Understanding Cloud Provisioning

After you make your decision to migrate your solutions to the cloud, you must determine how to best move your resources to the cloud. In Chapter 13, “Migrating to the Cloud,” you will examine specifics you should consider as you plan for and implement your cloud migration. Cloud provisioning is the process of establishing a cloud resource for use. To provision a cloud server, for example, you may need to spin up a virtual server within Amazon, Google, or Azure and then begin to configure that system for use. Likewise, when your application scales, you may need to provision additional servers as they come online. You should consider several common things when you provision a solution:

• Who will perform the provisioning?

• Will you perform the provisioning in advance or just-in-time?

• Are you provisioning a physical or virtual server?

• What is the required system configuration (CPU processors, RAM, network bandwidth and configuration, disk storage)?

• What are the security requirements and how will you satisfy them?

• Can you automate the provisioning using infrastructure as code (IaC)?

• What are the metrics you must monitor?

• Will the provision result in or add to cloud sprawl, which is the uncontrolled growth of a company’s cloud resources?