Authors Chirag and Ossie
In large enterprises for years, large customers have been sold on cloud widgets, PaaS services, complex security bundles and vendor-specific approaches that (clears throat) can lock you into a specific cloud platform. The cloud race, coupled with AI and security advancement, is now made the gaps between all these clouds become so small that adopting an agnostic approach to the platform is achievable and ensures your applications and services can run on any platform cloud or otherwise without significant modifications but also provides a strong sense of security. This strategy prevents vendor lock-in and gives the decision-makers the confidence to explore different cloud providers, hardware and container platforms right out to the intelligent edge, knowing that your data and operations are safe. But that’s not all. If you really want, you can also push past cloud agnostic to an approach we love, a platform-agnostic open-source approach.
But why and how do we do this? First, let’s clarify the approach, what we’re discussing, and why.
The problem statement or approach statement
While writing this blog together, we really struggled with explaining how we split this story up to make sense and the main approaches to cloud agnostic and platform agnostic we like.
Firstly, what is cloud agnostic, and why should I care?
A Cloud-agnostic enterprise approach involves designing and deploying applications and services to operate seamlessly across multiple cloud platforms (such as AWS, Azure, Oracle and Google Cloud) without being dependent on any single provider’s specific services and infrastructure. This approach ensures flexibility, reduces the risk of vendor lock-in, and enhances resilience by allowing organisations to switch providers or distribute workloads according to cost, performance, or regional requirements. By adopting a cloud-agnostic strategy, organisations can better adapt to evolving business needs, optimise costs, and ensure high availability and disaster recovery capabilities.
What is a platform-agnostic, and why should I care?
A platform-agnostic approach works seamlessly with both containerisation and virtual machines. Using open-source tools like Docker and Kubernetes, you can deploy and manage applications across diverse environments/platforms, including cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, Oracle, Google Cloud), on-premises data centres, and edge devices. This approach allows organisations to standardise deployments, ensure scalability, and maintain flexibility without being locked into a specific vendor, whether using containers or virtual machines. The key is in how automation is leveraged to integrate and optimise deployment processes across these environments.
Platform Agnostic: Is an that can be done with SOE, but in this blog, the approach we will focus on an opensource approach to deploy apps to cloud infrastructure and right out to edge computing devices.
However, the two things we have learned in this blog are that we have said agnostic too much! The other thing we have learned from our deep experience working with the cloud Gods (Azure, AWS, Google Cloud, Oracle and OpenStack) is cloud landing zones are very similar from a security standpoint, much like hypervisors and container platforms, and they can all be templated, secured and managed in a similar fashion. In the multi-cloud / multi-platform world, the ability to operate seamlessly across different platforms is now becoming essential, giving power back to the decision-makers and providing agility. This blog will explore what this means and how to do it.
We like this approach in large enterprises because it really means that you now have the power to deploy where you like, when you like, at the cost you like, and with the services and security you like 😊 Sounds too good to be true, doesn’t it? What we’re talking about here is standardising Layer 2 in the Continuous ATO (CATO) platform model below.
What is a cloud-agnostic and/or platform-agnostic, and what are its benefits?
A cloud/platform agnostic approach involves designing applications and services to run on any platform (e.g. On-Prem, Cloud, Bare Metal) without specific adaptations. This approach offers several benefits:
- Flexibility: Easily switch between cloud, hardware, and container providers.
- Cost Optimization: Leverage cost advantages by migrating to cheaper or more efficient services.
- Resilience: Distributing workloads across multiple clouds or platforms reduces downtime risks.
What are the main pillars to consider for a cloud-agnostic and/or platform-agnostic approach?
To Achieve the cloud-agnostic and/or platform-agnostic approach, we required decoupling the IaC from their configuration details. This is crucial to deploying the IaC to the cloud-agnostic and/or platform-agnostic approach.
Abstract Infrastructure Management
- Infrastructure as Code (IaC): Use tools like Terraform, Ansible, or Pulumi to manage infrastructure across different clouds using a single codebase. This ensures consistency and repeatability.
- Standardised Configurations: Establish standardised configurations and templates for infrastructure components to ensure they can be deployed across various providers without modification
Adopt Containerisation and Orchestration
- Container Technologies: Utilise Docker to encapsulate applications, making them portable across different environments.
- Kubernetes Orchestration: Employ Kubernetes to manage and orchestrate containers across multiple cloud platforms, ensuring consistent deployment and scaling.
Abstract Services and APIs
- Service Mesh: Implement a service mesh like Istio to manage microservices across multiple clouds, ensuring seamless communication and security.
- Unified API Management: Use tools like Kong or Apigee to abstract API differences between cloud providers, providing a consistent API management layer.
Cloud-Agnostic Storage Solutions
- Portable Storage Options: Use storage solutions that support multiple clouds, such as MinIO for object storage or cloud-agnostic databases like CockroachDB.
- Abstract Data Access: Implement data access layers that interface with different storage backends without modification, ensuring seamless data management.
Multi-Cloud Networking Solutions
- Consistent Networking Services: Leverage solutions like Aviatrix or Cloudflare to provide consistent networking and security policies across cloud environments.
- SD-WAN Implementation: Use Software-Defined Wide Area Networking (SD-WAN) to manage and optimise network traffic across multiple clouds, ensuring reliable connectivity.
Decouple Application Components
- Microservices Architecture: Design applications using microservices to ensure components can be independently deployed and managed across different clouds.
- Event-Driven Architecture: Utilise event-driven architecture with tools like Kafka, Argo, and airflow to handle communication and data flow across cloud services.
Leverage CI/CD Pipelines
- Cloud-Agnostic CI/CD Tools: Use continuous integration and deployment tools like Github, Jenkins, Azure DevOps, GitLab CI, or CircleCI that support multi-cloud environments.
- Automated Testing: Implement automated testing frameworks to validate application functionality across cloud environments, ensuring reliability.
Cloud-Agnostic Monitoring and Logging
- Unified Monitoring Solutions: Use monitoring tools like Prometheus, Grafana, or Datadog to support multi-cloud environments and provide consistent performance and health monitoring.
- Centralised Logging: Implement centralised logging solutions like ELK Stack (Elasticsearch, Logstash, Kibana) or Splunk to collect and analyse logs from multiple cloud providers.
Compliance and Security
- Cross-Cloud Security Policies: Establish policies that can be applied consistently across different clouds, ensuring data and application security. For instance, Qualys enables consistent threat detection and response to the threat for the infrastructure and applications across various platforms, including clouds, on-premises, and container platforms.
- Compliance Automation: Use compliance automation tools to ensure infrastructure adheres to regulatory requirements, regardless of the cloud provider. Examples include Qualys, Open Policy Agent, and cloud Custodian.
Regular Multi-Cloud \ Platform Testing
- Disaster Recovery Testing: Regularly test disaster recovery plans to ensure the ability to quickly switch between cloud providers or platforms.
- Performance Testing: Conduct performance testing across different clouds or platforms to identify and mitigate issues and ensure optimal performance.
- A/B Testing: A/B testing, also known as split testing, is a method used to compare two or more versions of a service, feature, or platform to determine which one performs better. A/B testing can help organisations optimise their cloud strategies, improve performance, and enhance user experience across different cloud providers or platforms when applied to a multi-cloud or multi-platform environment.
The Showtime Consulting Advantage
At Showtime Consulting, we understand that a cloud-agnostic approach is crucial for organisations aiming to enhance flexibility, optimise costs, and ensure resilience in today’s multi-cloud environment. Our cloud-agnostic solutions are designed to provide continuous adaptability, assessment, and improvement of your cloud strategy. By integrating a cloud-agnostic approach and leveraging our expertise, we help our clients achieve the following benefits:
- Accelerated Deployment: Using cloud-agnostic frameworks, applications and services can be deployed rapidly across multiple cloud platforms without significant modifications, speeding up the time-to-market.
- Reduced Risk: Multi-cloud strategies reduce the dependency on a single provider, thereby mitigating the risk of vendor lock-in and ensuring business continuity even if one provider faces an outage.
- Cost Optimisation: Organizations can leverage cost advantages by migrating workloads to more cost-effective or efficient cloud services, ensuring optimal expenditure.
- Enhanced Resilience: Distributing workloads across multiple cloud platforms reduces downtime risks and enhances overall system resilience.
Implementing a Cloud-Agnostic and/or platform-agnostic Approach with Showtime Consulting
Implementing a cloud-agnostic and/or platform-agnostic strategy requires a comprehensive approach involving people, processes, and technology. Here’s how Showtime Consulting can help:
- People: We provide comprehensive training and support to ensure your team is well-equipped to adopt cloud-agnostic practices. Our experts work closely with your staff to foster a culture of flexibility and continuous improvement.
- Processes: We help you design and implement processes that decouple your workloads from specific cloud platforms. From planning and design to deployment and management, we ensure your operations are cloud-agnostic at every stage.
- Technology: Leveraging the latest tools and technologies, we automate infrastructure management, container orchestration, and multi-cloud networking. Our solutions are tailored to your specific needs, ensuring seamless integration and operation across multiple cloud providers.
The Future of Cloud-Agnostic Strategies
As the digital landscape evolves, the need for robust and flexible cloud strategies will only grow. A cloud-agnostic approach represents the future of cloud computing, enabling organisations to stay ahead of the curve and protect their operations. At Showtime Consulting, we are committed to helping our clients navigate this complex landscape and achieve their cloud strategy goals.
Why Choose Showtime Consulting?
With our deep expertise in cloud solutions and strategic partnerships with leading technology providers, Showtime Consulting is uniquely positioned to help organisations achieve a cloud-agnostic strategy. Our holistic approach combines cutting-edge technology with best practices in cloud management. We work closely with our clients to understand their needs and tailor our solutions to provide maximum flexibility and resilience.
Conclusion
A cloud-agnostic approach is a significant step towards enhancing your organisation’s flexibility and resilience. By implementing strong abstraction layers, leveraging containerisation, and utilising multi-cloud management tools, Showtime Consulting helps you safeguard your valuable assets and maintain operational integrity. Contact us today to learn more about how we can help you achieve a cloud-agnostic strategy.
