Whitepapers

Introduction

You might be surprised to know that migrating to the cloud is only half the journey. Once you have migrated to the cloud, there are important decisions such as how to improve, add, and optimize workloads. These decisions can be challenging, especially if you’re facing resource constraints or need to focus on other priorities. Leveraging Managed Solutions will accelerate your cloud journey by providing operational flexibility, enhanced security and compliance, and save you money.

Migrating to the cloud is only half the journey—there are important decisions such as how to improve, add, and optimize workloads.

Managed Solutions

Managed Solutions help you operate your AWS infrastructure more efficiently and securely. Leveraging services and a growing library of automations, configurations, and run books, Managed Solutions can augment and optimize your operational capabilities in both new and existing AWS environments. Whether you’re just getting started, migrating a datacenter, or building optimized solutions in the cloud, ongoing operational excellence is a critical component to success in the cloud.

Managed Solutions can help augment your cloud operations skills and experience as a short-term accelerator or long-term solution, letting you focus on transforming your applications and business in the cloud. Managed Solutions provide you with operational flexibility, enhances security and compliance, and will help you optimize capacity and take action on identified cost savings. Managed Solutions provide a consistent operating model for your entire AWS fleet leveraging detective guardrails, monitoring, security, and incident management best practices for both traditional and modernized workloads.

Benefits

Operational Flexibility

Managed Solutions provide you with flexibility in selecting the right level of operations assistance, whether you are migrating to the cloud or just need extra help with monitoring, incidents, or patch management. AWS cloud experts like Cloudnexa are deeply integrated with AWS service teams and work alongside your existing operations team to provide proven operational assistance.

Enhanced Security and Compliance

Managed Solutions build and maintain a growing repository of compliance, operational, and security guardrails that help keep you aligned with your controls. Managed Solutions reduce the burden of meeting compliance program requirements (HIPAA, HITRUST, GDPR, SOC, NIST, ISO, PCI, FedRAMP) through automated detection automations. Managed Solutions help you implement a compliance framework and leverage compliance monitoring.

AWS regularly achieves third-party validation for thousands of global compliance requirements to help you meet security and compliance standards for finance, retail, healthcare, government, and more. You inherit the latest security controls operated by AWS, strengthening your own compliance and certification programs, while also receiving access to tools you can use to reduce your cost and time to run your own specific security assurance requirements.

Cost Optimization

Managed Solutions customers have enjoyed up to 30% in operational savings and up to 25% in AWS infrastructure savings.

Managed Solutions help with financial and capacity optimization across your AWS estate, and any savings identified reduces your Managed Solutions fee without impacting operational outcomes or security. Managed Solutions customers have enjoyed up to 30% in operational savings and up to 25% in AWS infrastructure savings while also improving operational SLAs, security, and compliance posture. Managed Solutions also provides a flexible, consumption-based pricing model and month-to-month contracting. Pay for what you use and take back operational control when you are ready.

Keys to Success

There are key success components for Managed Solutions. These include Cloud Architect Manager Services, a Shared Responsibility Model, and Trusted Advice.

Cloud Architect Managers

Cloud Architect Managers are AWS experts that work closely with clients and become an extension of the client development team and engineering teams. CAMs are certified, senior engineers and are a strategic, technical resource. CAMs have experience and established best practices and understand the best way to approach AWS architecture, deployment, and enhancements.

Clients should create a yearly roadmap with CAMs and meet with clients weekly to review any critical items that need corrected and will deliver hands-on service once clients have approved the approach. CAMs also map out a value journey with clients to ensure long-term success. CAMs fill the gap between AWS’s Enterprise Support Agreement and client needs.

CAMs accelerate your pathway to realizing full value of the cloud and help you achieve faster maturity. CAMs enable you to quickly scale and adapt your cloud deployment to support your needs as you grow.

Enterprise CAMs are a higher-level service that offers a longer-term commitment and project-based work. Enterprise CAMs are based on a recurring model and help create a work-back plan. They work with clients and create appropriate milestones and deliverables to achieve long-term goals.

Shared Responsibility Model

Leveraging a Shared Responsibility Model identifies the teamwork between you, AWS, and partners like Cloudnexa when it comes to your data security. A Shared Responsibility Model makes it easy to understand your choices for protecting your unique AWS environment and provides you with access to resources that can help you implement end-to-end security quickly and easily. An example of Cloudnexa’s Shared Responsibility Model is show below.

The Shared Responsibility Model empowers you with the clarity, flexibility, and control you need to build on the cloud with the utmost confidence.

A Shared Responsibility Model delivers significant value by freeing up engineering teams from day-to-day maintenance and management and enabling teams to become more strategic, focusing on more important priorities and business growth.

Trusted Advice

When considering managed versus unmanaged environments, the main difference is that Managed Solutions provide trusted advice based on experience and best practices to avoid mistakes and potential issues. Trusted advisors like Cloudnexa help clients avoid common mistakes such as:

• Establishing an incorrect architecture or one that does not follow best practices.
• Creating security vulnerability.
• Not planning for growth.
• Establishing improper SLAs (need to be 24/7).

These mistakes can be costly and lead to more issues and a slower resolution time. Leveraging trusted advice through Managed Solutions will save you money and time.

For an example of Cloudnexa’s Managed Solutions, read our case study on BlueBin

Accelerate your journey by contacting us!