Getting the Best from Cloud Technologies

At OpenCredo we’re pleased to announce that we have recently become an Amazon Web Services (AWS) Amazon Partner Network (APN) Consulting Partner. As an APN Consulting Partner we are able to build upon our existing success within the cloud space, by gaining access to a range of AWS resources and training that we can use to help our clients create effective cloud-based applications and systems.

Migrating to the cloud

Increasingly organisations of all sizes are looking to migrate part or all of their computing workloads to the cloud, and we have worked closely alongside several companies to make this transition as smooth as possible.

OpenCredo have migrated both long-running web applications and also batch/data science workloads to a variety of cloud platforms, including AWS, and Google Cloud Platform, and have built proof-of-concept applications on Azure and DigitalOcean. We have also developed extensive experience of working with container and cluster management technologies (which often go hand-in-hand with cloud technology), and have deployed multiple systems into production using Docker, Mesos and Kubernetes.

We also appreciate the organisational challenges presented by moving to cloud. A cloud migration can be disruptive to existing responsibilities and business processes, from the increased opportunity from running experiments with a low cost of failure, to the transformation of infrastructure management roles from bare metal maintenance to ‘software-defined everything’. OpenCredo have created and implemented associated cloud migration strategies, working closely with the entire organisation, from the C-level to the front-line applications makers and support teams.

Building ‘cloud native’ applications

Building applications upon cloud technologies provides massive opportunities in comparison with deploying software upon traditional infrastructure, but with great freedom comes great responsibility. We have talked extensively at conferences about the challenges faced with creating an effective ‘antifragile’ architecture, the need for investing up-front in automation, more effective testing practices, and continuous integration/continuous delivery pipelines and processes.

When working with clients that are developing new applications specifically targeted at the cloud, we often see the temptation to ‘lift and shift’ practices (and sometimes entire applications!), which results in suboptimal benefits. A change in thinking is often required.

OpenCredo have worked alongside many development and operation teams within a range of organisation, and provided technical leadership and coaching on a variety of related topics including ‘cloud native’/antifragile architecture, effective (micro)service-based architecture, event-driven applications, programmatic infrastructure, and infrastructure observation strategies and tactics (including metrics, monitoring, logging and alerting).

Leveraging the AWS offerings

Whether you are migrating to the cloud or creating a greenfield project, the AWS platform and tool chain has a lot to offer. From their core Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) offering, to their latest ‘serverless’ AWS Lambda technology, and everything in-between that covers database-as-a-service, data warehousing (and analytics/business intelligence), desktop virtualisation and mobile app testing.

With so many interesting AWS products and solutions available to the end-user, we often work with clients in helping them to understand their requirements and goals (increasing innovation, speeding delivery cycle times, or cost-saving), and them help them map our findings onto the AWS offerings.

We are always happy to offer advice

We are always keen to chat with prospective clients and people within the community, and you can often find us at one of the many London-based technology meetups. Please do get in contact if you would like to discuss your cloud migration requirements, or are looking for advice and training on how to build applications that not only work-well in the cloud, but also take advantage of everything that this platform offers.

Email us at info@opencredo.com or phone +44 (0)20 3603 2680