AWS cloud adoption offers a lot of promise, but there can be some bumps on the road as well. Knowing what to watch out for can help prevent mistakes that expose vulnerabilities and can cost you big. Here are some of the major cloud adoption pitfalls to keep in mind:
#1 Downtime don’ts
AWS is very secure, but network issues at data centers do happen. Luckily there are AWS Availability Zones to route workload across several data centers within an AWS region to reduce the risk of downtime. Distributing workloads across multiple servers can also balance workloads. Horizontal partitioning provides extra redundancy to each app stage. Redundant instances should be located in various availability zones to reduce inevitable downtime.
#2 Access uh-ohs
If we don’t restrict administrator access, we can end up giving data access to unintended parties. This is a prime opportunity for hackers to exploit valuable data and customer information. It’s important to take the right precautions before switching over to AWS. This includes verifying cloud management and security systems before transferring information. In addition to rigorously restricting physical access, securing passwords and access keys according to AWS best practices is crucial. AWS procedures regarding compromised data should be followed in the case of a breach.
#3 Certificate concerns
This big blunder is often overlooked. Certificates that expire without notice can cause major mayhem. To avoid inconvenient outages and other chaos, apply AWS Config monitoring to all AWS ACM-based certificates to alert people to expiring certificates in advance. Also enable automatic renewals for internal certificates. Limit the use of single certificates to decrease the impact of any outages. It’s all part of prioritizing certificate management before migrating to AWS, looking at how certificate will be tracked and renewed and who will issue them.
#4 Configuration chaos
Misconfigurations are a major source of attacks. Data can end up being exposed if there isn’t enough authentication needed. Misconfiguring network functionality or providing system users with too much access can also be a vulnerability, as are exposed passwords and keys. Misconfigured APIs are also at the root of many breaches. This is where change management practices come in. It’s essential that this receives due attention, and that multiple people are charged with looking at what is configured and how to manage risk.
#5 High priced hiccups
While AWS delivers cost-effective infrastructure and services, it’s common for organizations to underestimate costs while evaluating services. AWS users don’t always keep track of their capacity utilization, which impacts the cost. They wind up underutilizing AWS services which they are billed for. Using AWS EC2 reserved instances reduces application computation expenses. Careful tracking of what resources are used avoids unnecessary costs. AWS Trusted Advisor can be used to keep track of AWS charges.
AWS partners like Cloudar are there to help you leverage the power of the Cloud in the safest and most cost-effective way. Reach out to us to talk about how we can work together!
