7 things to consider when choosing your IaaS provider for ISV/SaaS

So many clouds7 things to consider when choosing your

IaaS provider

Sirris IaaS breakfast 2014/02/11

http://skyscrape.rs@skyscrapers@fdenkens

● 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

We ...

● 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

Small disclaimer ...

<irony> How to choose </irony>

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?

Based on … first impressions?

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?

The safe choice?

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.

Or maybe not?

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.

Oooh, it has lot’s of shiny knobs and lights!

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.

So … how to choose?

Make an inventory

● Inventorise your workloads ● See what they need in terms of scalability, flexibility,

availability, security, async/sync, etc

Make an inventory

➔ Allows you to do an initial matching to the offering of each provider

➔ Required homework for the next steps

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

Your software delivery process

➔ Will allow you to know how important the IaaS-providers’ automation possibilities (API’s, etc) are to you.

How is your software architected?

● Does it depend on underlying layers (infra/os/storage) to handle challenges around scalability, availability and security?

How is your software architected?

➔ 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.)

● or at the other of the spectrum: is it a true cloud design? (designed for failure, loosely coupled, built for scale, …)

How is your software architected?

➔ 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.)

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-to-

market, better built, higher QoS● (Risk of lock-in: business decision, not emotional)

How much wheels (are you inventing?)

➔ Consider the richness of services each IaaS provider offers (and how far they move up in the PaaS stack)

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)?

Compliance and regulation

➔ Might be a reason to go for an EU or regional company

➔ Consider their certifications

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.

Where are your customers?

➔ Check out your providers coverage and network

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

Cost model and control

➔ 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.

Where to next?

To the cloud! (Mandatory cloud image)

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

It’s a voyage

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

It’s a mindset

Make a choice

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.

And evolve

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.

The main benefit of IaaS, agility

Contact us if you want help in making the right choice.

Thank you.

http://skyscrape.rs@skyscrapers@fdenkens