Digital natives understand that the real power of public cloud services lies in their massive, globally distributed, shared, and highly automated data centers. These features enable the provision of pay-per-use billing, virtually limitless scalability, and a self-service consumption model, as shown in Figure 1-2.
Figure 1-2. Cloud benefits
Nevertheless, public clouds are constructed from commodity hardware connected by networks that have been selected to minimize the total cost of ownership. The hardware is managed by a third-party provider and shared among multiple clients. It’s crucial to understand that cloud computing isn’t inherently more reliable, cost-effective, or secure than running your own data center:
- Data center hardware is often built for redundancy and task-specific optimization, while in the cloud, hardware is generic, commoditized, and designed with the expectation of occasional failure.
- In a data center, you own the hardware and change is difficult. In contrast, the cloud provides rented hardware on a minute-to-minute basis, allowing for easy change, but at a premium over your hardware.
- A physical data center has an effective wall around it, engendering a level of implicit trust in the infrastructure inside. In the cloud, however, a trust nothing approach should be adopted.
Transitioning to the cloud isn’t simply a matter of transferring your traditional data center operations online. It represents an opportunity to leverage a powerful technology that can fundamentally reshape business operations. However, this requires the correct approach. Simply replicating your on-premises setup in the cloud without adapting your methods can lead to higher costs, heightened security risks, and potentially reduced reliability, as shown in Figure 1-3. This fails to utilize the full potential of the cloud and can be counterproductive.
Figure 1-3. The reality of treating cloud as another data center
Instead, acknowledging the unique characteristics and requirements of the cloud and fully embracing these can be truly transformative. Harnessing the elasticity, scalability, and advanced security features of the cloud can lead to levels of operational efficiency, cost-effectiveness, and innovation that surpass what traditional data center environments can offer.
The cloud isn’t just an online variant of your current data center. It’s a different paradigm that demands a different approach. When navigated adeptly, it can unlock a world of opportunities far surpassing those offered by traditional infrastructure. Embrace the differences, and the cloud’s full potential is vast.