9 Signs You Need Help With Cloud Infrastructure Management
Introduction
Managing cloud technology can be complicated, but there are some issues that you need to address quickly. Read on to see if professional assistance in managing cloud infrastructure could benefit your IT needs.
1. You feel like you're always putting out fires
If you're constantly dealing with problems, it's time to get some help. The more responsibilities you have and the longer you've been in your job, the harder it can be to keep track of everything that needs to be done. Eventually, things start falling through the cracks—or worse yet, they get so big that they cause other problems.
If this sounds familiar, consider hiring someone who specializes in cloud infrastructure management so you don't have to worry about those issues anymore!
2. You know that there are better solutions, but you don't have the time or expertise to implement them
If you’re looking to upgrade your cloud infrastructure management strategy, but aren’t sure where to begin, there are a few telltale signs that it might be time for an outside expert. Here’s what they are:
- You know that there are better solutions, but don’t have the time or expertise to implement them.
If you find yourself mulling over the idea of replacing your current cloud infrastructure management software (or hiring someone else to do so), this is a good sign that it's time for an upgrade. If any of these statements apply to you, chances are good that implementing new software will be more cost-effective than hiring in-house talent:
- You can't afford to take away from your core business by taking on more responsibilities. If your business model relies heavily on automation and self-service functionality, outsourcing implementation may be just what it takes to keep up with demand while maintaining quality control over system changes and updates.
3. Staff is spending too much time on infrastructure maintenance and not enough time on product development
Often the first sign that you need help managing your cloud infrastructure is when your employees are spending too much time on maintenance and not enough time on product development.
If you are spending too much time on maintenance, your team will have less time to innovate and create new products for customers. And if they’re spending too much time developing new products, then that means they won’t be able to keep up with the day-to-day operations of their infrastructure and its ability to scale with demand from new customers.
4. Infrastructure keeps breaking down, costing you money and hurting your reputation
If you’re constantly having to deal with infrastructure problems, it can be a serious drain on your time and budget. If you don’t have the expertise to fix these issues yourself, then it will cost more money to hire someone else. And if you don’t fix the problem quickly enough, your systems may go down or become unreliable. Losing service is bad for business no matter what industry you're in: downtime is costly and can lead to lost sales or unhappy customers.
If this sounds like what's happening at your company right now, then maybe it's time for some help with cloud infrastructure management!
5. It's hard to get reliable support from your current service provider
If you're finding it hard to get reliable support from your current service provider, it's time to look for a new one.
The first step is to find a new service provider that can meet your needs and be available when you need them.
To do this, look for an integrator who will:
- Meet with you face-to-face or over the phone to discuss what their services entail and how they'll work with your team (the right partner will be happy to do so)
- Provide a quote outlining what they can do for you and how much it will cost (the right partner will be able to provide such information without hesitation)
- Send an invoice that reflects the exact terms agreed upon during the initial meeting (the right partner will honor those terms)
6. The cloud infrastructure management tools that you have aren't providing all the data you need
If you aren't getting all the information that you need out of your cloud infrastructure management tool, it might be time to switch tools. That's because there are a few important things that any good cloud infrastructure management tool should have.
First and foremost, it needs to be able to collect data from all of the different sources in your environment. This means monitoring server logs and other sources, but also going deeper than just basic systems monitoring—you want the ability to analyze log files for specific keywords or other patterns or anomalies. A good tool will also provide visualizations for this data so that you can see what's happening in real-time without having to dig through log files manually (or worse: only analyzing them after an issue has already occurred).
7. Your monitoring tools aren't helping identify problems before customers notice them
Most monitoring tools can help identify problems before customers notice them. If you're noticing a pattern of long-running apps or high CPU usage on your servers, then that's a problem your monitoring tool should be able to pick up on.
The same goes for disk space and RAM usage—if your server is low on disk space, or if it's running out of memory, the monitoring tool should catch that issue early in the process before it becomes serious or expensive.
8. Your users keep complaining about slow performance
- Performance is an important part of a cloud infrastructure.
- If your users are complaining about slow performance, it’s time to look into the problem.
- Here are some tips on how to fix the problem:
- Make sure you have enough resources available in your account so that no one resource gets overused or overloaded by requests from users. You can do this by setting up limits for specific resources (for example, CPU limit and storage limit). A good limit would be about 80% of what you need for regular usage; anything more than that will likely cause problems with performance when lots of people access the same resource at once.
- Monitor resource utilization using tools like CloudWatch Metrics or DataDog—these will let you see which parts of your environment are experiencing high usage so that if necessary, an action can be taken before things get too bad!
9. Significant security issues have arisen in the last twelve months
If you’re concerned about the security of your cloud infrastructure, it may be time to turn to an expert. Cloud infrastructure management is a complex topic that requires technical expertise. There are many things to consider when it comes to securing your network:
- How do you manage passwords?
- What kind of firewall protection do you have in place?
- Are there any gaps in your monitoring and alerting processes?
Security is a process, not a product. It's important not only that there are no known or exploitable vulnerabilities in your systems and applications, but also that there aren't any unknown ones either (the so-called "unknown unknowns"). While technology plays an important role in protecting networks from external threats, it doesn't solve all problems by itself—people will always be one of the biggest challenges when it comes to maintaining data integrity.
Cloud technology sometimes requires professional help to work properly and efficiently
To use cloud technology effectively, you need to understand its strengths and weaknesses, and how to implement it within your organization.
You also need the right skills, expertise and team of people in place to do so.
One of the biggest challenges with cloud is that it can require a different set of skills than traditional networking and infrastructure management. It's not just about having good engineers who know how to manage physical servers anymore; now there are new skill sets required for managing virtualized environments in addition to traditional ones like security or customer service management systems (SMS).
Another issue is that there are many different types of clouds available today—public clouds run by third parties such as Amazon Web Services (AWS) or Microsoft Azure; private clouds running in-house on your own hardware; hybrid scenarios where part of your infrastructure sits on-premises while another part lives in the cloud—so choosing which type(s) would be best will depend on several factors such as: what kind(s) of computing power do you need right now? How much money can you afford spending upfront? What kind(s) services do they offer? How much control over security/privacy would you prefer having versus giving up control over access rights when using someone else's data center?
Conclusion
We understand—we’ve been there.
It can feel overwhelming to deal with all these issues, especially when you’re trying to lead a company rather than being chained to your desk by a never-ending list of small tasks. The great thing about the digital world is that there are people out there who have already solved many of the problems you face, and they’re willing to help you solve them too.
Don’t be afraid to reach out and ask questions—you might be surprised at just how much better your daily life can be.