A Cloud Foundation is an organization’s strategic approach to mastering its cloud transformation. This approach has two major aspects: An organizational and a technological one. Following the Cloud Foundation approach means putting application teams at the center and providing them with a single point of access for the management of their cloud infrastructure.
💡 IT the cloud-native way: The Cloud Foundation as a central piece of a cloud strategy. An organization’s Cloud Foundation offers cloud as a commodity for the software application teams across the organization. Providing a Cloud Foundation is an organizational and technological approach to managing the cloud. Its goal is to enable teams to build in the cloud and accelerate an organization’s software delivery.
A Cloud Foundation is the interface for application teams to everything they need to focus on shipping and running software in the cloud.
# The Cloud Foundation Team
The organizational part of a Cloud Foundation is a central cross-functional cloud team. It is effectively the team that pioneers and paves the way that is used by application teams to safely travel to and navigate the cloud. The Cloud Foundation Team defines guardrails but the application teams can keep up agility within these limits.
The most important roles within a Cloud Foundation Team are:
Enterprise Architects
Platform Engineers and Operators
Security & Governance Stakeholders
Of course establishing a Cloud Foundation Team is not all it takes to transform an organization. Culture plays a significant role as classical IT roles move from building and managing infrastructure to enabling other teams to do so.
Visualize Cloud Foundation responsibilities in your organization
Use our template to understand relevant roles and easily build your own Cloud Stakeholder Map.
Download Cloud Stakeholder Map →# The Cloud Foundation Platform
No matter how an organization decides to implement its cloud governance, it always needs to cover the following functional pillars:
🗂 Tenant Managementopen in new window:Manage provisioning, configuration and lifecycle of cloud environments (e.g. AWS Accounts). This is often an original responsibility of cloud foundation teams that requires internal alignment between platform specialists.
🔐 IAMopen in new window:Provide Identity and Access management capabilities for all available cloud platforms and services. Needs alignment with Enterprise IAM stakeholders.
🔖 Security & Complianceopen in new window:Provide capabilities for governing workloads and enforcing security guidelines across all available cloud platforms and services. Interfaces with IT Security and Compliance stakeholders.
💵 Cost Managementopen in new window:Provide cost management and chargeback capabilities for all available cloud platforms and services. Interfaces with Finance/Controlling stakeholders.
🛠 Service Ecosystemopen in new window:Provide managed services that help teams build and operate application on the cloud faster and more efficiently (e.g. on-prem connectivity). Interfaces with internal or external teams providing these services.
The Cloud Foundation Team needs a Cloud Foundation Platform to centrally integrate all these aspects of cloud governance for all cloud platforms. The goal is to leverage the potential of the cloud and move away from the operating methods of traditional IT.
# Why Build a Cloud Foundation?
# Because IT Capabilities Spread out through the Organization
Digitization used to be the realm of IT. So IT was done for IT. A logical consequence was to divide IT according to the functional pillars. Nowadays, however, digitization affects every division, department and team of a company.
Product teams develop new digital offerings to address market needs
Digital solutions improve internal processes varying from Sales and HR to the management of production plants or supply chains
Large amounts of collected data are analyzed and processed to gain insights that nurture organizations’ development
It follows that IT must also offer its services to everybody in the company. The demand for IT infrastructure from all over the organization is expected to reach a scale that risks to become a huge bottleneck.
There are now software developers in almost every specialist department. To meet their demands, IT must find its new role and move from building to enabling.
Explore a Team's Journey
Explore an application team's journey to the cloud powered by a capable cloud foundation in our in-depth example.
Explore the Journey →# Because Cloud Means Doing Things Fundamentally Differently
What the cloud enables is fundamentally changing the tasks of the IT department. IT used to be centralized, installing systems centrally in the data center. This centralization leads to bottlenecks.
Most companies today manage their IT as a portfolio of "IT Services". IT Services provide distinctive functionality to customers. An "IAM Group" service may allow a internal customer to create and manage a group in the business's central directory. The owner of the "IAM Group" IT service can define how customers procure, manage, and get charged for the service.
Developing and running applications in this scenario puts a lot of overhead responsibilities on the shoulders of application teams. And it grows with each cloud platform they add.
Optimizing in cloud silos can make each silo run its cloud platform perfectly, but it won't remove inefficiencies in the overall cloud transformation effort.
Global optimization is not possible in a silo structure: With a Cloud Foundation on the other hand you can optimize the entire cloud journey of your organization. TheCloud Foundationcentralizes cloud governance competencies to enable and drive the cloud journey.
With the cloud, that no longer has to be the case; system architectures can be much more decentralized. With individual cloud accounts, there is no longer a technical reason for a centralized organization.
# How to Start Building a Cloud Foundation
# New Responsibilities: From a Pyramid to a Network of Teams
To utilize the possibilities of the cloud, organizations transform from an organizational pyramid to a network of teams. With that, decisions don't have to pass through the narrow top of a pyramid inhibiting the speed the cloud provides.
Cultural mindset change takes longer than technical implementation or purchasing a tool. IT department management loses direct control in the new world because tasks and responsibilities are distributed.
In a decentralized, democratic structure more formalization is needed. And from a tooling perspective, companies need solutions that enable the network structure.
In a Cloud Foundation team boundaries and best practices can be shared better and faster leading to better platform-specific implementations.
Explore Approaches
Explore different approaches to building a cloud foundation and their pros and cons.
Explore Approaches →# Separation of Administration and Software Delivery
The Cloud Foundation approach frees application teams from integrating different functional pillars. Instead, the cloud foundation team assumes responsibility for integrating the different functional pillars. Like the service offering of a cloud provider, the cloud foundation enables application teams to provision and manage cloud services from a single organizational capability and leverage a consistent control plane offering API-driven self-service, IAM, and billing.
# The Cloud Foundation as the Holistic Journey to the Cloud
To achieve integration between the different pillars, the Cloud Foundation team implements capabilities like aMulti-Cloud Tenant Databaseopen in new windowandFederated Identity and Authenticationopen in new window. To provideOn-Premise Network Connectionopen in new window, the team provides an API-driven service that orchestrates provisioning an IP range from IPAM and then setting it up on AWS Transit Gateway.
Of course, building a cloud foundation is a challenging task. It can involve interesting technical challenges that allow an organization to achieve a high degree of automation that compares favorably to public services. However, achieving full-service automation is not required for adopting the cloud foundation as an organizational approach. The key to its success is that it absorbs responsibility for service integration and allows an organization to exercise holistic and effective cloud governance.
# About the Cloud Foundation Maturity Model
The Cloud Foundation Maturity Model is an abstraction of recurring themes in hundreds and hundreds of conversations with organizations that are on different stages of their Enterprise Cloud Journey. It captures the capabilities that organizations need to build in order to succeed at empowering application teams with access to cloud infrastructure and services while staying in control.
The Cloud Foundation Maturity Model isimplementation agnostic. While meshcloud initially created the model and offers a Cloud Foundation Platform, the model is concerned with “what capabilities are offered” and not “how are they implemented”.
Explore the Cloud Foundation Maturity Model
Get the full picture of where you are and the road ahead with the more than 50 building blocks.
Download Free Poster → Explore the Building Blocks →# Finding Your Way around the Maturity Model
In the Cloud Foundation Maturity Model capabilities are called building blocks. The term “building block” emphasizes, that building a cloud foundation is a matter of putting together the right blocks (think LEGO) out of the variety of blocks that you could use. The essence of a building block is laid out inWhat is a Building Blockopen in new window.
The model also captures how building blocks relate to each other. They are clustered in pillars of functionality like Tenant Management or IAM, can have dependencies (e.g. building a capability on top of another), and are assigned a “journey stage” that helps cloud foundation teams identify the capabilities that are relevant to them right now.
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FAQs
What is cloud foundation build? ›
Build Cloud Foundations is a foundation solution that combines AWS services with experience gained from hundreds of enterprise cloud projects to extend the value of AWS with improved automation, best-practice security, and increased manageability.
What is the role of cloud foundation? ›The Cloud Foundation aims to help you determine what your cloud architecture should look like for workloads deployed to Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI). The Cloud Foundation has been developed by Oracle so that you can leverage the benefit of our experience in moving thousands of workloads to Oracle Cloud.
What is Google Cloud Foundation? ›The Cloud Foundation Toolkit provides a series of reference templates for Deployment Manager and Terraform which reflect Google Cloud best practices. These templates can be used off-the-shelf to quickly build a repeatable enterprise-ready foundation in Google Cloud.
What is the full form of AWS? ›Amazon Web Services (AWS) is the world's most comprehensive and broadly adopted cloud, offering over 200 fully featured services from data centers globally.
What are the key components of a cloud foundation? ›VMware #Cloud Foundation is comprised of several key components, including vSphere, vSAN, NSX, and SDDC Manager. vSphere is a virtualization platform that provides the foundation for building and managing virtualized environments.
Is cloud Architect worth IT? ›Yes, the Google Certified Professional Cloud Architect Exam is indeed a good value addition. Many IT companies are overhauling teams for better and resource-proficient cloud technologies.
What are the four primary benefits of using cloud services? ›- Faster time to market. You can spin up new instances or retire them in seconds, allowing developers to accelerate development with quick deployments. ...
- Scalability and flexibility. ...
- Cost savings. ...
- Better collaboration. ...
- Advanced security. ...
- Data loss prevention.
The mission of the CNCF is to create and drive adoption of a new computing paradigm, cloud native computing.
What is cloud foundation in Azure? ›The Microsoft Azure Cloud Foundation Accelerator assists clients in the design and implementation of a secure, scalable and operationally ready Azure environment to meet their unique business and technical requirements.
How much does Google Cloud certification cost? ›Are Google Cloud Platform Certifications Free? No. You pay a fee to register for a Google Cloud Certification. The registration fee for Associate Certification is $125, while Professional Certifications go for $200.
What is the difference between Google and cloud? ›
Ultimately, it comes down to what you're looking for in a storage solution. Google Drive is a no-brainer if you're an individual or a small business needing an easy-to-use and affordable option to store your files. However, for organizations – whether big or small – it's best to opt for Google Cloud Storage.
Is Google Cloud certification free? ›Types of Google Cloud certifications and cost. While taking the Google Cloud certification training courses on Coursera for 30 days is free, the exams carry fees ranging from $99 for the lowest level certificate (Cloud Digital Leader) to $200 for the Professional levels.
Can I learn AWS on my own? ›Is it possible to learn AWS without prior IT experience? Yes. Without an IT background or degree, it is possible to learn AWS and become certified if the necessary training hours are accomplished. This article will answer all of your questions on how to become AWS certified without IT expertise.
What is AWS for beginners? ›AWS EC2 is a cloud computing service that enables customers to launch, run, and terminate applications on Amazon Web Services. It provides a platform for building, deploying, and scaling web applications.
What is AWS vs Azure? ›Key Differences Between AWS and Azure
AWS provides temporary storage that is assigned when an instance is launched and destroyed when it is terminated. In contrast, Azure provides temporary storage via block storage with page Blobs for VMs and Block Blobs for object storage.
Compute, Networking, and Storage, are the pillars of cloud computing platforms, and Azure is no different.
What are the 4 components of cloud? ›- A frontend platform.
- A backend platform.
- A cloud-based delivery model.
- A network (internet, intranet, or intercloud)
Cloud infrastructure consists of servers, storage devices, network, cloud management software, deployment software, and platform virtualization.
Why are cloud architects paid so much? ›Cloud Architect's Responsibilities
A Cloud Architect is known to be proficient in building data communication for organizations. This is a very important and specialized job that requires authenticity, skill, and proprietary information when done. So, Cloud Architects demand a higher salary.
- Cloud Solutions Architect. Salary range: $128,000-$192,500 per year. ...
- Cloud Infrastructure Architect. Salary range: $137,500-$179,000 per year. ...
- Cloud Services Architect. ...
- Cloud Developer. ...
- OpenStack Cloud Consulting Architect. ...
- Cloud Software Engineer. ...
- Cloud Engineer. ...
- Cloud Systems Architect.
Is coding needed for cloud architect? ›
To answer your question simply- no, you will not need any in-depth coding knowledge to become an AWS cloud professional. However, coding, in general, is a necessary skill in the IT field nowadays. Even if you learn one coding language, it can help you a long way when you develop and deploy apps to the AWS cloud.
What are the 3 basic cloud services? ›- Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) ...
- Platform as a Service (PaaS) ...
- Software as a Service (SaaS)
- data loss or theft.
- data leakage.
- account or service hijacking.
- insecure interfaces and APIs.
- denial of service attacks.
- technology vulnerabilities, especially in shared environments.
There are also three main types of cloud computing services: Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS), Platforms-as-a-Service (PaaS), and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS). Choosing a cloud type or cloud service is a unique decision.
Is Kubernetes a CNCF project? ›CNCF projects are the foundation of cloud native computing
As part of the Linux Foundation, we provide support, oversight and direction for fast-growing, cloud native projects, including Kubernetes, Envoy, and Prometheus.
Google Cloud is the birthplace of Kubernetes—originally developed at Google and released as open source in 2014. Kubernetes builds on 15 years of running Google's containerized workloads and the valuable contributions from the open source community.
How many CNCF projects are there? ›Today, CNCF has over 850 participating organizations, including the world's largest public and private cloud companies, along with the world's most innovative software companies and end user organizations.
What is multi cloud foundation? ›The multi-cloud foundation is the basis of SAP BTP, which through its multi-cloud compatibility, lets you choose from different infrastructures, environments, and runtimes. It comprises three different environments: The Cloud Foundry environment, the Kyma environment, and the ABAP environment.
What is cloud build vs deploy? ›Cloud Build's mission is to help GCP users build better software faster, more securely by providing a CI/CD workflow automation product for developer teams and other GCP services. Cloud Deploy's mission is to make it easier to set up and run continuous software delivery to a Google Kubernetes Engine environment.
Is AWS cheaper than Google Cloud? ›In addition to the world's largest networks, Google Cloud is cheaper than AWS and Azure. The bill is on minute-level increments, only charging for the computing time that is used. Depending on the instance, GCP is 25-50% cheaper than AWS.
Can Google Cloud certification get me a job? ›
Benefits of earning a Google Cloud certification
A Google Cloud Platform certification may be a job requirement for cloud-based roles such as a cloud engineer, cloud developer, data engineer, network engineer or security engineer .
Here's the thing: Cloud certifications aren't a guarantee you'll get a cloud job (much like any certificate). There's no denying they can help you jump-start your cloud career, but when it comes to landing that cloud computing job, hands-on experience is what will really make you stand out.
Which is better AWS or Google Cloud? ›Take a look at the mapping of service offerings from AWS and GCP in the domains mentioned above. AWS does provide more services than GCP but GCP has all the necessary service offerings that are required for running any business. But if you want to go on the number of services, AWS is the clear winner here.
Is AWS cloud better than Google Cloud? ›In terms of Services AWS is the clear winner, as the amount of services offered by AWS is way more than offered by GCP. Services available on AWS is extremely broad and wide. These various services are really well integrated, and they provide a very comprehensive cloud service. Learn more from the AWS Cloud Course.
Which cloud is better Microsoft or Google? ›Summary: Azure provides a well-rounded set of storage services and features, but can have a steep learning curve, especially for users without a background in Microsoft technology. Google offers fewer features but shines in storage pricing and ease of its use.
Are Google certificates worth it? ›The simple answer: Yes. These certificates are a great way to boost your resume and give you the tangible skills required for entry-level positions in these competitive fields. Google Certificates are a great choice to add skills to your resume, as: They are designed for beginners.
Where to start learning Google Cloud? ›- Developing Applications with Google Cloud Platform [Coursera] ...
- Cracking the Google Associate Cloud Engineer Certification. ...
- Introduction to Google Cloud By Lynn Langit. ...
- Machine Learning with TensorFlow on Google Cloud Platform.
A: It is a bit difficult to pass the Google Cloud Certified Professional Data Engineer exam as it is a professional level exam. And thus you require at least 15-20 hours to complete the training course and practice tests of Google Cloud Certified Professional Data Engineer exam.
Can I get into AWS with no experience? ›The answer will make you happy and encourage you to start your career as fast as you can. Amazon Web Service requires no coding. Amazon does not seek any prior experience or programming skills. In other terms, if you are eager and have confidence, then an AWS job with no experience is suitable for you.
Can I learn AWS in 3 months? ›If you are aiming for a specialty certification, I highly recommend earning your AWS Solution Architect – Associate certification first to ensure your foundational knowledge of basic AWS concepts. It took me three months with seven hours/week of study, to pass the AWS Certified Data Analytics – Specialty certification.
What is AWS certification salary? ›
AWS Solutions Architects earn an entry-level salary of $138,000 per year in the United States. In the United States, the average salary for an AWS Senior Solutions Architect is $276,000 per year.
Can I start AWS without coding knowledge? ›Coding is not always required when you work with AWS. AWS can be processed in two ways, i.e., manually or programmatically. Those who can't process AWS with code can work through a graphical user interface. Thus, several courses are available in AWS that can be learned without having #knowledge of coding.
How many days are required to learn AWS? ›Depending on how much experience you already have, it's possible to learn AWS in 3 days with our instructor-led courses comprising of 18 hours of training. If you're looking to gain AWS certification this will take a little longer, as you'll also need to prepare for the exam.
Is learning AWS hard? ›Is AWS difficult to learn? It's a steep learning curve and you'll need to understand some technology fundamentals before undertaking AWS training: Client-server technology: the relationship between a client (your laptop browser) and the server (the machine sitting on the back end receiving your browser requests)
Which cloud job has highest salary? ›- Cloud Architect. Cloud Architects are primarily responsible for planning, designing, and managing cloud environments. ...
- Cloud Developer. ...
- Cloud DevOps Engineer. ...
- AWS SysOps Administrator. ...
- Cloud Security Engineer. ...
- Cloud System Administrator.
Overall, both Azure and AWS offer a multitude of job opportunities for IT professionals, but when it comes to salary potential, AWS-certified IT professionals tend to earn more.
Why do companies prefer Azure over AWS? ›While Azure has more functionality in general than AWS, it is simpler to use. AWS can be complex and is known for lots of documentation, whereas Azure uses technologies that you and your users are already accustomed to using, like Windows, Active Directory and Linux, so the transition to the cloud is less obvious.
What does cloud mean in construction? ›In construction, the cloud makes getting reprints for a drawing obsolete, reduces mistakes, and streamlines collaboration.
What is the difference between cloud foundation and landing zone? ›A landing zone, also called a cloud foundation, is a modular and scalable configuration that enables organizations to adopt Google Cloud for their business needs. A landing zone is often a prerequisite to deploying enterprise workloads in a cloud environment. A landing zone is not a zone or zonal resources.
What is the difference between cloud deploy and Cloud Build? ›Cloud Build's mission is to help GCP users build better software faster, more securely by providing a CI/CD workflow automation product for developer teams and other GCP services. Cloud Deploy's mission is to make it easier to set up and run continuous software delivery to a Google Kubernetes Engine environment.
What are the benefits of VMware cloud foundation? ›
VMware Cloud Foundation offers a simple path to the creation of a hybrid cloud environment by using a common platform for both private and public clouds, eliminating any problems with compatibility.
What are the 4 types of cloud project? ›4 types of cloud computing: Private, Public, Hybrid and Multicloud.
What are the three key terms of cloud? ›Although many cloud computing types exist, the three most popular ones are software as a service (SaaS) for web-based applications, infrastructure as a service (IaaS) for internet-based access to storage and computing, and platform as a service (PaaS) to give developers the tools to build and host web applications.
What are the three different types of cloud architectures? ›There are three main types of cloud architecture you can choose from: public, private, and hybrid.
Why build a cloud landing zone? ›Landing zones provide a way for organizations to set baseline parameters around things like governance and networking and then apply those parameters to new cloud environments. Without landing zones, engineering teams would have to manually configure every cloud environment before it's deployed.
What is the benefit of cloud landing zone? ›The benefit of a cloud landing zone is that a number of parameters are established initially, which determine how applications and data are used in a cloud environment. A cloud environment with a landing zone is created automatically while following best practices in the areas of security and compliance.