advantages before you begin and decide whether the expense is justified.
Determine whether specific application features are always used and scaled together if it is.
2. Cloud resilience and scalability aren’t automatic
Popular cloud features include the capacity to burst workloads from the data centre to the cloud, spin up fresh application copies to boost performance, and replace broken components. Yet without proper application design, you can’t achieve them. The majority of apps are stateful, which means they respond to requests that include a series of actions. A new application or component copy that is spun up might not be aware of its place in the sequence, leading to errors or failures.
One of the most challenging aspects of re-architecting apps for the cloud is state control. Make careful you manage multistage transactions in accordance with their point of origin, the user interface. You have complete control over this now.
3. Be ready for multi- and hybrid clouds
Most cloud apps require a connection to an enterprise data centre in order to update mission-critical databases that cannot be moved to the cloud due to corporate compliance and governance requirements. To lessen the risk of downtime, many public cloud users opt for a multi-cloud strategy. You must create applications for one of these hybrid or multi-cloud architectures if you don’t want to potentially run into problems with cost, performance, and reliability.
Because practically all cloud providers charge for traffic entering and leaving their cloud, hybrid or multi-cloud apps increase workflow and scalability difficulties. This implies that you’ll probably have to pay additional fees if you need to scale or replace application components beyond cloud provider limits.
4. Utilize the online services offered by cloud providers carefully.
Several useful web services are available from cloud providers, some of which can drastically simplify and reconfigure applications that migrate to the cloud. On the other hand, these services might potentially push up the price of applications and even introduce unintended expenses for networking and workflow mobility.
Classify your application when evaluating these online services. In general, cloud applications are either front-end programmes that work with a range of user devices or event-driven programmes with a machine-to-machine information source. Both of these models are supported by services from cloud providers, but these services are comparable to middleware tools for bespoke development. Most of the time, the upfront cost of those middleware solutions will be less than the continuing fees for the web services.
5. Strive for uniformity in the development platform
The OS or middleware version you choose will probably have an impact on how your apps behave, and it will undoubtedly have an impact on how you design new applications for the cloud. It may be challenging to maintain your platform tools at version levels that are compatible with your application components’ middleware, which could lead to application failures.