Cloud Governance Consulting

Cloud governance is an iterative process. For organizations with existing policies that govern on-premises IT environments, cloud governance should complement those policies. The level of corporate policy integration between on-premises and the cloud varies depending on cloud governance maturity and the nature of the digital estate in the cloud. As the cloud estate changes over time, so do cloud governance processes and policies.

Often when organizations start off moving to cloud, its done organically rather than planned and therefore little to no thought is given to how the platform will be governed. At Data Engineers we understand this and can help you along your journey so that its becomes a natural part of your cloud experience.

Cloud governance is a complex topic that may prove daunting for startup businesses, especially if this is your first time looking into cloud adoption. 

Cloud Governance Best Practices

Identity & Access Management

You might know what resources and data you have, but you also need to know who can access it. Identity and access management helps you govern user policies and protect against unauthorized access.

For smaller organizations, that's more straightforward. You might be able to manage all users through your cloud account management portal but for larger organizations it's a bit more complicated for, which typically want to tie cloud authentication back to an authentication and directory service like Microsoft Active Directory or utilize external consultants or contractors to help them enhance their offereings.

The bottom line is that you need to define and manage individual roles, authorizations and privileges so each user is limited to the data, applications and functionality they need to do their jobs.

Utilizing Cloud Native features such as Azure Management Groups, Azure Policies and Privilege Identity Management allows organizations to create the security 

Cost Management

If you don't keep an eye on your resources, data and permissions, your cloud costs can easily spin out of control. Unused applications accidentally left running, an overprovisioned instance and unused storage volumes all run up unnecessarily high cloud bills. To complicate matters, cloud billing can be complex, especially if you use multiple cloud services.

In respects to cloud governance, you should establish internal policies and processes that ensure your infrastructural expenses translate directly towards value for the company. For example, you want to avoid having no cost management guardrails while initiating a cloud migration, such as overspending on a dizzying array of solutions. 

You need a way to track, analyze and budget cloud spend, utilizing the cloud service's billing interface 3rd party tools so you are able to understand how the entire organization uses cloud resources so you can develop a strategy to reduce spend or make better use of the resources you're paying for.

Resource Consistency

How is the day-to-day management of your operation managed? Are there weak spots ripe for targeting by cyber threats or even a disgruntled worker with sensitive data access? Ensuring resource consistency – resources implying everything from hardware to software and the individuals using and maintaining it – is extremely important in this regard.

Having something as simple as naming conventions or tagging policies in-place can save users a lot of time when looking for resources and utilizing infrastructure as code tools such as ARM templates to Terraform your policies and management processes can be streamlined to ensure naming conventions, default monitoring, security implementations can be achieved across your cloud environment.

Deployment Acceleration

Cloud and AI go hand in hand, and there’s no reason to shrug off the many benefits associated with automated solutions. The best deployment acceleration strategy for your startup business is one that capitalizes on proven technical innovations, reduced process bloat, and automation templates that make life better for you and your employees. These should all be focused primarily on where you want your business to be and whether employees will want to make full use of what’s made available to them. Otherwise, should you prioritize outright control with an iron grip, you may miss out on refinements and improvements that could benefit your team.