Cloud Configurator
This flood of information can easily make you lose track of the selection criteria.
What if you could choose items from different categories, similar to configuring a car, and could construct your own individual cloud solution?
When using a car configurator, you first have to decide on a model. Each buyer has his or her own individual ideas and requirements for the new car. Their budget also plays an important role in choosing. Are you opting for a compact, a station wagon or a van, or do you prefer the luxury version? Nor are there any limits to the configuration options.
This example from everyday life can easily be applied to the decisions you have to make when migrating to the cloud. Not every method of provision and every model suits every company – here, too, a wide variety of requirements play an important role in the decision-making process.
Provision Method
The agony of choice already begins when it comes to the provision method.
Should I opt for the public cloud or the private cloud, with or without a hyperscaler, or should I choose a hybrid approach?
The SAP environment in particular offers the following possibilities:
- SAP Cloud
- SAP Rise
- SAP on Azure
- SAP on AWS
- SAP on GCP
Cloud service models and strategic deployment planning
During the configuration, a choice must be made between the different cloud service models of Infrastructure-as-a-Service (Iaas), Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS).
The model issue can often be resolved in terms of use benefits and through strategic resource planning. Just as compacts are particularly suitable for every day errands and urban traffic, while families in particular prefer vans, all the aforementioned models have their benefits too.
When it comes to strategic resource planning in the cloud environment, the following options are available, among others:
- SAP systems
- non-SAP systems
- Data Lake/Data Warehouse
- BI
- KI
- Applications
Sizing
Once you have decided on a car model, you can begin with the actual sizing of the car. First of all, you have to specify the equipment.
What kind of engine should the car have?
How big should the tank capacity be?
Which interior trim and features do you want to have?
Comparable questions arise for the cloud as well.
- Which VM options should I take and what performance should they have?
- How much CPU/RAM?
- How big should the database be?
- What storage type should I use? – Standard HDD/SSD or Premium SSD?
Security
After you have chosen the interior trim, the question of the safety of the car arises. There are two types of safety systems to choose from – active and passive.
Passive safety systems include airbags, crumple zones and PreSence or PreSafe systems. They provide support through automated measures such as belt tightening and adjustment of the seats and headrests to the ideal positions.
Active safety systems as well as driver assistance systems actively intervene in the driver’s handling of the vehicle. Classic examples include lane keeping assist systems, distance radar, light assist systems and multi-collision brakes.
Such security mechanisms also exist in the cloud environment:
Passive safety systems include anomaly detection systems. These systems monitor the system activities, detect any dangers or deviations from the standard and report them through an alert.
There are many variants of active safety systems to choose from. They include intrusion detection systems (IDS) and intrusion prevention systems (IPS), which monitor network traffic for malicious activities. Once they detect malicious traffic, they block it.
Prizing
On completion of the configuration steps, the question of the purchase method arises.
Should I buy the car directly?
Do I want to take out a long-term loan?
Should I conclude a leasing contract or is a car sharing model preferable?
The cloud presents analogous options.
They vary regarding the provision of resources:
- A long-term commitment in the form of RIs, which yield price benefits
- Pay-as-you-go
- Rental model in the public cloud
What will your cloud environment actually look like?
Even after answering all these questions you can’t start off right away – other matters have to be clarified first.
How are systems to be set up in the cloud? What will integration with the existing constellation look like? How should peripheral systems be handled? And how can my employees adapt to the new constellation? Will their existing mindset have to change – or perhaps the overall corporate culture?
Questions, questions and more questions! Will you be able to answer all of them yourself, and, above all, who will finally be drawing the picture of “your cloud” for you?
To me the answer is clear: You will! But, in addition to a source of inspiration, every good artist also needs the right support in the form of suitable tools.
Author: Ann-Julie Wasmer, Expert Cloud Managed Services
