Wrong cloud architecture design for startups
In case of an unsuccessful choice of cloud services for a specific purpose or incorrect configuration, they may cause inconvenience, become a source of productivity problems, have security flaws, inflated tariffs, vendor lock-in issues, and much more. Such problems are often the result of mistakes in the design of startup cloud architecture and can become the cause of various challenging situations at inconvenient moments. Here are some common mistakes in cloud infrastructure design that we have encountered in our practice:
Lack of early consulting on bad ideas and risky actions. Consulting at an early stage of startup development is important, and cost-effective, helps to avoid architectural mistakes in advance, and develops a strategy for its development.
Lack of documentation: This leads to problems during troubleshooting and confusion when new team members are involved. This can create either architectural flaws or problems during updates, destabilizing the application. Responsible documentation management helps avoid unforeseen complications in infrastructure operation, and during updates and code growth, its operation becomes more predictable and controlled.
Ignoring best practices in security when using cloud architecture elements. At the early stages of development, security issues often have a lower priority in favor of, for example, quick release, and many underestimate the risks associated with failing to follow the best practices of infrastructure security. Security flaws may remain in the architecture itself, and fixing them will take much more time and effort compared to planned security measures before the development process starts.
Vendor lock-in: To deploy their service faster and make a profit, startups often use the unique advantages, services, and features of specific cloud providers. However, relying on the unique service of a single cloud service provider is very risky, as you may encounter its limitations or pricing conditions. It is important to design your architecture so that it doesn’t depend on a specific service provider, and it can be easily migrated to other providers. Using containerization and orchestration tools like Kubernetes, which are supported by all major cloud providers, is a widespread and successful solution for storing, deploying, and running code.
Not using managed services: Startups try to manage everything on their own, creating non-standard and complex configurations. However, cloud providers offer a wide range of typical managed SaaS services that are suitable for most tasks, simplify work, reduce costs, and increase reliability. When using cloud credits, you have favorable conditions for resource usage and the opportunity to test all the necessary tools and fine-tune and test your configuration. It’s better to choose services that have analogs from different providers, so you won’t have problems in case of migration.
Feel free to add to this list with your comments or share your experience. In the next posts, we plan to expand the list of common pain points for cloud service clients and ways to address them. Don’t miss our publications, subscribe, and stay informed about interesting solutions and best DevOps practices.
