Among the most sweeping IT innovations of the past decade has been the shift toward modular, composable software architectures, such as those that power microservices applications. By breaking software into discrete pieces that organizations could develop and deploy independently, modular architectures boosted efficiency and reliability.
Today, forward-thinking IT leaders are realizing that composability isn’t just for applications. The same concept can apply to the way businesses consume cloud services and resources. A modular, composable cloud architecture injects another layer of efficiency and scalability into IT operations.
However, composable cloud architectures also introduce challenges in areas like compliance, governance, and security. As with any major innovation, it’s important for CIOs to ensure that their organizations are prepared to engineer a balanced approach that enables maximum benefits while keeping potential drawbacks in check.
This article provides guidance on how to take full advantage of modular cloud architectures without creating undue challenges by explaining the following:
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What a modular cloud architecture entails.
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How to plan and implement a modular cloud architecture.
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Best practices for maximizing the business agility that a modular cloud strategy unlocks.
What is a Modular Cloud Architecture?
A modular cloud architecture is one that makes a variety of discrete cloud services available on demand. The services are hosted across multiple cloud platforms, and different units within the business can pick and choose among specific services to meet their needs.
As an example of a modular cloud architecture in practice, imagine a scenario where one of the software development teams inside an organization wants to use cloud servers hosted on Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) to test and deploy applications. Another team prefers Azure virtual machines, the Azure equivalent of EC2. A modular cloud architecture would make this possible by enabling each team to use its preferred cloud server service, as opposed to requiring everyone to deploy the same service because the organization supports only one.
Going further, modular clouds also enable the side-by-side use of services from different cloud platforms. For example, the development team that uses EC2 cloud server instances to test and deploy apps might want to use Azure Pipelines (a hosted CI/CD service in the Azure cloud) for the development process. Under a modular cloud architecture, this would be possible.
Modular Cloud vs. Hybrid Cloud and Multicloud
At first glance, modular cloud may sound like a new name for more traditional cloud strategies — namely, hybrid and multicloud. In actuality, these are distinct concepts:
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A hybrid cloud architecture allows an organization to integrate on-premises or private cloud solutions with services from one or more public cloud providers. However, this doesn’t necessarily mean that the services are composable or modular in the sense that they are able to operate independently of each other. Nor does a hybrid cloud usually provide multiple selections of the same type of cloud service.
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A multicloud architecture entails the use of two or more cloud platforms simultaneously. Unlike modular cloud, however, multicloud doesn’t usually allow for different parts of an organization to use cloud services from discrete providers side-by-side. It usually simply means that different teams use different cloud platforms, with each team relying wholly on whichever platform it chooses.
In short, modular, composable cloud architectures provide greater choice and flexibility than either hybrid or multicloud with regard to how an organization consumes cloud services.
The Business Benefits of Modular Clouds
The choice and flexibility that arise from a modular, composable cloud leads to key business benefits, including the following:
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Faster innovation. When teams can select whichever cloud services make most sense for their needs, preferences and use cases, they can build and deploy solutions faster. For instance, rather than having to learn a new cloud service because it’s the only one available within an enterprise, developers could select the solutions they already know well.
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Cloud cost optimization. When properly managed (we’ll say more about this in a moment), a modular cloud helps keep cloud spending in check by allowing teams to use the most cost-efficient solutions for their needs.
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Freedom from lock-in. The more liberty that business units possess to choose from among a variety of composable cloud solutions, the less likely the organization is to become dependent on any single vendor or service.
Managing the Challenges of Modular Cloud Architectures
With these benefits come some distinct challenges.
At a high level, the main challenge stemming from a modular cloud architecture is that it adds complexity to an organization’s cloud strategy. The more cloud services the CIO makes available, the harder it becomes to ensure that everyone is using them in a secure, efficient, cost-effective way.
This is why a pivot toward a modular cloud strategy must be accompanied by governance and management practices that keep these challenges in check. Specifically, IT leaders should consider the following four best practices:
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Define clear policies about cloud service adoption: Rather than leaving it to business units to decide entirely on their own which cloud services to use, establish guidelines laying out which services are acceptable for which use cases. For instance, the organization might deem that a certain cloud service may be used for hosting applications that do not manage sensitive data, while also stating that, due to compliance or security risks, the same service can’t be used for applications that handle financial data or PII.
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Use cloud-agnostic tooling for governance and security. When a business uses a variety of cloud services from multiple providers, relying on each provider’s native tooling to enforce governance and security rules becomes messy fast. A better approach is to use third-party solutions (such as infrastructure as code tools that work across clouds) to define and enforce governance and security policies.
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Granularly track cloud spending: Monitoring the costs of cloud services is critical for keeping costs in check, no matter which cloud architecture an organization uses. But it becomes even more vital for businesses with a modular cloud strategy. Cost-tracking should ensure that the central IT organization knows which cloud services each business unit is using and what those services cost. With this insight, IT leaders can identify and correct cost inefficiencies on a business unit-by-unit basis.
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Review and adjust cloud service offerings regularly: Cloud platforms are dynamic, meaning they are always updating their menu of services and features. To keep up with this constant change, modular cloud strategies should evolve regularly. IT leaders should review currently approved cloud services to determine whether they still meet compliance, governance, and security needs. They should also assess any new services that have come online recently and consider whether adding them to the business’s suite of cloud solutions would benefit the organization.
Taking a Cue from Platform Engineering
As they work to ensure that the business can consume a wide selection of cloud services efficiently and securely, IT leaders may take inspiration from a practice known as platform engineering, which has grown in popularity in recent years. Platform engineering is the establishment of approved IT solutions that a business’s internal users can access on a self-service basis, usually via a type of portal known as an internal developer platform.
Historically, organizations have used platform engineering primarily to provide software developers with access to development tools and environments, not to manage cloud services. But the same sort of approach could help to streamline access to modular, composable cloud solutions. To do this, the IT organization selects the cloud services it wants its teams to be able to use, then makes them available through enterprise cloud accounts using preconfigured settings that conform with governance, compliance, and security needs. The built-in configurations can also help to ensure interoperability between cloud services, particularly those hosted on different platforms (which often don’t integrate with other out-of-the-box as easily as services offered by the same cloud provider).
With an approach like this, it becomes practical to unlock the agility benefits of modular cloud architectures while minimizing risk — which is exactly what IT leaders should strive to do as they look for ways to get even more value out of the cloud.
