Integrating Low-Code and No-Code
platforms with Legacy Systems

If you are using a Low-code or No-code platform, you may have faced difficulty accessing data from legacy systems like old databases and software modules. Such a challenge can stall your entire progress.
We at Metaorange Digital have brought you a few approaches to help integrate your low-code and no-code platforms with legacy systems.

Introduction to Low-Code and No-Code Platforms

Low Code and No Code systems are software development platforms that use libraries to create systems without the need for coding or minimal coding. These libraries are popular, but a growing challenge for them is to integrate with legacy systems that cannot be modernized for several reasons.

The popularity of low-code/no-code platforms is on the rise, driven by their numerous advantages. With the current market estimated to be worth $22.5 billion and growing worldwide, this trend shows no sign of slowing down. Some of the key growth drivers include freelancers, small-scale developers, small business owners, citizen developers, and students.

Popular applications like WordPress, Zapier, Airtable, Webflow, etc., enable even non-technical staff, entrepreneurs, and business professionals to create stunning websites, software, and other systems. Low-code and No-code platforms also help companies develop faster software, resulting in fewer errors.

The global market for low code(and no code) market is currently valued at $22.5 Billion as of late 2022. By 2024, the market is estimated to grow to the size of $32 Billion. Therefore, the need to address the incompatibility between these and the old systems becomes paramount.

Building from scratch vs. modernizing with Low-Code and No-Code solutions

Building new systems and integrating with legacy systems are valid approaches, but sometimes, when legacy systems are gigantic, building new systems becomes costly. Even for a small system, the cost may reach up to $70,000. However, old systems only get eliminated after a considerable time. Integrating low-code and no-code platforms with legacy systems is, therefore, a ubiquitous challenge. To help you, we have compiled a few approaches that can solve your codeless development journey.

Integrating Low-Code and No-Code

Here are a few tried and tested strategies to help you integrate these systems with any legacy system you need.

Application-Program Interface

APIs are one of the most common ways to integrate low-code/no-code platforms with legacy systems. These are the software intermediaries that help two systems exchange information with each other. This allows the low code/no code platform to communicate with the legacy system and exchange data.

A few common examples of APIs are Twitter bots and Crypto.com widgets for WordPress.

Data integration

You can use data integration tools to extract data from the legacy system and import it into the low code/no code platform. This allows the low code/no code platform to access and use the legacy data.

Middleware

Middleware is software that acts as a connection between two systems. They relay information both ways and help ensure proper functioning. Middleware can bridge the low code/no code platform and the legacy system. It can handle the data and API communication between the two systems and translate between different data formats.

Custom Code:

In some cases, custom code may need to be written to integrate the low code/no code platform with the legacy system. This application may be necessary if the legacy system does not have APIs or the data formats are incompatible.

Custom CSS that is being used in WordPress is a typical example

Please Note

It’s essential to carefully consider the approach that will work best for a particular organization based on the specific legacy systems and data involved, as well as the goals and constraints of the integration project.

An experienced development team and thorough testing can help ensure a successful integration. Metaorange Digital can help you integrate legacy systems with your no-code or low-code platform. This method can help you develop with expert assistance.

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3 Essential Points to be Taken Care of

These next-generation systems have several benefits, such as low development time and greater collaboration. However, there are also a few points to consider when integrating low-code or no-code platforms with legacy systems. Addressing these topics ensure that your systems do not encounter any significant problems in the future.

Security

Security should be a top priority when integrating low-code/no-code platforms with legacy systems. Ensure that proper security measures, such as encryption and authentication, are in place to protect sensitive data. T-Mobile was hacked, and hackers stole 37 Million account data in an API breach.

User experience

It’s essential to ensure that the user experience is consistent and seamless across the Low-code and No-code platforms and the legacy system. This factor can help reduce confusion and improve adoption among users.

Maintenance

Integrating the low code/no code platform and the legacy system will require ongoing maintenance and support. This may include updating APIs or data integration tools, fixing bugs, or handling compatibility issues. Plan for adequate resources and budget to ensure the integration is maintained and runs smoothly over time.

Metaorange Digital can help you ensure smooth integration with legacy systems and also ensure that your developed systems perform as expected.

Conclusion

Legacy systems were not meant to work with no code platforms. However, with technological developments and the rising need for accurate, fast, and low-cost development, no-code and low-code systems have gained popularity. However, they need to communicate with legacy systems more readily. For bridging these systems, there are several approaches, such as APIs, Middleware, and Custom Coding.

These approaches can solve your issues, but maintaining and securing them are further challenges. Metaorange Digital helps you tackle these challenges with ease and enables you to develop no-code and low-code solutions swiftly, securely, and reliably.

Learn More – Cloud Transformation Services of MetaOrange Digital

Ensuring Data Loss Prevention in
Cybersecurity

Global Cybersecurity spending could reach $460 Billion by 2025, indicating the preciousness of data. With increasing threats and constant breaches occurring worldwide, data loss prevention becomes key in ensuring business continuity.

We have created a comprehensive guide to Data Loss Prevention, including examples, prevention strategies, and unsolved challenges that will get you all the information you need to secure your data.

Why is Data Loss Prevention important?

People often refer to data as the new oil, indicating its significance in this digital era. Data can provide valuable insights, validate assumptions, and test theories. Further, with AI/ML technology advancement, data has become far more essential for modern-day businesses.

Data Loss Prevention is a core aspect of cybersecurity. Further, the average cost of a data breach, according to IBM, is around $4 Millions.

Finally, Data Loss Prevention(DLP) is critical in ensuring business continuity and maintaining stakeholder trust.

DLP exercises are important because they help maintain system integrity, prevent unauthorized access, secure sensitive information, and have several other benefits.

In this article, we shall explore the importance of data loss prevention strategies from a cybersecurity-intensive view and overview a few case studies along with their challenges.

Threats to Data

1. Software Bugs

Detecting software bugs can be very difficult, yet they can cause data breaches without anyone knowing how the breach occurred. A buffer overflow vulnerability was discovered in the Linux Grub2 Secure Boot hole bug ten years after its creation.

2. Ransomware Attacks

Hackers use ransomware as a financially motivated attack to prevent people from accessing their data. The WannaCry ransomware attack, which caused an estimated $4 billion in damages, is a well-known example.

3. SQL Injection

Cyber attackers exploit weaknesses in SQL databases through automated SQL injections, which can cause serious threats. Although people commonly encounter SQL injection attacks, they still pose a significant concern.

4. Spyware

Spyware attacks attempt to steal your passwords, identify sensitive information in your systems, etc. They do not steal data but facilitate others in doing so. The cyber arms company NSO Group used the well-known spyware, Pegasus, to target politicians worldwide.

5. Phishing

Cybercriminals use phishing to create fake websites that act as the original website and steal sensitive passwords and credentials. Deepfake technology has further facilitated these attacks by increasing the accuracy with which original websites are cloned.

6. Lost Access Credentials

Not every time is there an external threat to data loss. Lost passwords also account for significant financial losses. Lost Bitcoins account for over 25% of total Bitcoins ever minted and could easily be worth more than $150 Billion.

7. Denial of Service

Denial of Service occurs when a valid user cannot access the network or server because someone else is sending fake traffic to overwhelm the network’s capabilities. In 2020, Google suffered a Digital Denial of  Service attack, which posed itself as McAfee security. The attack was carried out by APT31, a Chinese attacker group.

8. Third-Party Vendor Breaches

Third-party data breaches are also a significant cybersecurity issue. Target, a well-known retail chain, faced a data breach and an $18.5 Million direct loss due to a breach caused by one of its Vendor’s stolen credentials.

Data Loss Prevention Strategies

Data loss is increasingly getting difficult to prevent. Cloud data management is yet another significant risk. However, with Metaorange Digital and our certified AWS and Azure experts, you can be sure that your data remains safe with 24×7 Managed IT support.

Schedule a 15-min discovery call to know more.

Data can be safely guarded using several strategies. Some of them are listed below.

1. Classifying Sensitive Data

Sensitive data must be secured over several locations and have multi-factor authentication to access it. Further, there should be multi-signature authentication so that no one can abuse their authority and get unrestricted access to sensitive data. A multi-cloud approach helps in easily managing sensitive data stored at multiple locations in one console.

2. Encrypting data at rest and in transit

Encryption standards have also evolved with evolving threats. AES, Triple DES, RSA, and SHA are popular and powerful encryption methods. Encryption ensures that even if your data is stolen, the attacker will not be able to use that data or even discover what it contains. Both transit and static data must be encrypted.

3. Access controls and authentication

Multi-layer access and multi-factor authentication are critical in ensuring that any malicious entity does not access data. Further, several authentication technology advancements have been made, including voice, facial recognition, etc. However, deep fake technology presents a constant threat, which can be eliminated by using multi-factor authentication.

4. Network segmentation

Network segmentation is a protocol that divides networks into multiple shards that act as individual networks in themselves. Organizations often use segmentation to have better-secured networks. By doing this, a company’s internal networks will not be exposed to other people who are visitors, third-party vendors, or even in shared offices.

5. Regular backups and disaster recovery plans

Backups are the iron shield solution for securing data. But the effectiveness of backups also depends on the type of data. Sensitive personal information, once leaked, can cause major damage despite a backup being at the place.

Finally, disaster recovery plans help ensure that even if your data is lost, stolen, corrupted, or leaked, it can not hamper your daily business. Despite all losses, your business survival depends on disaster recovery plans.

Challenges in Implementing DLP

DLP execution is easy, but there are also a few challenges involved.

1. False Positives

False positives are when there is no data breach, but the systems detect a breach and launch a full-scale response. Each time a countermeasure is launched, it costs money. Therefore false breaches sometimes prove to be more expensive than the actual data loss. They can be reduced by using ML and training on a set of past data.

2. Overhead in managing DLP systems

These are the additional resources, costs, and time needed for the management, upkeep, and maintenance of DLP systems. These costs can discourage businesses from adopting a well-built data loss prevention plan. Optimization is the key to ensuring that additional costs remain low.

Metaorange can help you with DLP optimization for your cybersecurity needs which you can check with just a 15-min discovery call.

3. Integration with existing security infrastructure

A data loss prevention plan should not hamper existing processes and infrastructure, or else it would be counterproductive. Seamless integration is the key to ensuring smooth operations with enhanced protection.

Conclusion

Data Loss Prevention is a comprehensive exercise with multiple aspects, strategies, and challenges. However, they are necessary for ensuring a more secure and better-performing business. Further, with emerging security risks, businesses must act proactively to ensure that their data remains safe.

All businesses, whether big or small, need expert guidance and alternative approaches along with their standard plans to ensure multi-layer security.

 

Learn More: Cloud Transformation Services Of Metaorange Digital

Understanding Incident
Response Process in Cybersecurity

An incident response process is another important component of a clear strategy for dealing with security breaches. An incident response plan is a document that outlines the procedures and actions that an organization will take in the event of a security incident. It serves as a roadmap for detecting and responding to security incidents, minimizing their impact and reducing recovery time.

An incident response plan, similar to SIMP, guides how to handle security incidents with clear roles, reporting procedures, containment steps, and communication protocols for stakeholders.

Having both an incident response plan and Security Incident Management Plan helps organizations manage incidents and minimize impact while providing a framework for ongoing improvement to remain resilient against evolving threats.

What is an Incident Response Process?

An incident response process, also known as a Security Incident Management Plan (SIMP), is a predefined procedure that outlines the steps an organization should take in the event of a security breach. The SIMP plays a critical role in minimizing the impact of a security breach, locating and repairing the damage caused, and quickly restoring normal business capability.

In essence, the SIMP provides a roadmap for detecting, containing, and resolving security incidents. It establishes clear roles and responsibilities for the incident response team members, sets out procedures for reporting incidents, and defines the steps for containing and eradicating threats. The SIMP also includes a plan for communicating with stakeholders, such as customers and partners, to ensure transparency and build trust.

By having a SIMP in place, organizations can respond quickly and effectively to security incidents, minimizing the potential damage and disruption caused by such events. The SIMP also provides a framework for ongoing monitoring and improvement of security measures, ensuring that the organization remains vigilant and prepared in the face of evolving threats.

FR Secure claims that only 45% of organizations in their survey acknowledge that they have an incident response plan in place.

Why is an Incident Response Process Important?

Cost: According to IBM, it takes, on average, 197 days to identify a breach and about 69 days to contain one effectively. The gap between detection and containment can cause up to $4 million, as per the same report. Small and medium businesses working with lean teams and tight budgets will surely perish with such large bills. Even large businesses will find it difficult to deal with such losses.

Preparation for the Unexpected: A security breach often happens at the most vulnerable times. Without proper planning, organizations may struggle to respond effectively and lose critical assets. However, data shows that most security attacks are executed just before long holidays like Christmas when the least or no staff is available to counter these attacks.

Along with a proper incident response process, there is a need for a team that can manage your security 24×7. Metaorange Digital helps you maintain your security and provide close 24×7 managed IT support in a complete package.

Minimizes Impact: Minimizing damage is critical in containing the damage. You should back up essential and sensitive data at multiple locations. Critical functions, processes, and workflows should be properly planned so that there is less reliance on single elements.

Compliance: The National Institute of Standards and Technology and many other regulatory organizations demand compliance with cybersecurity breaches, including incident reporting and response plans. IRP documents are critical components of such compliance.

Components of an Incident Response Plan

Preparation

The preparation phase involves creating an incident response team, defining roles and responsibilities, and preparing communication and reporting templates. A basic document created at this stage can be further modified to suit the customized needs of the organization. Several security guidelines exist from NIST, ISO, CIS, and many other organizations.

Identification

Confirming a breach is also very essential. Launching a full response during false flags can cost in terms of money, effort, and system resources. Proper monitoring systems, networks, and applications for signs of a breach are deployed and help determine the incident’s significance.

Containment

Networks, systems, endpoint devices, and other IoT(if present) must be isolated so that the hacker does not gain entire system access. It is unconventional, but in the case of an on-premise system, physical separation or air-gapping can also be used to disconnect systems physically in case the attacker is potent.

Reporting

Reporting the incident to law authorities and others like insurance providers, regulators, and stakeholders is equally necessary. This helps you deny any liability in case of further damage. Reporting is also mandatory many times and is specified in insurance and regulatory documents. Further, reporting has to be done by a senior authority like the CIO or even the CEO. Identifying and delegating responsibility is also a critical component in creating an incident response plan.

Analysis

Gathering information and analyzing it to identify all the weak points in the security perimeter is crucial in preventing further attacks. For example, endpoint security software always relies on a database of known malware, virus, and spyware which helps them focus more on newly evolving threats. Further, old data can also predict security incident patterns when analyzed with machine learning.

Eradication

This is the most complex and the most unpredictable step of the entire incident response plan. Every threat is different from the other. Similarly, every organization has different types of approaches to dealing with cybersecurity threats. Before creating any response plan, it becomes necessary to leave some space for unconventional scenarios.

Recovery

The recovery phase involves restoring normal business operations and conducting a post-incident review to identify areas for improvement.

Post-Incident Review

The post-incident review phase involves evaluating the incident response plan, documenting lessons learned, and updating the plan to improve future incident response efforts.

Real-Life Case Studies

Cloudflare 2022 DDoS Attack: Cloud-based cyber attacks are becoming common. Cloudflare published an incident report where a “crypto launchpad” was targeted with a record 15 million requests per second. The network used at least 6000 unique bots from several countries, including Russia, Indonesia, India, Colombia, and the USA.

Cloudflare contained the breach gradually. To counter the attack, a prior response protocol helped counter the attack. The response was coded as an algorithm in the response plan, making the request response time longer every time there were more data requests from the botnets.

Equifax Data Breach: In 2017, Equifax suffered a data breach that affected 147 million customers. The breach resulted from a vulnerability in Equifax’s web application software that allowed hackers to access sensitive customer information. Equifax’s incident response plan helped them to contain the breach and prevent further damage quickly, but the company still faced significant financial and reputational damage.

Conclusion

An incident response plan is a predefined procedure that outlines the steps an organization should take in the event of a security breach. It minimizes the impact of a breach, locates and repairs damage, and quickly restores normal business operations.

The plan includes preparation, identification, containment, reporting, analysis, eradication, recovery, and post-incident review phases. Having an incident response plan is important as it saves costs and helps prepare for unexpected breaches, minimizes impact, meets compliance requirements, and has been proven effective in real-life cases like Cloudflare’s 2022 DDoS attack and Equifax’s data breach in 2017.

 

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What is Zero Trust Cybersecurity?

The Zero Trust cybersecurity protocol considers each device connected to a network a threat until it is verified. Every device’s credential is verified, and only then is network access provided. Zero Trust cybersecurity becomes essential in an environment where a single deceitful device could cause significant disruptions. From an insider’s perspective, we have provided a detailed guide on Zero Trust Cybersecurity, including critical information on advantages, errorless implementation, and staying ahead of next-gen changes in cybersecurity.

Understanding Trustless Cybersecurity

The primary philosophy behind trustless cybersecurity is “Guilty until proven innocent.” It uses a protocol where every device connected to a network must establish its credentials before it gains access to network resources. It supposes that every device connected to the network is potentially harmful.

In modern cybersecurity scenarios where even stakeholders are turning malicious, Zero Trust Cybersecurity aims to eliminate all points of unverified access.

For example, in the case of the Target data breach in 2013, where the personal data of 40 million customers were compromised, a vendor’s access was used to carry out the attack. Multi-layer authentication, an aspect of Zero Trust Cybersecurity, would have prevented such unauthorized access.

Core Principles of Zero Trust Cybersecurity

A zero-trust architecture is based on three well-established principles:

● Continual Validation

Every user is continually validated by a background check once every defined interval. Some checks also map user activity with past data to detect changes in behavior.

Suppose a user logs in from New York and breaks the session. The same user also logged in from Singapore 15 minutes later. Such activity is bound to be malicious.

● Reduced Attack Surface

Even if the attack takes place, a zero-trust model minimizes the affected zone after an attack. Once a deceitful actor gets inside, its access is limited as small as possible.

An example is Spam Emails that cross the spam filter and are scanned so that users are prevented from downloading files from them.

● Individual Context-based Access

Each login gets limited access based on their role. A person in an executive role should not have access to files which are means for senior managers.

An example is WordPress’s user tiering. A subscriber can only view the website. A contributor can view and write but cannot edit. An editor can only edit limited portions of the website. Finally, an administrator has full access.

Evolving Threats

The Europol report states that criminals could use newly evolving threats such as deep fake technology to create an exact clone of original credentials, including facial recognition and voice recognition, and commit CEO fraud. CEO fraud involves generating a video image of a CEO using deep fake technology to request money or investments.

Cloud-based cyber attacks are becoming common. Cloudflare published an incident report where a “crypto launchpad” was targeted with a record 15 million requests per second.

Another interesting case is of IoT device compromise. These devices run on rudimentary forms of operating systems and often lack security. But they also require email ID-based logins. Hackers can easily access these passwords entered on IoT devices, steal sensitive information like bank passwords, exploit password reset mechanisms, steal personal files, etc.

Finally, focussing on emerging technology, there is a risk from 5G networks as well. 5G networks use slicing to create multiple networks inside the physical network. These increase the surface for attacks. Several IoT devices and other unsecured endpoints can be exploited, resulting in the compounding of losses.

The Need for a Proactive Approach

Zero Trust Cybersecurity is a proactive approach because it does not rely on traditional methods, which are triggered only during or after an incident. Rather it takes a multi-layer constant verification approach toward identifying stakeholders before granting them access to system resources. Moreover, even if an attacker gains access to the system, it limits their access to contain the damage.

Advantages of a Zero Trust Cybersecurity

There are several advantages of using a Zero Trust Cybersecurity Model in a modern landscape where threats constantly evolve. Some key advantages are:

1. Minimizing Attack Surface

As discussed above, even if a malicious actor gains access to system resources, their activity is limited continuously depending upon their caused damage.

2. Secure Remote Workforce

Security for a remote workforce becomes a tough challenge because each connection type is different, and login locations are spread worldwide. Even if unauthorized password sharing occurs, the Zero Trust model can detect this and restrict access.

3. Continuous Verification

Each stakeholder is continually verified based on their past activities to ensure that people are acting in good faith. Further, if an unusual activity takes place, it can be authenticated simultaneously.

4. Simplify IT Bills and Management

A zero-trust model is based on automated evaluation and therefore frees up the need for additional staff or resources. Not every login has to be multi-layer authenticated. Only suspicious activity needs verification. Therefore, it results in much fewer system resources to operate as compared to traditional methods.

Implementing Zero Trust Cybersecurity

The following are the brief points of implementing Zero Trust Cybersecurity.

  1. Preparation
  2. Assess the current security landscape
  3. Identify and prioritize critical assets and data
  4. Determine the scope and scope of the Zero Trust implementation
  1. Identity and Access Management
  2. Establish a robust authentication and authorization process
  3. Implement multi-factor verification
  4. Standardize user identities

III. Network Segmentation

  1. Create secure zones and micro-segments
  2. Control access based on identity and role
  3. Establish strong network perimeter controls
  1. Endpoint Security
  2. Ensure all devices are secure and up-to-date
  3. Implement device management and control policies
  4. Monitor and detect malicious activity
  1. Continuous Monitoring and Assessment
  2. Use automated tools to monitor and detect anomalies
  3. Conduct regular risk assessments and audits
  4. Continuously adapt and update security controls
  1. Awareness and Training
  2. Educate users on Zero Trust security principles
  3. Provide regular security awareness training
  4. Encourage secure behavior and practices

VII. Maintenance and Updates

  1. Regularly review and update security controls
  2. Stay informed on the latest threats and trends
  3. Maintain a continuous improvement mindset.

How to stay ahead of the curve?

Staying updated with the latest information is highly essential in a landscape where threats are based on advanced technologies themselves. To secure your systems with the highest level of security, schedule a free consultation with Metaorange Digital. A 15-min discovery call can help you understand how we optimize your security and increase its efficiency to the maximum.

Also, stay updated with the latest blogs to discover more information about Cybersecurity, Cloud, DevOps, and many more cutting-edge technologies.

Conclusion

Zero Trust cybersecurity is an approach where each access to the system resources is authenticated and continually monitored. Usage patterns are analyzed to identify suspicious behavior and simultaneously authenticated. Any unauthorized access is restricted based on perceived threat levels.

The model has several benefits for companies working with a remote workforce. Continuous and automated verification helps reduce the workload of humans and save resources and, therefore, can reduce bills.

Overall the zero-trust cybersecurity model is a solid defense against modern-day cybersecurity threats.

 

Learn More: Cloud Transformation Services Of Metaorange Digital

8 Top Cybersecurity Monitoring Tools

Cybersecurity threats are also evolving with advances in technology. As technology advances, so do the methods and techniques used by cybercriminals to breach security systems and steal sensitive information. This constant evolution means that organizations must remain vigilant and proactive in their approach to cybersecurity. Failure to do so can result in devastating consequences such as data breaches, financial losses, and reputational damage. To effectively combat these evolving cybersecurity threats, organizations must invest in advanced cybersecurity monitoring tools and technologies such as intrusion detection and prevention systems, firewalls, and security information and event management systems. They must also train their employees on best practices for cybersecurity and implement strict security protocols to protect sensitive information from unauthorized access.

These threats have become increasingly complex. The rapidly evolving digital landscape makes this imperative for businesses to take proactive measures to protect their assets and ensure their data remains secure. Below is a list of top Cybersecurity Tools to help your business proactively avoid advanced threats like AI-enabled attacks, deep fake phishing, etc. We have selected the tools based on their effectiveness, ease of implementation, and integration with existing systems.

1. Encryption – Crucial Component of Cybersecurity Monitorning Tools

Encryption ensures that data is safe even if an attacker manages to access system resources. The target data breach of 2013 would not have resulted in a loss of $18.5 million for the company.

Top encryption tools like McAfee are popular among business users. McAfee provides full disk encryption for desktops, laptops, and servers. The algorithm uses Advanced Encryption Standard(AES) with 256-bit keys. McAfee AES is certified by US Federal Information Processing Standard. There is also ready integration of multi-layer authentication.

2. Intrusion Detection – Helps identify Potential Information Security Breaches

These cybersecurity monitoring tools identify network traffic to alert you in real time about unusual activities. This helps you identify potential threats and deploy suitable countermeasures. Two types of intrusion detection systems exist: host-based and network-based. Host-based intrusion detection systems guard the specific endpoint where they are installed. Network-based intrusion detection systems scan the entire interconnected architecture using cybersecurity monitoring tools.

Symantec delivers a very good quality intrusion detection system. Introduced in 2003, Symantec Endpoint Intrusion Detection system detected 12.5 billion attacks in 2020.

3. Virtual Private Network – Ensuring Cybersecurity monitoring tools for Users

Virtual Private Networks reroute your connection to the internet via several intermediaries. These systems throw off any tracking requests that originate between you and your target website. The VPN provider’s server reroutes the data and assigns you another IP address, which is unknown to others.

NordLayer Specialist business VPNs are one of the most efficient available VPNs for businesses. It sets up a site-to-site private network between you and your target. The VPN service has dedicated servers that offer uninterrupted access to you at any time. Its servers are evenly spread worldwide and located in 33 countries.

4. Network Access Control – Improve Information Security Posture

Network Access Control is a security solution that restricts network access based on dynamic authentication, compliance, and user information.

Cisco provides industry-leading network access control through Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) Solution. Cisco users typically experience a 50% reduction in network access incidents after deployment.

5.  Security Information and Event Management – Real-time insights into Potential Cybersecurity monitoring Threats

Security Information and Event Management(SIEM) is a data aggregation tool that collects, analyzes, and reports all security incidents related to that system or network. There are several benefits of using SIEM, such as:

  • Event Correlation and Analysis
  • Log Management
  • Compliance and Reporting
  • Trend Analysis
  • Advanced real-time threat recognition
  • AI-driven automation
  • User monitoring

IBM’s QRadar is one of the industry leaders in Security Information and Event Management tools. It gives contextual insights and provides a single unified workflow management.

6. DDoS Mitigation – Detect and Block malicious traffic

DDoS mitigation protects against DDoS attacks. These attacks send large amounts of traffic to the designated website server, which is often higher than its capacity to handle. As a result, the website crashes while the attacker carries out their activities. Such attacks can have serious consequences for organizations, including financial losses, reputational damage, and loss of customer trust. In addition, DDoS attacks can be used as a diversionary tactic to distract security teams while other cyber attacks are carried out, such as stealing sensitive data or deploying malware. Therefore, organizations need to implement robust cybersecurity measures to detect and prevent DDoS attacks, such as intrusion detection and prevention systems, firewalls, and DDoS mitigation services. Such attacks are known as Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks, which are designed to overwhelm a network or server with traffic, rendering it inaccessible to legitimate users. DDoS attacks are a common cybersecurity threat faced by organizations of all sizes and types.

The largest known DDoS attack was executed with a record 340 Million packets per second on an Azure user. It was mitigated by Microsoft.

Cloudflare is also a leading expert in DDoS solutions and provides cutting-edge solutions.

7. Vulnerability Scanner – Identify potential Cybersecurity Vulnerabilities

A vulnerability scanner identifies known vulnerabilities in a computer system, networks, and applications. They assess the networks using a database of information and report vulnerabilities if any. Finally, security patches are applied to the vulnerability, and the information is updated on the website.

Microsoft Defender is perhaps the most effective vulnerability scanner. It offers built-in tools for Windows, MAC, Linux, Android systems, and network devices.

8. Firewall – Controls Network Traffic based on Predefined Information Security Policies

Firewalls monitor security, both incoming and outgoing, using programmed security rules. They provide a barrier between your business system and the internet. They are employed to secure systems of all scales, be it a personal computer or an on-premise business mainframe.

Firewalls come in several types, such as:

  • Unified Threat Management Firewalls (combines multiple security apparatus in one console)
  • Next-Gen Firewalls (combines traditional firewalls with IDS, NAC, etc.)
  • Software Firewalls(installed on personal computers)
  • Cloud-based Firewalls (scalable and flexible firewalls based on the cloud)

Trust Radius lists Cisco ASA as one of the best Enterprise-grade firewalls. The firewall integrates easily with your system.

Conclusion

Managing such a huge array of cybersecurity monitoring tools can be challenging, especially for teams having few members. However, there is a better alternative to hiring new members who need additional training. It is always better to outsource the task to a reliable and experienced cybersecurity service provider. Metaorange Digital, with its certified and experienced cybersecurity experts, can handle your network security using the latest cybersecurity tools in addition to providing responsive 24×7 managed IT support. By outsourcing your cybersecurity needs to Metaorange Digital, you can focus on your core business activities while ensuring that your network remains secure against all potential threats. Our optimization protocols can help you extract the most out of your budget, allowing you to invest in other critical areas of your business.

Schedule a free 15-min discovery call now!

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All About Cybersecurity Frameworks

Cybersecurity Frameworks, a set of guidelines and best practices, are instrumental in managing an organization’s IT security architecture. Based on prior experience, one can either generalize or custom-build cybersecurity frameworks.

Cybersecurity frameworks provide organizations with a systematic approach to managing and reducing cybersecurity risk. They help organizations identify, assess, and manage cybersecurity risks while enabling continuous monitoring and improvement of cybersecurity practices. Some of the popular cybersecurity frameworks include NIST Cybersecurity Framework, CIS Controls, ISO/IEC 27001, and COBIT.

Here is an overview of some general cybersecurity frameworks, as well as a guide on how organizations can design their framework based on prior collective experience.

Understanding Cybersecurity Frameworks

An organization’s security architecture is comprehensively guided by cybersecurity frameworks and they delineate a set of best practices to be followed in specific circumstances. Additionally, these documents carry response strategies for significant incidents like breaches, system failures, and compromises.

A framework is important because it helps standardize service delivery across various companies over time and familiarizes terminologies, procedures, and protocols within an organization or across the industry.

Further, for government agencies and regulatory bodies, cybersecurity frameworks help to set up regulatory guidelines.

Why are Cybersecurity Frameworks Necessary?

Newly emerging cyber threats, such as deep fake technology, pose a growing concern. Deep fakes use artificial intelligence to mimic real-life credentials, such as facial recognition or voice recognition. Europol reported that cybercriminals could use deep fakes to generate videos of CEOs asking for money or investments in CEO fraud schemes.

Cloud-based cyber attacks are becoming increasingly prevalent. Cloudflare highlighted an attack on a “crypto launchpad” in 2022 using 5000 botnets and a record-breaking 15 million requests per second.

Another growing threat is the compromise of IoT devices. Hackers can exploit vulnerabilities in these devices because they are often built with rudimentary operating systems and lack security features. They also often require email-based logins, making it easy for hackers to steal sensitive information, such as bank passwords, exploit password reset mechanisms, and access personal files.

Finally, the new generation of digital technology, such as 5G networks, brings new security risks. 5G networks use slicing to create multiple networks within the physical network, increasing the attack surface. This could result in the exploitation of unsecured endpoints and IoT devices, leading to significant losses.

General Cybersecurity Frameworks

1. NIST

The National Institute of Standards and Technology, a federal agency of the US Department of Commerce, designed the NIST Cybersecurity Framework. The framework has five pillars, namely,

  • Identify systems, people, assets, data, and capabilities
  • Protect critical services and channels
  • Develop strategies to identify cybersecurity incidents.
  • Develop methods to deal with detected cybersecurity threats
  • Recover and restore capabilities affected after an incident

Several governments worldwide actively use the NIST Cybersecurity Framework, even though adoption is voluntary. It is one of the most widely adopted cybersecurity frameworks in the world.

2. CIS

The Center for Internet Security designed the CIS Cybersecurity Framework, which had 20 actionable points. These points can be classified into three groups,

  • Identifying the security environments
  • Protect assets with foundational controls.
  • Develop a security culture with organizational control.
3. ISO/IEC

The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) designed the ISO/IEC framework to provide security to sensitive information and critical assets.

Customized Cybersecurity Frameworks

Every organization faces a unique set of challenges in cybersecurity. Generalized frameworks provide a baseline and would work most of the time but would not address unique situations and challenges. A customized framework would adequately address the organization’s risk profile, business objectives, market positioning, and technology landscape in which the organization operates.

Therefore, a repository of guidelines is needed before starting any work.

A customized repository can be first created based on past challenges and needs. If a business is new, it can learn about similar challenges through diligent research.

How to Design a Custom Cybersecurity Framework?

Based on the general cybersecurity frameworks discussed above, you can first prepare a skeleton framework and then customize it according to organization-specific requirements. Finally, it has to be regularly updated with the latest evolving threats and security incidents faced by similar organizations.

Steps to Build up a custom framework

  1. Assess the organization’s current security needs. Doing a SWOT analysis would be a great start. Internal Strengths and Weaknesses, as well as external ideas and Opportunities to develop capabilities, would be very helpful. Finally, identify Threats that have the most significance based on public and organization-specific data.
  2. Identify critical assets and information which can impair operations in case they are affected.
  3. Determine the risk profile of the organization. For example, a high-risk organization would be a Financial Lending service since they operate on borrowed money and would require to undergo severe investigation before they can claim insurance. Similarly, a relatively low-risk organization would be an online news agency because the website data is backed up almost daily.
  4. Develop a risk management protocol. The assets which are critical need to be backed up over several locations with servers spread in distant geographies. Further, sensitive information like customer data would have to be encrypted several times to ensure that any attempt at data breach yields no result for the attacker.
  5. Defining the framework’s architecture and dependencies. These are the tools that are used to counter an attack and restore system functionality. These are the tools like data repositories, CRM backups, data delivery systems, alternate servers, multi-cloud services, etc.
  6. Implementing the framework is the most essential part of the entire exercise. Implementation should not impair current workflows or should require major adjustments. Finally, cross-checking the implementation with simulated attacks is critical in ensuring security. Several security gaps are identified only in a real-world environment.
  7. Continuously Monitor and Improvise the framework based on the latest data, security methodologies, critical information, and incident reports. Several magazines and blogs continually post the latest security developments, strategies, and frameworks.

Can we help?

It becomes challenging, if not difficult, for several companies which have smaller teams to carry out the entire Cybersecurity Framework creation exercise. Further, there is always a need for external expertise to provide an alternative view of existing problems.

Metaorange Digital can help you design cybersecurity frameworks with the latest security components, tools, and innovative strategies. A 15-minute discovery call can help you identify hidden weaknesses in your systems and eliminate them permanently.

Conclusion

Cybersecurity frameworks act as a knowledge repository to deal with the problems of the future. They can help you secure critical assets, deploy suitable countermeasures, and restore system capabilities at the earliest.

General frameworks can act as guidance for creating custom-made cybersecurity frameworks which are best capable of dealing with organization-specific threats. Further, a cybersecurity framework is only as effective as its implementation.

Finally, a security framework must be constantly evolving to counter new evolving threats in the business landscape.

 

Learn More: Cloud Transformation Services Of Metaorange Digital

How to assess your Cybersecurity Vulnerability Assessment?

The increased reliance on digital technology results in an increased dependence on cybersecurity Vulnerability Assessment. This increased reliance also results in increased cybersecurity threats. IBM estimates the average cost of a data breach at $3.8 Million in 2022. Not all businesses can afford to pay such a huge amount.

We have compiled some well-tested procedures that can help you strengthen your cybersecurity and ride the digital wave.

Understanding the New Age Threats of Cybersecurity 

The new age of cyber threats is not limited to data breaches and ransomware attacks. They have become much more advanced with AI-based security analysis, crypto-jacking, facial recognition, and voice cloning via deep fake, IoT compromise, and cloud-based DDoS attacks.

Cloudflare recently stopped a DDoS attack that used a network of 5000 bots. The attack took place on a crypto platform. Further, large volume DDoS attacks increased by 81% in 2022 as compared to 2021.

Surprisingly, Deepfake Technology, which was once used for fun, has now enabled phishing attacks. Rick McRoy detected a deep fake-based voice call that caused a CEO to transfer a sum amount of $35 Million.

Further, AI-powered cyberattacks also pose a serious security risk. Existing cybersecurity tools are not enough to counter this cyber weaponry.

In the wake of such incidents, the need for advanced cybersecurity tools is growing important.

However, for a business operating with a limited team, identifying vulnerabilities, managing threat perceptions, and provisioning proper resources within a budget are increasingly becoming increasingly challenging.

Vulnerability Assessment Checkpoints 

Metaorange Digital provides top-notch cybersecurity solutions to protect clients against cyber threats. Our team of certified experts leverages resource optimization strategies and helps implement automated tools and security protocols to enhance the effectiveness of security measures. With a focus on maximizing your budget, we work tirelessly to ensure that your business is secure against emerging threats at all times.

All the cybersecurity Vulnerability Assessment threats discussed above can be countered with proper planning and strategies. Here are some examples that can help you understand it better.

Identifying Critical Assets and Sensitive Data of Cybersecurity

Critical assets like CRM, Invoicing software, Financial Data, Client Information, etc., must be backed up in a multi-cloud environment. Multicloud and multi-location storage can help reduce vulnerabilities. Further, a greater budget can be allocated for safeguarding more sensitive resources.

Assessing Network Vulnerabilities

A thorough assessment of network security to identify weak points is necessary. The effectiveness of existing security protocols is also gauged. Further, a proper plan is outlined to counter any security breaches and restore system functionality.

Evaluating Endpoint and Device Security

Network endpoints are the most vulnerable points for breaches and exploits. Layman users often use laptops, mobiles, and other devices without any security software. Such users unintentionally become carriers for different types of viruses, malware, and spyware.

Businesses based on the B2C model must provide tools and resources for securing endpoints.

Sayfol School in Malaysia had a huge threat from about 2000 endpoint devices spread across the campus. USB drives and student laptops were major risk factors. To combat this situation, Sayfol’s IT team used an endpoint protection solution that did the following:

  • Peripheral Control
  • Content Filtering
  • Scanning Internet connections
  • Detection and removal of known threats
  • Maintenance via a Central Security policy

Assessing User Awareness and Training for IT security

User awareness and training are perhaps the greatest security factors in any organization. According to IBM, human error accounts for over 95% of security incidents. With the average cost of cybersecurity incidents being $4 Million, it becomes increasingly necessary to have competent staff. Training, demonstrations, workshops, etc., can help prepare staff to deal quickly with incidents and restore systems.

Reviewing Third-Party and External Security Risks

Third parties also provide a significant threat to your security. In 2013, Target, one of the biggest retailers in the USA, suffered a data breach that was caused by a failure in due diligence from a third-party vendor. Hackers could access vendors’ credentials and steal the personal data of 40 Million customers.

To avoid such incidents, businesses can arrange awareness meetings with stakeholders, suppliers, and even their staff to discuss protocols and demonstrate best practices.

Implementing and Testing Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity Plans

Disaster Recovery plans are critical because they help your business get back online after security incidents. Loss of data also means loss of trust. Further, they also handicap your relations with existing clients and customers.

However, these plans are only effective as long as they are tested and implemented. According to a Spiceworks study, about 95% of companies have disaster recovery plans, but about 25% of them never test their strategies.

Untested strategies often prove disastrous in the most critical times.

Staying Up-to-Date with Cybersecurity Best Practices

Keeping up with trends through online publications, blogs, workshops, and seminars is essential. Not all of them would be equally beneficial, but a few of them will benefit you beyond expectations.

Metaorange blogs help you stay abreast with the latest trends, ideas, and best practices for helping you run your business smoothly. Further, each of our blogs extracts the best information from the internet and only shows you highly relevant information.

Conclusion

Cybersecurity vulnerability Assessment threats have evolved. Tools and security infrastructure of the past are barely enough to secure systems from new-generation threats like AI-based cyber attacks, crypto-jacking, facial and voice cloning via deep fake, IoT compromise, and cloud-based DDoS attacks.

However, there are multiple methods of security in these systems such as endpoint security, securing third-party contact points, backing up critical assets, disaster recovery plans, and a lot more.

Rather than relying on a few in-house security personnel to perform multiple jobs, you can get on a short 15-min call with Metaorange Digital. It will help you understand our methodologies close. Our cybersecurity experts have the required knowledge, experience, and tools to counter any modern-day threat while ensuring seamless business continuity.

 

Learn More: Cloud Transformation Services Of Metaorange Digital

10 Things to Note before
Choosing Managed IT
Support

IT Managed support is one of the most rapidly growing services in the tech industry and is expected to reach about $400 Billion market size by 2028. It brings expert advice, relieves employee pressure, and guards your infrastructure throughout the year. Overall it helps with complete tech support that helps your business function seamlessly.

However, an inefficient company can disrupt your current workflow and harm you in ways that take millions of dollars to rectify. We have curated a list of 10 critical factors you must note before outsourcing activities to managed IT service providers.

Important Factors to choose Managed IT Support

1. 24×7 Monitoring Ability

Round-the-clock monitoring is very critical for tech businesses. Several hackers choose holidays for their attacks. Those without 24×7 monitoring would only detect the loss of data or impaired systems during the next business day.

In the USA, the FBI has repeatedly issued warnings on the eve of several holidays.

2. Understand your Business Needs

Overoptimization is equally as harmful as under optimization. Overoptimization in certain sectors causes budget shortages for others and leaves critical factors at risk.

In 2012, Knights Capital Group lost $450 million in just 45 minutes due to an overoptimized algorithm in its trading software.

3. Company and Employee Credentials

Verifying employee credentials is far more essential than it appears. Hackers and scammers have often carried out attacks using weak credentials. Make sure that the company you choose for Managed IT security takes serious steps to ensure that they only let credible people access your data.

Equifax lost the data of millions of people when anonymous hackers attacked it. The main reason behind the attack was due to weak employee credentials that Equifax had been using for a long time.

4. Past Client Testimonials

Several companies often hide their client testimony in an attempt to cover their past poor performance. If the client list is publicly available(it is available in most cases), you should also contact previous clients and ask them about their experience with the managed IT support service provider.

5. Disaster Recovery Strategy

Managed IT services must keep a disaster recovery plan in case something goes wrong and the systems are unable to recover by themselves. Disaster recovery plans should be properly checked before deploying any system online.

6. Data Management and Security

Data security is critically important. Loss of sensitive data like personal information, social security numbers, and credit card numbers can wreak havoc for thousands if not millions.

In May 2019, “First American Financial Corp” lost data of more than 885 Million credit card data points. The error was caused due to unauthorized access to a data page which should have been locked by passwords or multi-layered authentication.

7. Pricing and Contract

Several companies use hidden pricing to lure customers and make them dependent. After that, they charge the customer heavily. Vendor Lock-ins are among the most common issues in IT, Software, and Cloud businesses. Most lock-ins occur when customers identify hidden pricing terms which were seen during the contract signing.

8. Legal Liabilities

Your company can face serious legal liabilities due to the mistake of others. Target lost the credit card data of 40 million users and the personal information of 110 million users. They were forced to pay a settlement of $28.5 million in total.

9. Ability to Scale and Handle Unexpected Traffic

Without scaling on demand, a company might not be able to accommodate new customers, and also the systems might crash due to overload. This will result in a loss of opportunity to acquire new customers and existing ones due to poor performance.

Further, they save your systems from DDoS attacks. Cloudflare saved a crypto launchpad from a massive DDoS attack that sent 15.3 Million requests per second.

10. Services on Demand

Services are required on demand to handle unexpected situations. They are also needed while demonstrating your capabilities to a new client. Failure to deliver services quickly might result in an opportunity loss to acquire new clients and expand to new areas.

Conclusion

Managed IT solutions can help you expand your business several folds within a very short period. They bring expert advice, mitigate risks, evaluate and formulate disaster recovery strategies, and many more things. However, it is critical that you properly evaluate your options before you make a decision.

Metaorange Digital is an experienced expert in managed IT support. In addition to all the factors that are listed above, we also have agility, integrity, and innovation built into our core principles. We can integrate your current systems seamlessly into your designs and your visions.

 

LEARN MORE: 24/7 Managed Support Services Of Metaorange Digital

Pros And Cons Of Cloud-Based
Security Solutions

The advent of cloud computing has revolutionized how companies and individuals use the Internet, save data, and use the software. Cloud-Based Security solutions has become an essential component in the cloud computing ecosystem, enabling companies to protect their data and systems from a wide range of cyber threats. Indeed, the pattern shows no signs of abating. More than 90% of firms are now using cloud computing in some form.

Computer, network, and, more generally, data security have a growing subfield in cloud computing security, often known as cloud-based security. It, too, protects separate groups within a population by encrypting data in a structured hierarchy. There are significant risks and impediments to using cloud services, even though there are solid reasons for their use.

Here is an outline of cloud-based security solutions’ good and bad. Keep reading to learn more!

Pros of Cloud-Based Security Solutions

Rapid to Use

Cloud computing allows for more rapid and accurate data and application recoveries, reducing downtime and maximizing efficiency. This recovery plan is the most efficient because it involves spending very little time resting.

Easily Accessible

Access your information whenever and from anywhere you choose thanks to this system’s transparency. Maintaining your application’s availability at all times thanks to a Web cloud architecture improves its usefulness and capacity for facilitating business.

This takes into account the most fundamental forms of cooperation and sharing amongst customers in various geographical areas.

Zero material needs

The cloud encourages everything, hence eliminating the need for a central storage facility. Regardless, you should give some thought to a backup plan in case of a disaster that might significantly reduce your company’s efficiency.

Easy to Implement

Cloud bolstering enables a business to keep up with similar applications and trade forms without having to deal with specialist back-end components. Web-based management enables the fast and efficient setup of cloud infrastructure.

Flexible

Cloud-based businesses have a lower per-head cost since their advancement costs are lower, freeing up more money and workforce for trade system improvements. Flexibility for development. The cloud’s scalability allows businesses to add or remove resources in response to fluctuating demand. As businesses expand, their infrastructure will advance to accommodate the company’s new needs.

Unlimited Storage Capacity

In the cloud, you can buy as much space as you need without breaking the bank, unlike when you purchase new storage gear and software every few years.

Adding and removing files requires you to know the service provider’s guidelines.

The system can automatically back up and restore files and data

A cloud backup service can replicate and securely store a company’s data and programs in an offsite location. Business owners choose to back up their data to the cloud in case of a catastrophic occurrence or technical malfunction.

Users can also do this on internal company servers. However, cloud service providers do this automatically and constantly, so consumers don’t have to worry about it.

Cons of Cloud-Based Security Solutions

Bandwidth Issues

Bandwidth problems might arise if many servers and storage devices are crammed into a relatively small data center.

Cannot be Used Excessively

Not stuffed to the gills with unnecessary features or hardware, as cloud servers have neither of these in plenty. Since development might fail spectacularly, it’s best to avoid being burned by investing in an abundant strategy. Even though this might be an extra burden, it is often defended regardless of the expense.

Data transmission capacity concerns

For best results, customers should think ahead and not cram many servers and capacity devices into a few server farms.

More command Needed

When you move your business to the cloud, you also transfer all of your data and information. Internal IT departments won’t have the luxury of figuring things out on their own. However, Stratosphere Systems provides a 24/7/365 live helpdesk to resolve any issues immediately.

Abolish Redundancy

A server located in the cloud is both necessary and supported. Avoid having your fingers burnt by stocking up on extras if an idea fails. There will be some additional cost, but it will usually be worthwhile.

Troublesome to keep tabs on

Cloud computing management presents several information systems management challenges, such as those related to ethics (security, availability, confidentiality, and privacy), law and jurisdiction, data lock-in, a shortage of standard service level agreements (SLAs), technological bottlenecks associated with customization, and so on.

Final Takeaway!

It is vital to remember where the benefits and drawbacks of cloud-based security solutions come from when you analyze them. Every gift may be traced back to the cloud service providers. The inverse is valid for the drawbacks.

Cloud service providers have little say over the frequency or duration of Internet outages. Your digital security practices are primarily beyond their sphere of influence. Concerning the aforementioned issue of service providers going out of business, it is advisable to go with well-established organizations offering robust cloud-based security solutions.

 

Learn more: Cloud Transformation Services Of Metaorange Digital

Trends in Cybersecurity Awareness
that Businesses Need to Look Out
for in 2023

Businesses must keep an eye on evolving cybersecurity awareness trends to protect themselves against cyber threats in 2023 and beyond, as new technologies emerge and old threats like data breaches, ransomware, and hackers become more common in the headlines.

Let’s Get Ahead to Learn Trends Dominating the Cybersecurity Awareness World in 2023!

The prevalence of vehicle Hacking is Growing

Automated cars today facilitate communication in crucial areas, but their Bluetooth and Wi-Fi connectivity make them vulnerable to cyberattacks. More autonomous vehicles in 2023 may use additional microphones for eavesdropping and vehicle control. Autonomous cars require robust cybersecurity awareness measures due to their complex procedures.

Possibilities of AI

The use of artificial intelligence and machine learning has made significant advancements in cybersecurity awareness possible, and every industry now uses AI. AI has greatly aided the rise of automated security systems, NLP, facial recognition, and autonomous danger identification.

It also creates sophisticated viruses and assaults that can circumvent current data protection. AI-powered threat detection systems may predict new assaults, and administrators can receive rapid alerts about data breaches.

Internet of Things over a 5G Network

5G networks will usher in a new era of IoT connectivity. This interconnectedness between devices makes them vulnerable to outside interference, threats, or undetected software flaws. Google has revealed critical flaws in its Chrome web browser, which is the most widely used.

5G architecture is a new technology that requires substantial research to fix security holes and prevent hacking. Unknown network attacks may occur at any point in the 5G network. Manufacturers can prevent 5G data breaches with extra precautions in developing their hardware and software.

Automatization and Integration

The exponential growth of data requires automated systems to enable more complex data management. As the burden on experts and engineers to provide rapid and effective answers rises in today’s complex workplace, automation has become more useful than ever.

Incorporating security metrics into the agile development process may produce more robust and trustworthy software. Protecting larger, more sophisticated web applications is far more challenging, which is why automation and cyber security should be central considerations in the software development process.

Increased SAAS-Based Services

The importance of solid security measures increases as more people and businesses turn to cloud computing and software solutions. Cloud-based security services can easily be scaled up or down in response to fluctuating demand, and they can save money compared to on-premise options.

These methods are also effective when dealing with remote or dispersed teams, wherein different portions of a firm may be located in various regions.

SECaaS solutions make available technologies such as data protection, identity management, online application firewalls, and mobile device security. They also provide management services, letting customers have someone else keep an eye on their cloud security systems. This helps keep organizations current on the newest security developments and protects them from risks like malware and ransomware.

Strengthening Safety for Remote Workers

Cyber security must develop to keep up as the world continues to adopt remote and hybrid work patterns. Organizations must protect their systems and equip their staff to deal with cyber risks in light of their growing reliance on technology and access to sensitive data.

Businesses should consider implementing security methods like Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) since they demand extra authentication stages to establish the user’s identity before giving access to systems or data. Multi-factor authentication (MFA) can thwart hackers’ attempts to access your account using stolen information when used in conjunction with a strong password.

Companies should also think about instituting measures to ensure the safety of employees’ electronic equipment. For example, provide your staff with reliable anti-virus software and VPNs that encrypt all traffic. Employers should make employees aware of the risks associated with utilizing public networks and the need for having strong passwords that are different for each account.

Final Takeaway!

These advancements in cybersecurity Awareness are expected to make businesses warier about beefing up their security measures in 2023.

This year, businesses are expected to spend a record on protecting their assets. Given the critical nature of infrastructure security in modern companies, investing in their cybersecurity education will now position them as leaders in the field tomorrow. Experts in cyber security command some of the highest salaries in the information technology sector.

 

LEARN MORE: Cloud Transformation Services Of Metaorange Digital

7 Benefits of 24/7 Managed IT Support

Managed IT support, including 24/7 Managed IT Support, can not only help you manage your IT infrastructure better but also brings some of the best industry experts at much more affordable prices.

What is Managed IT Support?

Managed IT support refers to a service that helps you outsource the upkeep and maintenance of your IT infrastructure, software, network systems, etc., to dedicated professionals. These experts manage your systems, troubleshoot, and resolve errors at a fraction of the earlier cost.

Why do organizations need Managed IT Support?

There can be a lot of reasons for organizations to need external support to manage their IT infrastructure. Here are a few reasons:

Limited Internal Personnel: It often forces companies either hire additional talent or sacrifice the opportunity. Hiring talent for activities for the short term is often expensive. Further, all personnel is not available round the clock.

Freelance IT consultants can charge as much as $70 per hour, depending on experience.

Complex IT Environment: Organizations with complex roles might need an equally complex IT environment. Such environments are best run by professionals.

Need for Proactive Maintenance: Proactive maintenance costs much less than maintenance performed after an incident. Using internal professionals for such activities often disturbs their original work.

Compliance: Though senior in-house professionals are equipped to deal with regulatory compliances, they cannot be bothered with repetitive and mundane tasks at all times.

Cost: Since Managed IT support providers have several clients, they immensely benefit from the economies of scale. This reduces their bills and therefore your expenditure.

Now that you have a brief idea of the need for externally managed IT support, including 24/7 Managed IT Support, let us explore how companies benefit from such activity.

Why 24/7 IT support is a necessity?

After the pandemic and the proliferation of remote work, companies hire team members from several parts of the world. In several companies, professionals use company resources every hour of the day.

Further, problems do not arise on notice. For systems like stock exchanges, social media platforms, and several B2C businesses, running 24/7 is a basic necessity. In such situations, the need for 24/7 Managed IT support becomes critically important.

Even for businesses that do not need 24×7 uptime, any issue after business hours will probably be detected on the next business day. Any hacker can gain undue access to sensitive data in that period.

Several hackers choose holidays for their attacks. In the USA, the FBI has several times issued warnings on the eve of holidays. Therefore, having 24/7 Managed IT Support can help businesses mitigate potential threats and ensure the security of their data and systems at all times.

There are also several other advantages associated with 24×7 Managed IT Support.

Advantages of 24/7 Managed IT Support.

As discussed above, several companies need their systems to run 24/7 without any failure. Any downtime is detrimental to them.

Other significant advantages include the following:

1. Personnel on Demand

Managed IT solutions can bring expert personnel on demand. They employ several experienced professionals on a freelance or per-project basis. Further, even in worst-case scenarios, they have a few professionals who can be brought on short notice.

Metaorange Digital has a team of several certified DevOps professionals, Cloud experts, developers, and software engineers who can respond quickly in any scenario.

2. Dedicated Expertise

Often for remote teams and startups, the lack of expertise provides the greatest hindrance to growth. Companies often spend thousands of dollars trying to guess solutions for problems that rarely need an hour to solve.

For example, in a project due to uncompressed JavaScript and CSS, the CMS showed more than 4000 errors. The problem persisted for months. Finally, all it took to solve the case was one compression tool that was added as a WordPress plugin to the website.

3. Proactive and Quick Resolution of Issues

Proactive maintenance is much cheaper than maintenance after a certain incident. Further, they also save work from disruption.

On Aug 9, 2022, Google Search and Maps went down for about an hour due to a misplanned update.

Such errors might be manageable for Google, but small businesses do not have such a luxury. The inability to service such malfunction during an important event would lead to a reputation and business loss.

4. Low Cost

Due to economies of scale, it is often more expensive to hire a single full-time professional than to use the services of a Managed IT support provider. Further, no individual would work 24×7, no matter which salary you pay.

In the USA, the top reason for outsourcing is cost reduction. Hiring a professional incurs additional costs like health insurance, paid leaves, etc. On the other hand, outsourcing to companies like Metaorange Digital with teams in India and Australia often results in high-quality service at a fraction of hiring costs.

5. Zero Compliance Liability

Compliance is expensive throughout the world but is also a mundane task. Companies often hire novices for such roles, which leads to huge expenditures in terms of fines paid. Further, in countries like Australia, employers are liable for employee mistakes.

Hiring experienced companies like Metaorange helps ensure regulatory compliance without lags or errors.

6. On-the-Job Employee Training

Working with experienced professionals can also help your employees earn valuable skills and lessons that would otherwise have cost you a lot of money. Edume estimates that the cost of imparting basic IT support skills to employees is around $1,250. When your professionals work with certified experts from Metaorange Digital, this cost can become virtually zero.

7. Agility

IT companies are responsible for planning the best hardware and software upgrades and helping manage systems through constant updates. They help with security patches, provide guidelines on best practices, and also help make systems far more reliant. Thereby making agile workflows.

At Metaorange Digital, agility is built at the core of our philosophy, which provides you with a seamless experience irrespective of the type and nature of workloads.

Conclusion

Managed IT support from Metaorange Digital provides organizations with various benefits, including proactive maintenance, cost savings, scalability, expertise, and compliance. 24×7 managed IT support, in particular, offers the added advantage of round-the-clock availability of IT support, which can help organizations to minimize downtime, improve system availability, increase security, and provide better customer service.

 

Learn More : 24/7 Managed Support Services Of Metaorange Digital

 

Uninterrupted IT support can Overcome
Business IT Challenges

Many businesses would want to make the brave leap to 24/7 Manage Support but need help addressing IT challenges. Although being accessible outside of traditional business hours is a significant perk of maintaining a 24/7 presence, there are many more to consider, such as uninterrupted IT support. In this way, you can capitalize on the times when most people are online and ready to contact businesses whose wares they are interested in acquiring.

When faced with complex IT problems, outsourcing to a new group of experts is often the best course of action. With IT-managed services, you may expand your in-house IT team with a group of professionals who have worked with many organizations like yours.

Here in this blog, let’s examine some of the most pressing problems that crop up while opting for 24/7 Manage support.

Challenges Overcome By Outsourcing Uninterrupted IT Support

Overcome Healthy Work-Life Balance

Consider the impact of 24/7 operation on personal and staff lives but remember that being open around the clock does not necessarily require nonstop work.

To overcome IT challenges and avoid overworking someone, setting up shift patterns that reflect your extended business hours is a good idea. This ensures uninterrupted IT support for your customers and clients.

Altering the work schedules of current employees and hiring temporary help can significantly reduce stress. Instead of spending time and money training new employees in-house, you can save both by outsourcing to a third-party provider of specialized workers.

Aid in Staff Development

Expanding your workforce to support extended business hours typically requires investing time and money into training new employees.

Consider outsourcing to save on training costs and gain access to specialized workers.

Aid in Remote Accessibility

Companies adapting to remote work due to COVID-19 need help to find continuous business solutions while adhering to health measures.

Transitioning from an on-site to a remote work business model requires more than just giving employees smartphones. Possible technological hurdles associated with remote access include reworking the corporate intranet, deciding whether cloud services are preferable, and picking a model for employees to use their own devices or those given by the organization.

Business leaders risk making mistakes and losing valuable time when they try to solve problems and restructure collaboration internally. Most outsourcing firms provide tailored 24/7 management support services for evaluating and deploying cloud-based IT.

Combat Cybersecurity

The war to protect sensitive data is ongoing. Constantly checking for security holes and weak points in your defences is essential. With the rise of cybercrime, organizations can’t afford to let their guard down for even a moment.

Uninterrupted 24/7 IT support can monitor your cloud data safety, firewall setup, and identity and access control systems, detecting and responding to security threats promptly. This can help prevent major security breaches, minimize downtime, and safeguard your organization’s reputation.

Aid in Easy Mobility

Supporting a mobile workforce presents challenges for provisioning, maintenance, and security, whether employees work from home, airports, or coffee shops and use company-issued or personal devices.

You can guarantee the safety and productivity of the mobile workspace with the help of mobility services, which create corporate “bring your device policies” and administer company apps on mobile devices.

Aid in Disaster recovery and data backups

While vital, these duties are the monotonous type of routine work that nobody in your company looks forward to doing. Backups and disaster recovery plans are often overlooked because of this lack of time, only to be found wanting when it’s too late. Managed disaster recovery provides you with a reliable plan and the assistance you require in the event of a catastrophe. Additionally, the migration to cloud computing has become an increasingly popular option for companies looking to reduce their IT load. However, managing cloud infrastructure can be challenging, and teams may need help to provide adequate assistance in these novel settings. With the help of uninterrupted IT support, including 24/7 cloud professionals provided by managed services, you can be sure that your whole cloud infrastructure is operating at full performance.

Solve 24/7 Inquiry desk

Users have inquiries, but it can be challenging for organizations to keep specialists on staff to respond adequately. Help desks, either physical or digital, are available as part of managed services to answer any inquiries.

Despite the irony, outsourcing your vendor management to a managed services provider is the best option. By outsourcing vendor management to your managed service provider, you may relieve your personnel of the stress of dealing with several vendors.

Bottom Line! 

Contracting with outside parties is a must while working around the clock. It safeguards your and your business, work-life balance without compromising earnings, creating logistical headaches, disturbing internal communication, or jeopardizing employees’ health and safety during peak sales and customer communication periods.

 

LEARN MORE: 24/7 Manage support Services of Metaorange Digital

Strategies for Scaling Up 24/7 Manage
Support Services

Managing support around the clock is a fascinating problem to address. It usually indicates growth or the addition of more substantial clients. You might think it’s impossible to scale your workforce to give support around the clock. But actually, it’s not. Managing support requires careful planning and coordination to ensure that your team is providing effective and efficient assistance to your clients. This can involve implementing tools and technologies to streamline your support processes, as well as hiring and training additional staff to manage support. Managing support can be a complex task, but with the right strategies in place, it can help you build stronger relationships with your customers and support the continued growth of your business.

A 24/7 support model may seem daunting at first, but it can be easily implemented with the help of a step-by-step approach. Because of this, we have compiled this detailed blog describing the strategies that can upgrade your 24/7 management support Services for the good.

Top Strategies to Enhance 24/7 manage support Services

Provide customers with solutions that are smart and affordable

Each of the first two choices is fraught with significant risks. Fortunately, there’s a third possibility. Along with a reasonable pace of recruiting, this approach employs real-time automation with bots, methods to promote client self-service, and a focus on customers.

However, this strategy for extending customer assistance is challenging to implement successfully since it necessitates a high-quality toolkit, careful testing, and extensive collaboration across departments.

Implementing automation is a smart move

Today’s scalable customer service is built based on automation. Try to find methods to use customer care chatbots to automate replies to frequently asked queries and to direct consumers to the appropriate team for further assistance.

Chatbots may appear impersonal at first, but they may significantly enhance a stellar customer service department by freeing up human agents to focus on situations that demand a human touch.

Offer Self Service Options to Customers

Provide easy access to self-service options so clients can discover solutions to their problems quickly. It’s crucial to offer other methods of contact for clients who would rather not speak with a human being directly, such as a frequently asked questions (FAQ) website or help center.

Once compiled, however, these solutions and resources may be recommended to customers seeking help; for instance, Articles in Messenger urging users to look for answers before the Support staff responds. Both my team and our clients have significantly benefited from this strategy.

This type of connection may save an enormous amount of time by providing fast access to the data your team needs for their engagements with clients. They may now access your knowledge base searches without leaving the current window or tab.

Prioritize the Right Customers

As your business and product offerings expand, there will be a greater variety of questions and problems from customers. Because of this, fine-tuning your approach to prioritizing such talks is crucial. Some systems support several shared inboxes, allowing for efficient team and customer segmentation.

They make it simple for your group to assign high-priority talks to specific group members and send less urgent ones to other groups.

Understand Client Needs

Several one-of-a-kind challenges arise with scaling a team to this site, such as budget, location, language, and local client needs. Consider business objectives, consumer demands, and development goals when choosing an approach.

Focus on company expansion and long-term goals after understanding consumer needs and focus areas. Apply the information in those blueprints to develop a method for providing continuous service to your clientele. In this article, we will discuss three potential approaches.

Recruit Members To Work Nearby

Companies may prefer in-house strategies due to a lack of remote work experience, complex offerings, or reactive expansion. Your team members may leave for better working conditions or pay, both inside and outside the company.

Pager tools can help firms avoid full-time hiring by announcing new workloads. Compensation may include on-call stipends and hourly overtime pay for ticket handling.

Choose Between Outsourcing And Partnering

Hiring externally can lower costs, boost productivity, and address language and geographic needs. Outsourcing might be an effective alternative when it would be challenging to fill a position via an internal recruitment strategy.

The complexity of these methods might vary depending on your business’s specifics and your client’s requirements. Services range from triage to comprehensive support, including escalation, collaboration, and customer service.

However, a partnership approach may help you save on infrastructure, staffing, and training. Although these cost-cutting measures have apparent benefits, they should not be prioritized over the satisfaction of your customers.

Ending Up!

Do not forget that if your company is expanding, your customer service department will need to grow as well. It is up to you to decide how you want to handle the 24/7 management support.

To automate processes, encourage self-service, and manage subsets, you’ll need the right technologies.

 

LEARN MORE: 24/7 Manage Support Services of Metaorange Digital

Signs Your Businesses Need To Opt for 24/7
Manage Support

You are a product of your generation, wholly immersed in technological advancements. Since technology is so extensive and all-encompassing, no one can be considered an “expert” in the field. However, in the realm of customer service and race to enhance business, generate revenue, and increase technology, 24/7 Manage Support should be addressed.

Customer service is a primary concern that might add unnecessary stress to running a business. But if you’re having trouble meeting customer demands, there might be a valid explanation: you could use some assistance. If you want to grow your startup into a large corporation, you should think about this. Money may be saved by having the business owner take care of their IT support needs.

This essay will examine indicators that point to the need for additional 24/7 Manage Support service staff.

Reasons Why You Must Think About 24/7 Manage Support

Customer Service: You feel completely helpless and irritated right now

There may be a need for assistance if you’re feeling overwhelmed and upset while trying to resolve a customer service issue.

Feeling helpless and lost are two indicators that you may need assistance. Understanding how to get started troubleshooting a customer service issue might be challenging.

Feeling that your situation is too huge or intricate for anybody else to solve is another indicator that you may need assistance. This indicates that you need more than simply customer help to solve your problem. It might be helpful to consult an expert in such situations.

You hear complaints from your clientele

Suppose your company is like most others, your problems that your clients are consistently pleased with the results. This is one of many sometimes cases, though. It’s more probable that a consumer would complain about you than sing your praises.

Constant client complaints are an indication that your customer service needs improvement. They are looking for ways to get their money back or cancel their orders because they are unhappy with your goods or service. If this happens frequently, it may be time to hire a customer service staff.

High client turnover rates indicate that your organization needs further support in the 24/7 Manage Support service department.

Doubtful of your ability to find a solution

There may be indicators that you need assistance with your customer support account.

At first, you can feel helpless and that you can do nothing. Your best chance in this situation is to ask for help.

Secondly, you could be at a loss for solutions since this is the first time you have encountered them. In such a circumstance, contacting customer service for a step-by-step tutorial on how to fix the problem is advantageous. To get you over the issue as fast as possible, they will be able to provide you with detailed instructions.

If you’re having issues with your account, there might be warning signs that anything is amiss. For instance, if you’re having trouble making account changes or other technical difficulties, it may be worthwhile to ask for assistance.

The length of your meetings consistently runs over

During and before each meeting, you undoubtedly spend significant time adjusting the Wi-Fi settings in the boardroom. You attempt to set up a conference call using Google Meet, Zoom, or GoToMeeting.

When everyone on your team is finally linked up, getting your display to appear on the Apple TV may be a real pain. Even if the connection seems stable, call quality may need improvement. Your 15-minute meetings are taking an hour because of you.

The goal of tools like video conferencing and online meetings is to streamline teamwork. You need to ask yourself whether or not it’s worth putting an audience through the ordeal of waiting as you try to go live for the hundredth time.

Someone has compromised your IT security.

Many companies often view cybersecurity as an afterthought or temporary expense. After implementing some basic IT security rules and deploying specific cybersecurity solutions, you ignore the issue. It’s easy to feel safe after implementing your IT security policies. This is a regular occurrence if there hasn’t been an IT security issue in a while.

Having the illusion that you cannot be hacked is dangerous. Even more intriguing is that just 14% of small firms consider their cybersecurity highly effective. This raises the need for 24/7 Manage Support.

The anticipated ROI in technology is not being generated

The difficulty level skyrockets when you add in a lack of or inability to acquire any IT knowledge. Consequently, it is annoying when an expensive new technology fails to perform as advertised.

For instance, you may invest in pricey Wi-Fi network equipment with the hope that it will remedy your connection dropouts.

Because of the complicated compatibility matrix between devices and programs used in the workplace, getting things to operate smoothly is challenging. Inadequate planning and decision-making can make IT appear to drain resources.

Summing Up!

We should worry about 24/7 Manage Support IT management, regardless of whether we are a new or old, small or big, private or government business. I hope the above reasons are enough to help you think about outsourcing 24/7 Manage Support services.

 

LEARN MORE: 24/7 MANAGED SUPPORT SERVICES OF METAORANGE DIGITAL

Advantages of 24/7 Managed IT Support for Modern Businesses

Businesses that want to compete at a higher level need to rethink traditional 9-to-5 managed support to 24/7 managed support ultimately leading to enhanced customer satisfaction. With great power comes tremendous responsibility, we’ve all heard the saying. The same is true of a company that plans to offer round-the-clock IT assistance through 24/7 manage support; they understand the benefits and how it will help them increase their client happiness.

Inevitably and at any time, problems like server failures, network issues, system difficulties, and so on will arise. Most progressive businesses know that assisting customers does not cease when the workday finishes. Your company may have its IT department, but its employees won’t be willing to spend extra time in the early morning if it doesn’t fit into their schedule.

Therefore, hiring an IT service provider to handle your company’s computing needs around the clock is both practical and economical. Let’s shed some light on why it is the need of the hour for today’s businesses!

24/7 Manage Support Benefits Businesses in Several Ways

Boost Customer Satisfaction

Having a way for customers to contact you at all hours of the day and night is a sure way to boost satisfaction levels, as it shows that you value their opinions and suggestions. Customer satisfaction may be increased by making them feel valued by the firm, which they, of course, are.

This opens the door to other advantages, such as their continued brand loyalty and positive word-of-mouth advertising for your business.

Increased Commitment to Clientele

While it may be impractical to maintain a physical storefront at all hours of the day and night, you can still have a presence online and make yourself available to consumers whenever they have a question. Working with a company that provides a phone answering service around the clock is an excellent method to ensure your availability.

Live assistance is complemented by other channels such as chat, online help, video courses, and ticketing systems. Using these methods, your personal and professional lives can coexist more harmoniously. Customers are more likely to submit feedback when they can contact you whenever they need it. You have greater access to international markets and save money by not having to hire as many customer service representatives.

Total Cost of Ownership with 24/7 Manage Support is Less

Protecting a company’s infrastructure, data, and users is always a top priority. However, investing in an internal IT framework and resources is costly.

Managed network support is a cost-effective way to address unexpected issues, keep your website and apps running smoothly, and motivate your staff to perform at their best.

Reduced Downtime

Any successful company has to have a solid IT system in place. The infrastructure of a country may be compared to a chain of dominoes. Any damage to your infrastructure will have far-reaching consequences.

To maximize employee output, your 24/7 management support by an IT service provider will create an IT architecture that requires as little downtime as possible.

Provides Instant Help for Internet Programs

Increasingly, internet-connected apps are becoming indispensable to the operation of businesses in today’s globally interconnected environment. Make sure all major mobile platform users can access your company’s customer-focused applications and websites to maximize revenue.

If you want your applications to help people, you must make yourself available to them at all hours of the day and night. Doing so guarantees you maintain your clients, gain new ones, and stay competitive.

Increase Business Revenue

Potentially increases profits because not all calls to customer service are from dissatisfied customers. Some of them are legitimate questions about your products and services; customers may call for specifics, clarifications, or even recommendations.

You will lose a lot of money to rivals with a customer service portal available around the clock if you don’t have one that can rapidly respond to this kind of question.

High-End Flexibility

Having 24/7 Manage Support access to IT help is crucial if your business caters to clients in different time zones. You must meet your client’s needs and deliver on their expectations of continuous service at all costs.

For this reason, it is essential to partner with an IT service provider that offers round-the-clock technical assistance. Having access to round-the-clock IT assistance is crucial.

Bottom Line: Customer satisfaction benefits from 24/7 managed support!

In today’s global economy, every company is looking to broaden its reach by targeting consumers in new regions. Having round-the-clock access to IT support is crucial not only for technical needs but also to ensure high levels of Customer Satisfaction among clients located in all corners of the globe.

All of a company’s resources may be accessed whenever they’re needed, thanks to 24/7 Manage Support IT help. Having an IT support team at your disposal might be helpful. They work on holidays, too, so you’re always in the lurch. Stability is provided, and the likelihood of problems occurring again is reduced.

 

LEARN MORE: 24/7 Manage Support Services of Metaorange Digital

DevTestOps: Integrating Continuous Testing for Quality & Efficiency

The development industry is constantly looking for new methods to streamline the development process as technology advances. This gave rise to DevOps and, later on, DevTestOps as a robust methodology. Worldwide, people have been using Continuous Testing and DevOps to execute Agile for over a decade. The tool enables teams to automate all recurring actions in development and operations.

Continuous Testing at each stage of the development process to the DevOps framework was a novel idea that led to the creation of the DevTestOps concept. DevTestOps integrates the testing phase into the operations phase, ensuring that quality input is always prioritized alongside other Development and Operations-related activities. Let’s get more in-depth to understand how integrating it aids in building better products.

DevTestOps: A Valuable Overview

Before we go ahead, let’s know about DevTestOps in detail. DevTestOps” describes a hybrid practice that combines DevOps with Continuous Testing. We do testing at several points in the software delivery process, starting with unit testing.

DevTestOps emphasizes the importance of the tester alongside the Ops experts throughout the product development process. Integrating the Continuous Testing framework into the CI/CD pipeline is a crucial tenet of DevTestOps. It places a premium on providing consistent input to developers from testing across all phases of product development to lessen business risk and the likelihood of later discovering faults.

All members of a cross-functional Agile team in the Agile testing and development approaches have equal responsibility for the product’s quality and the project’s overall success.

Therefore, team members whose primary skills may lie in programming, business analysis, and database or system operation all contribute to the Continuous Testing phase of an agile project, not simply dedicated testers or quality assurance specialists.

Working of DevTestOps with Continuous Testing

The DevTestOps workflow is divided into steps. These are the stages:

Plan: At this stage, you specify product specifics and cross-check to ensure everything is market ready.

Create: At this stage, you build the program and submit it to the repository, run unit tests, and if there are no errors, the program becomes the codebase. Before proceeding to the next level, you can make any necessary changes (suggestions or improvements).

Testing: You will execute and analyse all test cases during this step. You can continue to change and test the software before delivering it and declaring it ready for deployment.

Release: You deploy the product and test any further textual modifications before they are included in the source.

Monitor: You regularly monitor the product for comments and issues, which are instantly addressed and updated.

How can we integrate DevOps and TestOps to get started?

While many companies have adopted DevOps, they often ship software with serious flaws. Here are some suggestions for transitioning to DevTestOps to lessen the number of errors in your code.

Integrate continuous testing into your DevOps strategy or roadmap

There is a substantial cultural overlap between DevOps and DevTestOps, with the addition of constant testing in the latter. For faster feedback on software changes, testers should join the DevOps team.

Make a DevTestOps toolchain

A toolchain that contains all the necessary software for executing DevTestOps. Jira, Kubernetes, Selenium, GitHub, Jenkins, and many others may all be part of your toolchain. You may improve team collaboration by giving each one specific responsibility inside these platforms.

Put the tools to use in your company

After establishing the necessary tools and procedures for software development, you’ll need to train your teams to use them effectively. If each group were to add testing responsibilities, it would lead to increased communication and cooperation among the teams’ developers, testers, and operators, and might cause a dramatic shift in the company culture.

Apply Automation

Throughout the entire process, from the build to the deployment, we should use automation. All the programmers and testers can use this to their advantage.

Make Constant Improvements

Maintain a culture of continuous improvement by ensuring that your organization’s tools and procedures are always up to date with the latest industry standards and best practices.

Continuous Testing Practices for Successful DevTestOps to Build Better Products

Increase test automation: Do not just automate the test case; additionally, automate the repeated procedure. It saves a significant amount of time.

Tool integration: To make testing more effective, faster, and more accessible, we should carefully choose the instrument.

Transparent communication: All teams’ communication and comprehension should be highly effective. It reduces confusion and increases productivity.

Performance evaluation: It should play an essential role during the delivery cycle to minimize crashes caused by excessive user influx.

Perform Multilayer testing: During the delivery cycle, we should include all forms of testing, such as integration, API, GUI, and database testing, and we should automate most testing types.

Closing Remarks

When the testing team collaborates closely with the development team, and requests help with continuous release and deployment from the DevOps team, a faultless DevTestOps environment can be created. DevTestOps is the best option for any company that wants to speedily bring high-quality goods to market. If you are looking for help, Metaorange is here for the best service. Connect and get started!

 

LEARN MORE: DevOps Services of Metaorange Digital

How Spot Management Can Reduce Your AWS Costs?

 

According to a recent survey by Canalys, in the second quarter of 2021, global spending on cloud infrastructure services climbed by 36% to $47 billion, including AWS costs. With a 33.8% market share, Amazon Web Services (AWS) dominates the world market. These numbers indicate that many businesses engaged in resilience planning, which requires accelerated digitization and increasing cloud utilization, choose AWS as a popular option. Moving legacy software to AWS also enables app re-platforming, harnessing the advantages of the new infrastructure and ensuring continuity in the cloud environment.

Amazon Web Services (AWS) is one of the most popular cloud computing platforms in the world, offering hundreds of services in the areas of computing, storage, networking, and platform as a service (PaaS), including managed databases and container orchestration.

AWS spot management is a service that provides you with the ability to pay for unused resources in real time. The AWS Spot Management service allows you to have better control over your costs, which helps you save money and increase profits.

Introduction to AWS Spot Management Services

AWS Spot Management is a powerful service that allows you to bid on AWS capacity that is available at a lower price than on-demand.

We can use spot instances to create temporary instances in response to unanticipated spikes in demand, or as a temporary solution when we need more capacity in the event of an outage. These instances are designed for short-term burst workloads.

What is Spot Management?

You can use AWS spot management to bid on unused capacity in the AWS spot market. AWS spot management lets you launch spot instances at a lower cost than on-demand instances. This is because AWS charges a fee for each hour of usage, but not for every instance hour.

The amount you pay per hour depends on how much your application uses that hour; however, it’s easier to estimate this number using historical data from other customers than it is by doing some math yourself.

If your application requires only 10% of its available RAM during normal operation (the rest being reserved), then we can assume that when using up all its RAM there will be no loss whatsoever in total performance due to swapping between different types of instances—and therefore no opportunity cost associated with running them at all.

How Does It Work?

Spot management is a service provided by Amazon where you can bid for a spot instance. If your bid is accepted, you will get a spot instance for the duration of your bid. You can bid for spot instances of a specific instance type (e.g., m3.medium or d2).

Benefits of AWS Spot Management Services

AWS Spot Management Services help you to reduce your AWS costs, improve your budget predictability and increase application performance.

Reduce Your AWS Costs

AWS Spot Management Services offer a reliable and cost-effective alternative to reduce total costs for any scale-out architecture. Note that these services are available only for on-demand instances, which can replace reserved instances when necessary.

As you can see, AWS Spot Management is a great way to save money on your AWS costs. If you’re already using spot instances to run instances in less than-typical regions and zones, then it makes sense to invest in the additional services that allow you to reduce those costs even more.

Spot instances have multiple uses, such as testing software applications before releasing them into production environments, or as a temporary backup solution when there are spikes in demand for compute power or storage space. But if all these options still sound intimidating or confusing, try something new today by signing up with us. You’ll get access to our powerful features straight away without having any hassle whatsoever.

Conclusion

AWS Spot Management Services is a great way to reduce your costs and improve the performance of your application. It can also help you scale up your application with ease while reducing operational costs.

Knowledge of cost-cutting AWS strategies helps ensure long-term viability. Remember that you are the one who can reduce your AWS costs, not the service provider. Streamline your cloud migration strategy to minimize upfront and ongoing expenses, and utilize AWS cost-effectively.

 

LEARN MORE: Web Development Services of Metaorange Digital

The 6 Layers of Cloud Security and
How you can Maintain Them

Layers of Cloud Security has been one of the most critical aspects of running businesses on the cloud. Over 88% of cloud-related security incidents were caused by human error. Further, there are growing challenges like DDoS attacks in the cloud. Multi-Layer Cloud Security (or 6 Layers of Cloud Security) helps you identify and effectively avoid these threats. Moreover, it is not that difficult to maintain cloud security measures.

Why do we need Layers of Cloud Security?

Security is never an achievement but is always a process in continuity. Even large companies like Twitter, Samsung, and Meta have reported cybersecurity attacks in 2022. These businesses run the bulk of their operations on the cloud. An IBM report on the cost of Data Security shows that the average cost of a cybersecurity attack is almost $10 Million. Notably, one of the most well-known data breaches was on T-Mobile, causing damages of around $350 Million. Here is a list of Data Breaches so far in 2022 if you wish to explore them in detail.

Such attacks often prove to be fatal for small and medium-sized companies that do not have sufficient reserve funds to recover operational capabilities.

Why use a Multi-Layers of Approach?

Layered security refers to security suits based on multiple components that are often independent of each other.

The layered approach to security is based on the Swiss Cheese Model. Here, each security layer is represented by a thin slice of cheese, and each hole on a layer of cheese represents the shortcomings of each layer. An attacker must exploit all the slices’ security flaws to get through the security. Since each flaw(hole) is covered by other layers of security, there is no single way of entry for the attacker.

An example is the commonly used 2-Factor Authentication.

Therefore, a multi-layered approach is highly effective due to cascading security layers. Further, optimizing those security layers on the basis of past experience helps you divert resources toward those threats which possess greater risk.

Maintaining the 6 Layers of Cloud Security

1. Network Layer

The network on which your cloud service operates should have common minimum security such as SSL, VPN security, intrusion detection, prevention of intrusion, and threat management response. Some of these features are often out of date because of user negligence. Further, there should be user-specific enhancements.

2. Application Layer

The application layer protects your web apps from DDoS attacks, HTTP floods, SQL injections, parameter tampering, etc.

The most common way of eliminating these threats is the usage of Web Application Firewalls(WAF), secure Web Gateway Services, etc. These safety features can come in the form of software or as a service.

3. Server Layer

The server layer is vulnerable due to many factors. Some of these are intrinsic, while some are extrinsic. Intrinsic factors such as bugs in the server OS or lowly encrypted servers pose high risks. Extrinsic server risks, such as denial of service or left open network access ports, also pose considerable risk.

Experts best handle the server layer security. Metaorange helps you secure your servers if you host them. It can also advise on shielding from server layer vulnerabilities that can come from your service provider.

4. Data Layer

Back-ups are critical for any business that has considerable data on the cloud. Further encryption of sensitive data is essential for the prevention of data breaches. Data retention and destruction should also be properly handled.

Automating this security layer through automated backups in frequent periods such as daily or weekly is easy. The frequency of backups should depend upon the data change rate on the cloud.

5. Devices Layer

Devices are often the most insecure nodes in cloud security. Malicious agents can use data packets. The type of devices that are at utmost risk is handheld devices: mobiles, tablets, etc., and medical devices which use low-end operating systems.

It is most difficult to control the security of this layer because many devices do not support advanced security solutions.

Constant monitoring is of prime importance, along with taking frequent backups. Metaorange takes care of such situations with dedicated experts. We are the ones who do the heavy lifting so that you can better focus on your business.

6. User Layer

The user layer security often lags due to human error. As much as 88% of cybersecurity incidents were caused by humans.

The solution for maintaining user-layer security is bringing a few best practices that bring human error to almost zero. Continuous education and workshops are essential in inculcating the best habits.

Conclusion

Security is essential for cloud-based businesses as their existence can be wiped out by unauthorized access. Cascading security layers in a way that covers every layer’s holes as described in the Swiss Cheese Model, can reduce overall vulnerability to a bare minimum. Metaorange can also help you monitor each layers of cloud security and fix unseen vulnerable points as they appear. This way, focusing on your business side becomes much easier.

 

LEARN MORE: Cloud Services Of Metaorange Digital

How DevSecOps Empowers Citizen Developers?

By applying the DevSecOps collaborative development paradigm, organizations address development issues caused by a shortage of skilled cybersecurity employees (development, security, and operations). DevSecOps prioritize citizen developers’ tools and incorporate protection on a DevOps basis. We immediately integrate security into every stage of the development cycle, removing the security barrier that frequently stifles the productivity of the DevOps approach. Let’s learn more about how DevSecOps empowers citizen developers.

Creating a DevSecOps Framework

Developers have built, rewritten, and written DevSecOps frameworks multiple times since the inception of the concept. There’s no need to reinvent the wheel when it comes to constructing them, mainly because SAFE Code and the Cloud Security Alliance have already established six pillars:

Collective responsibility

Everyone in the organization is responsible for security, but people can only satisfy standards they understand. The organization should designate leads to drive cybersecurity policy and implement it throughout the company.

Collaboration and Integration

These are required since knowledge must be shared and conveyed. Half of the organizations adopt a legacy attitude because everyone who knew the prior system has left. Continuous knowledge exchange aids in the abolition of this problem.

Pragmatic Application

The developer experience is linked to pragmatic implementation. Complex, monotonous, and cumbersome processes are abandoned quickly. Security should be baked into development techniques, meaning every line of code should be accompanied by a string of test code. A high-performing organization would go further by automating each line of test code with a tool.

Compliance and Development

Compliance requirements should direct the development process in such a way that developers cannot diverge from them. For example, a developer for a financial institution might work on a platform meant to be Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act compliant. The developer does not need to understand the specifics of the legislation to be respectful because they are embedded into the venue.

Automation

Wherever feasible, developers should automate predictable, repeatable, and high-volume tasks to relieve themselves of the effort and limit the risk of human errors.

Monitor

Modern cloud systems evolve and change. It’s critical to maintain track of it — ideally, through orchestration that provides an instant overview of all the numerous relationships.

These pillars are more complex than they appear in a low- or no-code environment. People who use these products are frequently business professionals who need to become more familiar with DevSecOps basics.

Segments Where DevSecOps Empowers Citizen Developers

The adoption of low-code and no-code platforms can aid in the closing of this skills gap. Employees desire to improve their abilities. Enterprises may help by implementing a DevSecOps strategy focusing on people, processes, and technology.

Processes

Low-code and no-code developers cannot create connections that threaten system integrity in a zero-trust environment. Outside of their local system, they have no essential authority.

People

An accountability culture differs from a blame culture. Individuals feel safe coming forward with a problem or error when there is accountability since the attention is on the issue, not the person.

Technology

Because it is out of the developers’ hands, technology is the single most significant impediment to successful DevSecOps deployment. They must take advantage of the resources provided by the organization. If that technology fails, developers will devise neither secure nor safe solutions. Essentially, the technology transforms into a massive shadow IT generator.

Benefits of Empowering Citizen Developers

Here are some ideas for empowering your developers with DevSecOps

1- Developers typically rely on other teams for security and testing, which may be time-consuming. Security risks and vulnerabilities can exist in software, and security analysts or Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) teams are typically tasked to handle software-related security choices. This results in a highly granular solution for software security vulnerabilities. DevSecOps act as extra pair of eyes from developers that can always help with safeguarding the program at the right moment.

2- The greatest security technology isn’t necessarily the best solution for well-managed DevSecOps procedures. It may also be ineffectual if developers are unable to use it (in case the developers oversee security decisions). As a result, developers are familiar with security technologies in order to efficiently generate a quality and safe software product with fewer dependencies.

3- Encourage your developers to automate security testing whenever feasible since it aids in the security of products that move to production regularly (even several times each day), in other words, if you practice continuous deployment.

4- Encourage your developers and teams to do security testing from the beginning of the SDLC. This will aid in the early discovery of security flaws and protect the final software product from security flaws.

Final Words!
There are a number of ways in which DevSecOps can empower citizen developers. So, are you ready to implement DevSecOps? Connect with Metaorange.

 

LEARN MORE: DevOps Services Of Metaorange Digital.

 

10 Things You Should Know Before Planning
Your Migration From One Cloud Platform
To Another

Are you planning for the migration of one cloud to another? Your company should learn from the errors of others if it is contemplating a cloud move as part of an effort to upgrade mission-critical applications. For the same, here is a cloud migration services checklist that covers the essentials for ensuring a smooth transition to the cloud.

Let’s Take a Peek at the 10 Things to Keep a Check During Cloud Migration services

1. Set for Migration Architect Role

The first thing for a business is to choose a cloud migration architect to steer the transition. Those specializing in “migration architecture” will be in charge of the process from start to finish. Establishing migration plans, identifying cloud solution needs, setting priorities, and designing a production switchover method are all squarely within their purview.

2. Define the Level of Cloud Integration

You may use shallow or deep cloud integration to move your on-premises data center to the cloud. Here are these:

Shallow cloud integration

Lift-and-shift describes a type of shallow cloud integration in which minimal alterations are made between the on-premises and cloud environments. Making your on-premise application work in the cloud environment may need minor adjustments, such as those to the servers or the software.

Deep cloud integration

In deep cloud integration, you use the cloud by adapting your application to take advantage of its unique features. Auto-scaling, load balancing, and serverless technologies like AWS Lamda fall under this category.

3. Pick whether to use many clouds or just one

You must decide whether to operate your application in a single cloud for maximum efficiency or a hybrid cloud setup.

Using a single cloud service provider to host your applications is the easiest option. The problem with this strategy is that it leads to dependence on a single provider. Here is where single various cloud providers can be approached in distinct ways:

One application on one cloud, another application in another

This is the most basic multi-cloud strategy, giving you more business leverage with several cloud providers and flexibility in where to place apps in the future.

Distribute your application across several cloud providers

This method makes use of the significant benefits that each cloud service provides. The disadvantage is that your application’s performance depends on both cloud providers, and any faults with any cloud provider will influence the performance.

4. Collect Cloud Key Performance Indicators

KPIs are the statistics you collect to see how well your app or service is doing compared to what you expected (KPI). Using the right key performance indicators (KPIs) throughout a cloud migration will help you track your progress and uncover any issues that may have been hiding in plain sight. Determine the appropriate category and then the Key Performance Indicators that will be used in the migration process.

5. Identify Performance Evaluations

A cloud migration readiness assessment evaluates how well your data center is doing now and how it will function in the cloud. Establishing performance baselines allows you to assess whether or not the move to the cloud has resulted in the promised performance gains.

Although gathering data over a lengthy baseline period is time-consuming, it may be more indicative of the situation. Determine what kind of data you’ll be collecting and for how long, considering the specifics of your field.

6. Establish a priority list for migration features

Understand the interdependencies between different parts and services before moving to the cloud. Utilize a monitoring tool to create dependency diagrams with service mappings if your current on-premise system is extensive and complicated.

7. Refactoring is Required

Before moving to the cloud, you may need to make minor changes to your apps and services to ensure that they perform successfully and efficiently.

8. Make a data-migration strategy

The most challenging aspect of data migration is accessing the data while it is being moved to the cloud. Moving data to the cloud while data-access mechanisms remain on-premises can substantially impact performance. Data migration options include:

  • Utilizing cloud data migration services provided by cloud providers
  • Using a bi-directional synchronizing technique between cloud and on-premise databases.
  • Allow users to connect to the sole on-premise data center and use one-way synchronization between on-premise and the cloud.
9. Organize For Transfer

There are two main techniques:

Move a small amount at a time

Move a few clients to the cloud and test if the application is operating as intended. If so, re-run the test with a few additional consumers. Continue this process until all users have been transferred to the cloud.

Move all at once

 Once your application has been migrated to the cloud and verified, switch the traffic from the on-premise stack to the cloud stack.

10. Examine the application’s resource allocation

Once you’ve completed the migration to the cloud, there are a few additional chores to complete, one of which is resource optimization. The cloud is designed to allow for dynamic resource allocation. You need to use the cloud’s true strength if you statistically distribute resources. As you migrate to the cloud, ensure your team has a strategy for allocating resources to the application.

Get yourself a trustworthy cloud service provider like Metaorange to make things simpler.

They will facilitate cloud migration and enable you to achieve your cloud-based goals quickly.

 

Learn More: Cloud Transformation Services of Metaorange Digital

 

 

 

3 Steps Devops Should Take
To Prevent API Attacks

With the advent of cloud computing and the move from monolithic programs to API First Approach & Microservices. API Attacks have become a critical component in today’s digital world. As more firms provide API access to data and services, these vectors become an appealing target for data theft and malware assaults. An API allows software programs to communicate with one another by regulating how requests are made and processed.

APIs that are not secure pose a severe risk. They are frequently the most vulnerable component of a network, vulnerable to DoS assaults. Therefore, here is where the need for API security comes in. The service ensures API requests are authenticated, authorized, validated, and sanitized under load, thus providing API security. Check out the steps on how you can prevent API attacks.

Simple Steps to Prevent API Attacks

1. Evaluation of Potential API Dangers

Another vital API security strategy is conducting a risk assessment on all of the APIs in your current registry. Take precautions to guarantee they are secure and immune to any potential threats. To stay abreast of recent assaults and malicious malware, check out the “API Security.

We aim to describe a treatment strategy and the necessary controls to reduce risks to an acceptable level by conducting a risk assessment that identifies all systems and data that an API hack may affect.

Track when you conducted the reviews, and repeat checks whenever there is a change in the API or you discover new risks. Before making any further modifications to the code, it is crucial to double-check this documentation to ensure that you have taken all the necessary security and data handling measures.

2. Create a database of APIs

What is not known cannot be protected. It is crucial to keep track of all APIs in a registry, detailing details such as their names, functions, payloads, usage, access, active dates, retired dates, and owners. As a result, we won’t have to deal with any obscure APIs that may have been created due to a merger, acquisition, test, or deprecated version that nobody ever bothered to describe. The logging endeavor’s who, what, and when is vital for compliance and audit purposes and forensic analysis following a security breach.

If you want third-party developers to use your APIs in their own projects, you need to make sure they have access to thorough documentation. We should document all technical API requirements such as functions, classes, return types, arguments, and integration processes in a paper or manual linked to the registry.

3. API Runtime Security

Pay emphasis on API runtime security, which entails knowing what “normal” is like in terms of the API’s network and communication. This allows for detecting asymmetrical traffic patterns, such as those caused by a DDoS assault against the API.

Knowing the sorts of APIs you utilize is crucial since not all technologies can monitor every API. If your tool only knows GraphQL, it is overlooking two-thirds of the traffic, for instance, but the APIs are also done in REST and GPC. A device that uses machine learning or artificial intelligence to detect anomalies might be helpful for runtime security.

When a runtime security system continuously learns and detects a request from an external IP address, it can establish thresholds for aberrant traffic and take steps to shut off public access to that API.

We should send out notifications once abnormal traffic thresholds are reached by the system. They initiate either a human, semi-automated, or automatic action. DevOps should also be able to restrict, geo-fence, and outright prohibit any traffic from the outside.

Wrapping Up!

Enterprises can improve and deliver services, engage consumers, and increase efficiency. They also increase revenues through APIs, but only if they implement them safely. These steps will help you to secure API and prevent attacks. You can also seek professional help from Metaorange in implementing these steps. They are amongst the best professionals to help companies secure their APIs like a pro.

 

Learn More: DevOps Services of Metaorange Digital 

Know All About the
Zero Trust Security Model

Protection against harm is of paramount importance in the online environment. Hackers, spammers, and other cybercriminals prowl the web, aiming to steal personal information and financial information, and damage companies. When protecting a company’s network, the zero trust security model is the way to go.

Statista states that 80% of users have adopted or are considering adopting the newest security model to prevent a data breach. Keep reading to learn more about the zero-trust security model, its guiding principles, and the ways in which it may help you stay one step ahead of cybercriminals.

What Is the Zero Trust Security Model?

A security infrastructure that requires all users, both within and outside the network, to be verified and approved before being given access to any resources, is referred to as the term “zero trust.”

The principle of “never trust and always verify” forms the basis of a zero-trust security model, which protects applications and data by ensuring that only authenticated and authorized people and devices can access them.

On the other hand, traditional methods of network security presume that an organization’s users are trustworthy while labeling any users from outside the company as untrustworthy.

The core notion of a zero-trust security architecture is to restrict an attacker’s privileges as they hop through one subnet to another, making it more challenging for them to travel laterally across a network.

The analysis of context (such as user identification and location, endpoint protection posture, and app/service being requested) establishes trust, which is then validated through policy checks at each step.

How Does Zero-Trust Work?

The Zero-Trust Security Model uses technologies such as identity protection, risk-based inter-authentication, dependable cloud workload innovation, and next-generation endpoint security. To verify a user’s true identity. In a zero-trust network, we consider all connections and endpoints as suspect. We determine access restrictions based on the context in which they were established.

Taking into account factors such as context, which might refer to the user’s function and location or the data to which they need access, can facilitate visibility and control over traffic and users in a particular environment.

For example, when an application or piece of software establishes a connection with a data set through an API, the zero-trust security framework checks and authorizes the connection. Both parties’ interactions should be consistent with the company’s established security protocols.

Zero Trust Security Principles

It is best to understand zero-trust security as a security model since it involves several concepts that demonstrate its usefulness. In this case, they are as follows:

Never Forget to Verify

The Zero-Trust Security Model is underpinned by the philosophy of “never trust, always verify,” which holds that no user or action can be trusted without providing further authentication.

Constant Checking and Making Sure

The idea of the zero-trust model is based on the adage “never trust, always verify.” This means that the process of verifying the identities and permissions of users and machines is ongoing and involves keeping track of who has access to what, how users behave on the system, and how the network and data are changing.

Zero trust has matured into a much more comprehensive approach. It is  including a larger variety of data, risk concepts, and dynamic risk-based rules to give a solid framework for access choices and continual monitoring.

No Confidence in a Least-Privilege Trust Model

The foundation of the Zero-Trust Security Model is the concept of least privilege (POLP). This idea minimizes the attack surface by only granting users the permissions they need to perform a certain activity. Simply put, a member of the human resources department will not have access to the DevSecOps database.

Zero Trust Data

The purpose of zero trust is to guarantee the security of data throughout its transit between various endpoints. Such as computers, mobile devices, server software, databases, software as a service platform, etc. As a result, restrictions are imposed on how the data may be used after access is allowed.

Multi-Factor Authentication

Multi-factor authentication is another critical part of a zero-trust security architecture. Protecting your account using several verification steps, or “factors,” is called multi-factor authentication. Two-factor authentication typically consists of a password and a token generated by a mobile app.

Conclusion

Network security is nothing new, but the Zero Trust Security Model. It is relatively new, and it’s part of a larger philosophy that says you can’t just blindly trust your network. Instead, you should always assume that a link might be harmful and only gain faith in it once you have validated it. Consequently, you should consider reworking your security approach in light of the Zero Trust principle to lessen the likelihood of breaches and bolster your defenses.

 

Learn More: Cloud Services of Metaorange Digital 

How To Achieve Cloud Cost
Optimization Without Affecting
Productivity?

Cloud Cost Optimization with Productivity

The cloud storage cost of migrating to the cloud often looks lucrative, but the problem starts once businesses figure out the expenses of staying on the cloud. Such is the situation for businesses that still need an optimization plan for their cloud services and therefore end up paying multiple times the required budget. An optimization plan can reduce your expenditure and make a proper resource allocation to derive the maximum benefit from your budget.

Why is Cloud Cost optimization? Do I need it?

Cloud storage cost optimization refers to a set of adjustments in your cloud tool suite for providing the same or greater value at the minimum possible cost. The primary goal of any optimization is to maximize the benefit of a product or service for the same budget. It is often misinterpreted as budget cutting, which is done to reduce costs.

For example, if a company needs infrequent access to its archived data. Then using an AWS S3 Intelligent Tier makes much more sense than the S3 Standard Tier, which is more suited for general-purpose data storage. The S3 Intelligent Tier costs 83% less than the S3 Standard Tier.

The need for cloud storage cost optimization doesn’t arise from tight financial conditions but from the fact that the same money can give your business a much greater return on investment. Unnecessary expenditure can often prove fatal for a business, especially during tough financial conditions.

Cloud Cost Optimization without Affecting Operational Productivity

Cloud Optimization is easier than it actually looks. However, it also depends on how better you understand your business. The better you understand your cloud needs, the more price-effective would be your cloud experience.

  • The first activity is to understand your pricing and billing patterns. List the highest expenditures first and try to find their impact on your business. Then see whether better alternatives are available for the same pricing for the high-priority tools. Or cheaper alternatives for the same effectiveness. The aim is to benefit from the budget and not cost-cutting.
  • Repeat the above procedures for all services that are billed.
  • Set monthly or yearly budgets according to your needs. A content delivery service needs greater allocation towards security such as Cloudflare. Similarly, an archival solution needs security first, and hence storage solutions like S3 are preferred.

  • A critical aspect here is to check whether your needs are elastic or rigid in nature. Are you frequently using all the services that you buy?
  • This leads to the next step of identifying Idle Resources. These resources need to be eliminated first. If your payment comes as Bank Cheques, there is no need for an eCommerce-grade integrated payment solution like Stripe.
  • Check whether your services are scalable. Most businesses need to upscale their operations during busy seasons. If you are working on a solution that only gets 100% utilized in a peak month, find monthly plans that are upgradable for a temporary period.
  • Use an automated scaling solution to make sure that you are paying only for the services that you use. Most cloud service providers have an inbuilt solution.

 

 

 

How to gauge the effectiveness of Cloud Cost Optimization?

Analyzing the result of your optimization process is equally as important as the optimization exercise. As each business has its own separate need, the key performance indicators are different for each of them. Some of them can be evaluated within a few days of optimization, while others need a slightly longer time period.

  • Monthly Cost is the greatest indicator of cost optimization. But the cost need not be a deciding factor either. Suppose after your optimization, you gain 15% additional performance with the same budget. Then such an outcome is also very desirable.
  • Forecasted Expenditure. Several times the forecasted expenditure can be a lot greater than previous forecasts. This is specific to businesses with a seasonal trend. You should not end up paying more during your peak businesses than currently. Further, the yearly costs must reduce.
  • The number of Non-utilized Instances. This number should effectively decline after an optimization. Greater un-utilized resources would mean a waste of funds.
  • Consumer Feedback. Finally, there should be no negative feedback that is consistent just after the end of cost optimization. Any such situation must be dealt with swiftly to retain productivity levels.

Conclusion

Cloud services are essential for businesses with everyone’s growing digital presence. But often, arbitrary execution leads to a situation where cloud services are more expensive than they should be, thus affecting profitability. To get the most cost-effective optimization, businesses should focus on cloud optimization services that do not hamper their productivity and monitor it constantly using key performance indicators.

 

Learn More: Cloud Services of Metaorange Digital

Cloud Native Microservices: Securing
Your Infrastructure

In the last several years, as businesses adopted DevOps and continuous testing practices to become more agile, cloud infrastructure for Microservices has become more and more common. Leading internet businesses have abandoned monolithic architectures in favor of cloud native infrastructure for microservices, including Amazon, Netflix, PayPal, Twitter, and Uber.

Microservice Infrastructure

Cloud Native Microservices Security: Safeguarding Your Applications

The programs that make up the monolithic architecture were created as sizable, independent components. These applications are difficult to alter because of how integrated the entire system is. An entirely new version of the program will probably need to be developed and released even if the code is only slightly altered. Scaling monolithic apps is especially challenging since doing so would mean scaling the entire application.

Microservices use a modular approach to software development to solve the issues with a monolithic architecture. In plain English, microservices rethink applications as a collection of several distinct, linked services. Developers deploy each service individually, and each service executes a unique workflow. The services may be created in different programming languages and can store and process data in various ways as required.

Cloud and Microservices

When investing in its digital future, cloud solutions and cloud nativity or cloud native infrastructure for microservices are often the smartest decisions a corporation can make.

On the other hand, a great microservice design offers many worthwhile advantages that also apply to the cloud. Furthermore, it is the most cloud-ready architecture available, designed to integrate quickly and seamlessly with the majority of cloud solutions.

Cloud&Microservices

When an application is organized with many loosely coupled services it is using microservice architecture, which is another variation of the service-oriented architecture. Its structure divides the code into separate services. Although these services are autonomous activities, a system of independent, communicating services uses their output as input.

Changing your organization’s architecture to a microservices one on the cloud may be a game-changer. Business objectives should always be the deciding factor when choosing a microservice architecture, but Refactoring combined with this architecture allows you to decouple the domain functionality into smaller, more manageable groups, which is a huge benefit and makes development and maintenance much simpler.

Benefits of Cloud

  • Elasticity Acquiring resources when you require them and releasing them as you no longer require them. You want to automate this on the cloud.
  • Scalability The requirement for successful, expanding systems frequently rises over time. A scalable system may change to accommodate this increased degree of demand.
  • Availability It speaks about systems that are trustworthy enough to run without interruption all the time. They have undergone extensive testing, and occasionally superfluous parts are included.
  • Resilience The capacity of a system to bounce back after a failure brought on by load, assaults, or failures.
  • Flexibility We may assure more effective version handling and flow separation at the code level by using a simple, template-based approach.
  • Services with Autonomy Attaining a total separation at the service level allows the
  • Decentralized Administration Since each microservice would be autonomously controlled, each team could select the ideal tool for the task at hand.
  • Failure Isolation We may reduce dependencies by letting each service be accountable solely for its own failures.
  • Auto-Provisioning By enabling each microservice’s predetermined/automatic sizing dependent on load.
  • Using DevOps to ensure continuous delivery Utilizing load testing, automated test scripts, Terraform templates, and enhanced deployment quality assurance cycles.

Microservices on the cloud (AWS)

For Relevant Software, choosing microservices on AWS (one of the most popular cloud service providers) can be the right move. It’s good to use comprehensive guidelines on developing containerized microservices using Docker containers on AWS, and deploying Java and Node.js microservices on Amazon EC2. This can construct scalable, economical, and highly effective infrastructures for organizations while adhering to best practices.

This is how AWS’s fundamental microservice architecture looks:

AWSMicroservices

Static material is kept in Amazon S3 while user instances operate on the AWS CloudFront CDN. The Amazon Automatic Load Balancer (ALB) receives incoming traffic and routes it to the Kubernetes cluster with Docker containers running microservices at Amazon ECS.

ElasticCache stores the data in a cache and stores it in any database. It is including Aurora, RDS, and DynamoDB based on the need of the business.

Through the use of Cloud Front CDN, ECS, and caching, this process guarantees unrestricted front-end scalability, application resiliency, and safe data storage.

Modern online applications commonly use REST or RESTful APIs to communicate between their front end, built in one of the JavaScript frameworks, and their back end. Companies often utilize a Content Delivery Network (CDN) such as Amazon CloudFront to deliver static content, which they store in object storage like Amazon S3. Therefore, when end-users connect to an app via the edge node, they experience low latency.”

AWS offers two key strategies to enable the steady operation of RESTful APIs: managed Kubernetes clusters with Docker containers with AWS Fargate and serverless computing with AWS Lambda.

For Infrastructure as code, one can go for AWS CloudFormation. Additionally, if you are in multi or hybrid cloud Terraform can be a good option.

Summary

Microservices are a great option for creating, maintaining, and upgrading scalable and resilient applications. If you have the required knowledge and are able to manage your infrastructure using an in-house or remote team to maximize the cost-efficiency of operations, cloud offers a ton’s of managed building blocks for handling every aspect of a cloud native microservices implementation. It also offers all the tools required to replace these components with open-source alternatives.

 

Learn More: Application Modernization Services of Metaorange Digital 

How is Computing Security Framework
Designed

  1. With many businesses migrating to the cloud, there have been increased instances of attacks and exploitations on them. Making a more robust cloud infrastructure has become vital for smooth business activities. Computing Security frameworks are a set of best practices that help you streamline your security. This further optimizes your expenditure and helps you run a smooth business.

What is a Computing Security Framework?

Cloud Security Framework is a set of documents that outline necessary tools, configurations, cloud best practices, hazard mitigation, and other best practices. It is more comprehensive than a similarly used term called cloud compliance which caters to regulatory policies.

The necessity of Cloud Security

Though cloud security is very standard during current times. It is however essential to go beyond the average standards to ensure better performance. Further, to gain the best security, there must be individual designs for each company such designs cover every aspect that is relevant to a business. This achieves two goals; to address vulnerabilities within a business type and reduce costs. Many businesses overlook the latter, resulting in an unexpected expenditures.

How to design a computing Security Framework?

  1. It is necessary to identify the common security standards for each industry and design a minimum standard framework. Each industry has a separate standard of cloud security. This differs because every industry faces different kinds of threats. For example, a stock exchange faces front-running attacks, whereas native blockchains face “51% attacks”.
  2. The next step is to address compliance regimes that local governments or industry associations mandate. The US uses a NIST-designed framework, which consists of five critical pillars. They are:
    • Identify organizational requirements
    • Protect self-sustaining infrastructure
    • Detect security-related events
    • Respond through countermeasures
    • Recover system capabilities
  3. Next, upgrade those standard frameworks to suit threats that can make your security vulnerable. For example, businesses running wide-scale Business-2-Consumer customer service need to address DDoS attacks, which deny website access by using thousands of coordinated bot attacks.
  4. Make sure that you can manage, upgrade or make changes regularly that best suit the short-term and long-term goals of your business. This includes building sufficient infrastructure and having experts at the shortest notice.
  5. The most critical part is setting user roles. This becomes important as, during an attack, chaos ensues. Setting user roles and bringing them to speed can be done through mock drills. Many organizations also host hackathons to understand these unseen attacks and prepare for them in advance.
  6. Another uncommon and therefore overlooked aspect is the threat from insiders. This threat can be intentional or even an act of omission. Identifying the weak position in the talent pool is critical; otherwise, you will hamper your own efforts.
  7. The next step is to identify the best software, tools, web applications, and other comprehensive solutions that help recover from an attack or prevent one altogether. For example, Cloudflare helps almost all content management businesses avoid DDoS attacks. Similarly, Cisco Systems Cloudlock offers an enterprise-focused CASB solution that helps maintain data protection, threat protection, and identity security and also manages vulnerability.
  8. The next procedure is to document security threats that have been frequent and take steps to minimize them. Risk assessment and actions have to be in coordinated way to ensure smooth processes.
  9. Additionally, making a response plan is very essential in case of a security breach. Data recovery and backups help restore business activities in minimal time. Lost data can cause permanent damage to both business capabilities and reputation.
  10. Raising awareness is also crucial. Around 58% of cyber vulnerabilities in 2021 arose from human error. On average, IBM reports that each security breach costs more than $4 Million.
  11. Finally, a human-related aspect is Zero-Trust Security. This includes authentication of insider and outsider credentials who have system access. Further, these accesses and the related individuals are to be constantly validated for security access. It has to be ensured that no human has access to a system outside their authority or mandated access period.

A Brief Note on Implementation

A strategy is only as good as its implementation. Lack of effective implementation can breach even the best security frameworks. Ensuring implementation is easy when it is done on a regular basis even though the need does not arise.

Conclusion

Cloud Security Frameworks help you deal with present vulnerabilities and prepare for the future. They should be designed to fit each of the companies or businesses they are designed for. These practices help reduce costs and allocate resources where they are most needed. Finally, constant upgrades and employee awareness help these cloud security frameworks achieve the best results.

 

Learn More: Cloud Services of Metaorange Digital 

 

Cloud Optimization Issues
to Resolve in 2023

Having a cloud certainly does not ensure that you will spend less. Sometimes unforeseen expenditures and the requirement for add-on tools for various purposes can burn a hole in your pocket. Well, these requirements cannot be ignored for saving on costs. However, sometimes the organization goes for cloud optimization process to save their expenditures on regular maintenance and cloud adoption. Cloud cost challenges are daunting but they can be avoided.

One of the best ways to avoid them is to find the issues and address them at the earliest. To make it easy for you we have enlisted the issues that you should ponder and resolve in 2023. Keep reading for more!

Unable to Track Cloud Expenses – Cloud Optimization Process

Enterprises consistently face the issue of cloud sprawl. What happens when a business fails to properly monitor and assess its use of cloud computing resources?

The term describes the exponential growth of multiple clouds, cloud computing, or even cloud service providers.

Without the proper resources, how can businesses effectively oversee their cloud expenditures? When there is insufficient time-series billing data and cloud expenditure data, it is difficult to make cost-related judgments. The inability to monitor expenditures made on the cloud has serious financial implications.

Cloud Optimization Process Reservation-Based Decision Making

Businesses typically choose the reservation and savings alternatives instead of the on-demand ones because of the substantial cost savings. While this may seem to be a wonderful bargain for first cloud investment by firms, it is possible that these discounts may need to be extended for many more years. Because of this, efforts to reduce cloud costs will be slower than planned.

Different Cloud Cost Optimization Process Strategies

When trying to reduce expenses in the cloud, businesses shouldn’t focus on just one factor. That is to say, the company as a whole shouldn’t have many teams or departments responsible for overseeing cloud resources & cloud charges. When it comes to establishing new services for a company, DevOps & engineering teams usually take the lead. However, since they rely on the cost flexibility that the cloud provides to do their best work, they don’t always give cloud cost optimization the attention it deserves. However, not all businesses have someone on staff whose only responsibility is to oversee the company’s cloud strategy. Finance, business, & IT managers should work together and establish rules that are in line with budget expenses in order to properly manage cloud expenditures. After all, cloud-based forecasts of consumer spending are all that’s needed for budget approval.

Cloud Optimization Over-provisioning

Over-provisioning, in which businesses purchase more resources from the cloud than they need to serve their workloads, leads to inefficient utilization of the cloud’s resources and, in certain cases, excessive expenditure. You may reduce your dependency on over-provisioned resources by spending less on cloud services, customized monitoring, cost management tools, and rightsizing.

Complex Billing & Cloud Cost Breakdown

Oftentimes, cloud billing is too sophisticated and filled with technical jargon for the finance department to understand. If you use many cloud services or have a hybrid cloud architecture, tracking all of your cloud spendings will be much more of a hassle. Because of this, optimizing cloud costs is more difficult and prone to error. Most cloud service providers also reserve the right to alter their pricing structures at any moment. This means that the company’s cloud expenses might fluctuate widely from one month to the next, requiring frequent reviews of fresh cloud bills.

Fewer Options for Cloud Cost Optimization

Cloud cost optimization takes cues from both native cloud platforms and external cloud management technologies, such as automation and auto-scaling, to correctly size containers and instances. In the meanwhile, businesses may optimize their cloud spending and cut their cloud-related costs dramatically.

Over time, cloud optimization tools monitor inconsistencies and alert groups when unexpected spikes in expenditure on non-essential items emerge. An intuitive dashboard that shows key cost drivers in the corporate cloud and provides immediate recommendations for actions to reduce expenses is invaluable.

Conclusion

It goes without saying that any organization working with cloud computing and cloud storage cannot afford to spend the excess amount on its upkeep and operations. Therefore, the major concerning issues need to be addressed in the first place. As of now, we have learned about the issues related to cloud optimization process that should be addressed. Hope this write-up has served the purpose for you!

 

Learn More: Cloud Services of Metaorange Digital 

Transitioning from DevOps to DevSecOps
Key Tips

The transition from DevOps to DevSecOps may be difficult and complex particularly when considering the dynamic nature of software security. Because security is an ever-changing issue, the transition is an ongoing thing. As DevSecOps practices evolve, so must the tools, governance practices, and developer training. You must be mindful that it involves a complete cultural shift and thus cannot be accomplished overnight. It takes time and dedication. However, there are several tips for doing it efficiently and smoothly to make sure your firm’s a more secure future. Let’s discuss those tips to transition from DevOps to DevSecOps smoothly in this blog post.

What is DevOps?

DevOps is a software engineering method that incorporates all of the best practices for developing a software system with a strong emphasis on software security. The primary goal of DevOps is to reduce overall development time while continuously providing value to the customer. This is accomplished by removing barriers between both the teams that send the source code and the professionals that run the software. It enables one team to effectively understand the role of the other, and it encourages them to cooperate through all stages of the software development life cycle and resolve issues that occurred when these team members were basically working independently. With DevOps, it is easier to adapt to feedback and make changes. Delivery times are shorter, and implementations are more consistent. DevOps ensures that the software development procedure flows smoothly between teams.

What is DevSecOps?

In the past few years, advanced software products have evolved massively. Rather than a monolithic layout, we have microservices that interact with one another and work effectively by employing several third-party services such as APIs or databases. These apps can be run on digital operating systems known as containers, which are hosted on cloud platforms. All of these layers reveal the Software Security risks that could have serious consequences. Furthermore, the extensive infrastructure complexity, as well as the increasing speed and regularity of new releases, make it challenging for security professionals to continuously provide a protected end product.

DevSecOps solves this problem by incorporating Software Security into the DevOps methods. Instead of thinking about security only before bringing out a new feature, the DevSecOps method allows you to think about security from the start and solve problems as they arise. Security teams, like the development and processes teams of the DevOps method, participate in the collaborative process. Essentially, DevSecOps involves all team members contributing to the integration of security into the DevOps CI/CD work process. You will have a better chance of detecting and rectifying potential vulnerability issues if you incorporate security sooner in the workflow.

This is also referred to as “shifting left,” which means that developers play an important role in the Software Security procedure and fix issues in real-time rather than at the end of every release cycle. DevSecOps manages the product’s entire life cycle, from planning to implementation, and provides continuous feedback and insights.

Tips for a smooth Software Security from DevOps to DevSecOps

Now, let’s discuss the 4 major tips that make the Software Security from DevOps to DevSecOps smooth.

Develop a framework specifically for DevSecOps

Effective governance requires a Software Security framework customized to DevSecOps. The framework must define the security activities and tasks carried out across the pipeline of continuous integration/continuous development (CI/CD). Each of those activities, in turn, must have a specified KPIs or criterion, in addition to a risk-bearing that measures the development of application code in the pipeline.

The KPIs and tasks assigned may differ depending on the app’s (or microservice’s) business affect analysis rating. Security professionals can choose to use a required baseline that applies to all code and a more strict standard for important apps on top of that. This enables developers to have transparency into governance requirements, allowing them to plan and deliver more efficiently.

Cultural change

Developers can fulfill all necessary tasks and actions when DevSecOps solutions are properly implemented. Changing culture requires keeping the human element in mind. The developers will be in full control of not only running the security operations (both automated and manual) but also resolving any problems that occur. They’ll need a basic understanding of Software Security as well as the ability to develop and enforce it. In a large team, developers’ knowledge and skills will vary.

More specifically, you should promote a mindset change that fully embraces security. This is essential for reducing alert fatigue and minimizing disturbance in the CI/CD pipeline. One method, in addition to training, is to identify and promote “security champions” inside the developer team. These security leaders will become the “go-to” people for everything security. They should also foster a long-term mindset change among developers.

Create a DevSecOps Center of Excellence.

Create a center of excellence to help in the smooth transition to DevSecOps. This is a core, cross-functional team responsible for conducting research, developing best practices, and automating manual tasks. Users who have already established a DevOps center of excellence should expand it to add security. One of the team’s primary goals is to create templates for security features and tasks to make sure they are repeatable. They will also help in the fine-tuning of tooling components to minimize false positive results. With a centralized team, your procedure for reducing the risk or carrying out a task is more likely to be uniform across the organization. A DevSecOps center of excellence will also accelerate the business’s overall implementation of Software Security.

Integrate and automate security governance

You may be familiar with the “shift left” practice in DevSecOps. Bringing testing previously in the software development life cycle (SDLC), helps to improve quality and security. As more DevSecOps best practices are automated, it becomes more difficult to identify the metrics necessary (as defined by the framework) to show that compliance and security requirements are met.

As a result, a DevSecOps framework must include a method to monitor governance throughout the software Security delivery process’s life cycle. Governance automation necessitates careful monitoring of the associated tools and platform. They must adhere to the performance measures and thresholds established by the security gate. Businesses will benefit from this as it allows for quicker software delivery and improved employee confidence.

Final Thoughts

It is more crucial than ever to provide Software Security. Transitioning from DevOps to DevSecOps is now a requirement for organizations that understand the importance of security to their customers and business. Change is a difficult task with numerous challenges, but the benefits for the business outweigh the time, effort, and mental change needed.

 

Learn More: DevOps Services of Metaorange Digital

How Important Is Observability For
Modern Applications

You need to have the necessary insights into an issue in order to develop a workable solution. Because unexpected faults and malfunctions frequently occur in distributed systems. Observability in modern applications makes it possible to identify the root causes and develop workable solutions.

Operating a distributed system is challenging due to the complexity of the system as well as the unpredictable nature of failure mechanisms. The number of potential failure scenarios is growing as a result of rapid software delivery, continuous build deployments, and current cloud architectures. Regrettably, standard monitoring technologies are no longer able to assist us in overcoming these obstacles.

Modern Application Problems

The monolithic architecture was first used by IT behemoths to construct their apps since it was more practical at the time. They all encountered similar challenges and eventually concluded that they should use microservices and event-driven architecture patterns. These patterns allow for individual creation, scaling, and deployment. The speed and scalability of application delivery have grown dramatically as a result, but on the downside, managing these microservice installations has added a new level of operational complexity. Working with older technology has the advantage of only having a small number of failures. It is simpler to design these complicated systems by using application programming interfaces (APIs) to expose fundamental business functions and facilitate service-to-service communication.

These four fundamental concerns are being addressed by any business or organization that is using these microservices and API-based architectures:

  • Do the services and APIs offer the functionality for which they were created?
  • Are the APIs and services secure?
  • Do you, as a business, comprehend how people utilize APIs?
  • Are the services/APIs giving the user the best performance possible?

What Is Observability in modern applications?

The term “observability” originated from control theory. It is a branch of engineering that concentrates on automating the control of a dynamic system based on input from the system. Such as water flow through a pipe or a car’s speed across hills and valleys.

Observability is the ability to understand a complex system’s internal state or condition only based on the knowledge of its external outputs. The more visible the system is, the quicker and more precisely you can pinpoint the root cause of a performance problem without additional testing or coding.

Observability_2

Why Do We Need Observability?

APM systems collect telemetry, which includes application and system data known to be related to application performance problems, by routinely sampling it. It analyzes the telemetry in relation to key performance indicators (KPIs) and compiles the results in a dashboard. In order to notify operations and support teams of anomalous situations that need to be addressed in order to resolve or avoid difficulties.

APM systems can monitor and troubleshoot monolithic applications or conventional distributed applications. These applications issue new code regularly, and the processes and dependencies between application components, servers, and associated resources are well-known or simple to trace.

In recent days advanced development practices and cloud-native technologies are being adopted by organizations. Due to the adoption of modern applications and faster time to market. Some of the examples are Docker containers, Kubernetes, serverless functions, agile development, continuous integration, continuous deployment (CI/CD), DevOps, multiple programming languages, etc.

They are now releasing more services than ever as a result. APM’s once-a-minute data sampling, however, is unable to keep up with how frequently they are deploying new application components, in how many different places, in how many different languages, and for how vastly different amounts of time (for seconds or fractions of a second, in the case of serverless services).

Modern System Observability

How Does Observability in modern applications Work?

Application observability solutions integrate with existing instrumentation built into application and infrastructure components. They provide tools to add instrumentation to these components in order to continually identify and gather application performance telemetry. The four primary telemetry kinds, the three observability pillars of logs, metrics, traces, and dependencies are the emphasis of application observability.

  • Logs –  Engineers can use logs and other tools to create a high-fidelity, millisecond-by-millisecond record of every event that might be in binary, structured, or plain text forms, including context, so that they can “playback” the record for troubleshooting and debugging purposes. Logs are discrete, comprehensive, timestamped, and unchangeable records of application events.
  • Metrics – Metrics, also known as time-series metrics. Metrics are basic indicators of the performance of an application or system over a specified time period. Examples of metrics include how much memory or CPU a program uses over the course of five minutes. Examples of metrics also include how much latency it experiences during periods of high usage.
  • Traces – Traces record the complete traversal of every user request from the UI or mobile app. Through the fully distributed architecture and back to the user.
  • Dependencies – Dependencies, often known as dependency maps. Show how each application component depends on other apps, other components, and IT resources.

Summary

Modern application designs greatly improve scalability and resilience while streamlining the procedures for system deployment and change. DevOps teams must now more than ever achieve end-to-end observability due to the increasing complexity these systems bring.

 

Learn More: Application Modernization Services of Metaorange Digital 

SAAS Pricing Models of Multitenant
Solutions

Maintaining a healthy profit margin as your service expands in scope and the number of tenants is the goal of any pricing strategy. Designing appropriate price structures for your product is crucial when creating a commercial multitenant solution. Here, we inform technical decision-makers about the various SAAS Pricing Models they can evaluate and the advantages and disadvantages of each.

Exploring SAAS Pricing Models: Finding the Perfect Fit for Your Business

When developing a pricing model (or, SAAS Pricing Model) for your product, it is essential to strike a balance between the service’s cost and the return on value (ROV) for customers. A higher return on investment (ROI) for businesses could result from providing more adaptable payment plans for clients. However, this could increase the solution’s architectural and commercial complexity (and, therefore, your COGS).

Let’s break down the meaning of “Multi-tenant Solutions”

The term “multi-tenant” describes a type of cloud computing architecture in which multiple tenants (or users) work together in the same virtual space. Using this design, information belonging to one customer is completely hidden from the data belonging to another. Sharing hosting resources across many applications is an example of multitenancy in cloud computing. Public cloud services typically employ a multi-tenancy approach, with Amazon AWS, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud Platform (GCP) leading the pack.

The success of your business depends on several factors:

Models for the cost of Azure services

Which models are financially viable may depend on the pricing structures of Azure or third-party services that form the basis of your solution.

Habits while using a service

Your solution’s users may only need it during business hours, or there will be minimal active users.

Expansion of the storage facilities

The majority of answers build up a database over time. More data equals more storage and security costs, cutting your profitability per renter.

The isolating of a tenant

The degree to which your tenants are separated depends on your tenant arrangement. Do you have to worry about tenants abusing or overusing your shared resources if you provide them? What are the implications for your COGS and overall performance? Some pricing structures can’t turn a profit without more oversight over how resources are used. A flat rate pricing strategy may not be viable without additional measures, such as service throttling.

The duration of a lease.

Profitability may be lower for solutions with higher client attrition rates or services requiring more onboarding work, primarily if the pricing depends on consumption.

SLAs, or service-level agreements.

When tenants want more from you, it could signify that your solution is no longer financially viable. To properly develop your pricing models, you must first grasp the service-level expectations of your clients and the responsibilities you must fulfil.

Standardized methods of costing

Multitenant solutions can use a variety of standard pricing structures. There are architectural implications and business issues unique to each pricing scheme. Keeping your solution profitable as it matures requires understanding the nuances between various pricing schemes.

Pricing is dependent on what is consumed

Pay-as-you-go (PAYG) refers to a consumption paradigm. The more people utilize your service, the more money you’ll make.

Simple factors, such as the volume of data being contributed to the solution, can be considered when calculating consumption. Another option is to take into account multiple usage characteristics simultaneously. Although consumption models’ many advantages are clear, they can be challenging to apply in a multi-tenant setting. The complexity of your application’s charging operations could rise if you implement and support capacity reservations. Managing the refund and exchange processes for customers’ capacity reservations is another potential source of commercial and operational complications.

Individual user price

The service charges customers on a per-user basis, depending on how many people use it. Per-user pricing models are often used in multitenant solutions because they are easy to implement. However, their use is associated with several business risks.

Tariffs based on the number of users

In contrast to the per-user pricing model, which requires an estimate of the client’s anticipated usage, the usage-based pricing model simply charges the customer for those users who access the service within a given billing cycle.

Any reasonable time frame will do for this measurement. Since monthly cycles are so prevalent, this measure is sometimes denoted as monthly active users.

Costing on a per-item basis

The total cost of goods sold (COGS) is affected by several factors beyond the system’s user base. For instance, the number of devices often affects the cost of goods sold in device-oriented solutions, commonly known as the internet of things or IoT. A per-unit pricing model can be used in such systems, where a unit can be anything from a single device to an entire network.

As an added complication, the COGS of some solutions might be significantly impacted by a relatively small number of users. It is possible, for instance, that a solution marketed for traditional stores may benefit from a per-location price structure.

Levels of service and features used to determine cost.

You may charge your solution’s various levels of functionality differently. As an illustration, you could offer two different monthly flat rates or per-unit costs, one for a stripped-down version of your product with fewer features and the other for the entire suite. This concept has the potential to be profitable for businesses, but it requires refined engineering techniques to implement well. Nevertheless, this strategy, if well thought out, has great potential. Customers tend to choose feature-based pricing since they can pick the service tier that best suits their needs, regardless of how many features or extensions the service is. It also helps you identify which clients would benefit from additional features or redundancies and how to upsell them best.

Using a freemium model

A free tier of your service could include limited features and no SLA (service level agreement). On the other hand, you might consider a premium paid tier with SLA and other added benefits. A timed trial version of the free tier is another option; customers will have access to all features or subsets of them. “freemium” describes this (saas pricing models) pricing strategy , which is a further development of the “feature-based” approach.

Pricing based on production costs

If you want to avoid making a profit off of your solution, you might set the price so that each tenant pays just what it takes to run their portion of the Azure services. This method, also known as pass-through cost or pricing (or, saas pricing models), is sometimes utilized for non-profit multitenant systems. However, the cost of goods sold approach works best regarding internal-facing multitenant methods. This is because your Azure resource expenses must be allocated across all the tenants in your firm. It could also make sense if the business model relies on selling complementary products and services used in tandem with the multitenant offering.

Predetermined rates

You charge a monthly or annual fee using your solution in this pricing strategy. Regardless of usage or other factors, all customers pay the same flat rate. Enterprise customers frequently request this approach since it is easiest to deploy and understand. However, if you keep adding new services or tenant consumption rises without corresponding revenue increases, it can quickly become unprofitable.

Promotional Costs

Once you have established your price strategy, you can adopt commercial methods like offering discounts to encourage expansion. Price reductions can be applied to consumption, per-user, and per-unit pricing structures (or SAAS Pricing Models). In most cases, the only architectural adjustment needed to accommodate a discount pricing model is the additional support for a more intricate billing system. The scope of this paper does not permit an in-depth analysis of the commercial advantages of discounting.

Standard forms of discounted pricing include:
Set costs

No matter how much you buy or consume, the price remains the same per user, unit, or consumption. To put it simply, this is the easiest method. Customers who use your solution frequently may believe that they should receive a price break due to economies of scale.

Price discrimination

The price per item is lowered when volume increases, either through customer purchases or consumer consumption. Clients will find this more commercially appealing.

Tiered pricing structure

With the increased volume, you can lower the price per item. However, you make these adjustments in discrete steps. For example, you may set a higher price for the first 100 users, a reduced price for the subsequent 101 to 200 users, and a lower price after that. Potentially more money can be made.

Discounts for non-production settings

Customers often need a staging or development area to run their tests, conduct training or write their docs. Consumption and cost to operate are typically lower in non-production settings. Similarly, clients assume testing and development environments will cost much less than production. Assuming you’re providing non-production environments, you have a few options that could work:

  • Provide a free tier, similar to what you provide for paying consumers. This needs close monitoring because some companies may set up numerous test and training environments, each requiring its own resources to run.
  • Provide a limited version of your service for trial or educational purposes. Customers without a current paid tenant will not be able to use this plan.
  • Provide non-production tenants with a reduced or no service level agreement and lower per-user, per-active-user, or per-unit cost.
  • Tenants that pay by square foot may be able to include a non-production area in their lease agreement.
Pricing strategies that fail to earn a profit

If your cost to provide the service exceeds its revenue, your pricing plan is not profitable. For instance, you may charge a flat payment per tenant with no limits on usage yet construct your service using Cloud resources based on consumption and without constraints on usage by individual tenants. Tenants overusing your service could drive your costs up to an unsustainable level.

We should avoid less profitable pricing structures in most cases.It’s possible, though, to employ a non-profitable pricing strategy in the following circumstances:

  • To facilitate expansion, a no-cost service is provided.
  • Services and additional features are examples of ways businesses might generate extra income.
  • One business benefit of hosting a particular tenant is that they can serve as an anchor tenant for a new market.
  • There are measures you may take to lessen the blow if you accidentally develop a loss-making pricing strategy, such as–
  • Put usage caps in place to restrict access.
  •  Utilize seat reservations to ensure enough service
  • A request to upgrade the tenant’s service plan is made.
To sum up 

In most cases, you’ll need to make some educated guesses about the solution’s expected usage before you can begin developing a SAAS Pricing Models price strategy for it. Your pricing model could lose money if these presumptions are wrong or usage trends shift over time. Risky pricing strategies are those that could eventually lead to losses. Typically, new functionality will be added to SaaS Pricing Models systems regularly. As a result, the ratio of benefits to users (ROV) rises, which could boost the product’s uptake. If the adoption of new features increases utilization but is not reflected in the price model, the solution may become unprofitable.

 

Learn More: Application Modernization Services of Metaorange Digital 

Build Vs Buy : Custom Software Solutions

Often, entrepreneurs find it difficult to decide between build vs. buy software. They believe that buying software is more cost effective solutions than building it. However, this is not always the situation.

Buying software may seem a breeze at the outset; however, there are a lot of variables that you must consider before making the decision.

Moreover, you don’t need to have an in-house team to build software solutions; there are third-party vendors who can do it for you.

Whether you build or buy your technology, it must serve your business objectives.

When to construct vs. acquire: a decision-making framework

Cost Effective software solutions are becoming increasingly important to businesses. These Cost Effective solutions are needed for organizations to strive and operate successfully in this competitive market. Research indicates that investment in business software will reach over $572 billion by 2022.

Whether you decide which is Cost Effective Solutions to build your own software or buy it, it must be beneficial to your company.

The Pain Points To Address

Buying or developing new software is a significant investment if it will help you address a pressing issue. So, the first and foremost factor to consider before making a decision is whether the software will help you address the pain areas of your business, be it internal or external.

Not One-Size-Fits-All

The ready-made solutions are developed with a focus on addressing generic concerns. The requirements of your company won’t necessarily be addressed by utilizing those solutions. Know that every company is different, presenting its own set of challenges and demands that must be met. A ready-made software solution may be able to address some of your business concerns but not all.

Cost Effective Solutions

Pricing plays a crucial role when it comes to deciding between build vs. buy. Undoubtedly, pre-made software solutions are Cost Effective than the ones you will build on your own. However, cost should not be the only criterion for making such a worthwhile business decision.

Inputs, Outputs, and Timeframes

In the world of software, there are more hidden expenses than just time and money. Even with already existing software, the cost of adding on extra features and customizations can quickly pile up.

Even if you plan to develop in-house software, there are a lot of things you may need to consider, such as:

  • How many people do you need to create in-house software?
  • Their level of expertise.
  • Are they competent enough to create the solution that you need?
  • In addition, for how long will this be?

Then, there will be technical debt. When problems arise during development that require more time and effort to fix, this is known as technical debt.

In the absence of proper planning, you may end up spending a lot of money on developing your own software.

Integrations

Proper integration of software is a MUST. It should be more in-depth than simply “connecting with Zapier” while building or buying new technology.

Who takes responsibility for resolving problems if integration fails?

Whether you build or buy new technology, ensure a clear integration strategy is in place. When developing new tools, it’s important to plan for integration with existing programs (if it needs to). Consider the complexity of the integration process by assessing the development languages used in the acquisition.

Support

Customer assistance is essential throughout product launches, feature sets, handovers, and development and maintenance.

No matter how fantastic your solution is, it will be useless if your consumers can’t get the help they need.

Whether you build your own Cost-Effective solution or buy one, a proper support system must be there.

Build or Buy: Which one is Cost Effective Solutions?

Buying ready-made software is not always feasible. Of course, building one, especially when you’re just starting up or are planning to expand your business, can add to your cost.

All in all, investing time and money into creating or purchasing software that doesn’t help you achieve your business goals or set you apart is a waste.

So, what’s the Cost Effective solution, then?

Get it built! Yes, there are many software providers who can help you develop a customized solution fitting your business needs. This way, you will be able to save both time and money.

Investing in an already built solution is not a great option as it may not fulfill all your needs. And to develop your own Cost Effective solutions, you may need to spend a lot of money on teams, tools, etc., which is of no use at all.

More often than not, software solution providers have experts in their teams. They first understand your needs and accordingly design your solution.

All you have to do is to outsource a Cost-Effective solutions provider and get a solution built for your company.

If you’re looking for one such company, then contact us!

We have a team of highly experienced and talented programmers who can provide you with an exceptional solution that will help you STAND OUT!

 

Learn More: Application Modernization Services of Metaorange Digital 

Low-Code and No-Code: Fueling Enterprise Solutions

In this era of dog-eat-dog competition, it is hard to accomplish the business goals without a comprehensive suite of Enterprise Solutions of software to back up Low-Code and No-Code the many internal operations.

Having access to the appropriate tools is a MUST in today’s competition. The right Enterprise Solutions can help your business grow tremendously. With the right solution, you would be able to improve the effectiveness of the processes, cut down on manual labor, save time, and speed up the operation as a whole.

Wondering how you can do that when your team doesn’t possess the required knowledge?

Well, worry not!

There is a key to every lock, including this one as well.

So, if you want to know the solution, continue reading this post. In this post, we shall discuss the Low-Code and No-Code platforms for Enterprise Solutions.

Let’s get started…

What are Low-Code and No-Code Platforms?

The Enterprise Solutions “low-code” and “no-code” refer to two different types of development platforms. These platforms are tools for those who do not know how to code or do not have the time to code.

End users are not concerned with the minutiae of these low-code and no-code frameworks, despite the fact that they are built on genuine programming languages such as PHP, Python, and Java.

They are instead provided with graphical software development environments in which they may move program components about by dragging and dropping, linking them, and observing the results of their actions.

In practice, it may be used as a familiar wizard-style paradigm to construct, test, and even deploy Enterprise Solutions and applications that are fully focused on ease of use.

Low-code development accelerates Enterprise Solutions for application development. The process of designing an application can be made easier with the assistance of web-based drag-and-drop functions, as well as reusable application components and in-built libraries.

Companies are now able to deploy their applications in a shorter amount of time and implement updates with less notice.

What exactly is “enterprise application?”

Software that large organizations utilize to build and operate company operations, such as sales, marketing, customer support, supply chain, CRM, and many more some examples of enterprise applications. They connect to or integrate with other corporate applications, which results in a larger enterprise system overall.

These applications are developed specifically for use in large businesses with hundreds or thousands of employees.

How low-code and no-code platforms are disrupting the development of Enterprise Solutions?

Platforms that need little to no coding at all have become more popular as a viable alternative to traditional methods of application creation. The low-code and no-code platforms can be used to develop strong, scalable, and secure Enterprise Solutions in no time.

In many cases, neither commercially available software nor bespoke solutions can satisfy the requirement that businesses have for the rapid implementation of highly specialized business applications. In such a situation, low-code and no-code platforms come in handy.

Research indicates that by the year 2024, three out of every four large businesses will be utilizing a minimum of four low-code development tools for developing enterprise-level applications.

So, if you’re wondering whether or not Low-Code/No-Code Good for Enterprise Solutions, then read ahead.

Is Low-Code/No-Code Good for Enterprise Solutions?

The quickest answer to this is YES!

Developing Enterprise Solutions using low-code and no-code platforms is great. These platforms can not only create user-friendly applications but also address several business issues, such as lack of coding knowledge for developing code-intensive solutions, budget constraints, bandwidth issues, and so on.

No-code tools give non-developers the ability to create, change, and use Enterprise Solutions programs with ease. Software with low or no coding requirements enables businesses to respond quickly and nimbly to changing customer demands.

Aside from that, they assist businesses in solving business problems and improving team cooperation and productivity. With the help of no-code platforms, companies can accomplish their corporate objectives and develop a mature digital ecosystem. The “low code” features allow them to operate more quickly and effectively.

In contrast to the conventional way of writing complex codes, low-code and no-code platforms allow users to build complete Enterprise Solutions through the use of a visual development methodology.

The two approaches, low-code and no-code are distinct from each other and cannot be substituted for one another, although their combination produces the best results.

No-code platforms allow business users without prior coding skills to construct applications from reusable, functional building parts.

While with low-code platforms, developers can write some code to use during the process of creating new apps.

Both platforms have significantly simplified and sped up the app development procedure.

When used together, low-code/no-code platforms make it possible to rapidly construct software applications. Simultaneously they meet specific business requirements using the skills and resources that are already available.

Wrapping it up…

Enterprise Solutions are all about low-code/no-code platforms. Hopefully, this article has been informative for you and has helped you understand that these two platforms are good for developing Enterprise Solutions.

If using no-code and low-code seems like a task, then contact us. We at Metaorange Digital, can help you develop the best and most user-friendly Enterprise Solutions.

Contact us for more information [email protected]

Learn More: Office 365 & Power Apps Services of Metaorange Digital

Is Cloud Cheaper in the Long run?

The concept of “the cloud” refers to more than simply an excellent new way to keep your media files in the cloud. It’s a component of a business strategy that’s rapidly expanding around the globe. As a result of cloud computing, many companies are rethinking their whole approach to data storage, management, and access.

When it comes to cloud computing, larger companies have an advantage. They can access all the required service benefits and collaborate with the big cloud providers. But the cloud can be accessible to businesses of all sizes.

The benefits of cloud computing cannot be overstated; it allows for more adaptability, data recovery, low or no maintenance, quick and simple access, and increased security.

Moreover, the only thing that has remained the same over the decades is that change is inevitable. One thing is unavoidable, especially in technology, and that is change. This is true regardless of global pandemics, macroeconomic or microeconomic uncertainties, or geopolitical unrest.

In addition, cloud computing’s rapid growth in popularity among SOHO (small office/home office) and SMB (small and medium-sized business) owners can be attributed to its cost-cutting benefits. In reality, businesses of all sizes and across all sectors are moving to the cloud to take advantage of its cost-effective speed and efficiency improvements.

Let’s understand the term “Cloud Computing”?

Cloud computing is the practice of making available, over the internet, information technology resources on demand for a fee.

Paying for access to a cloud computing service can be a viable alternative to purchasing and maintaining your hardware and software solutions. It’s cheaper and easier than doing everything by yourself!

The Money You Can Save Thanks to Cloud Computing

Low or No Initial Costs

Moving to the cloud from an on-premises IT system has much lower initial expenditures. When you’re responsible for your server management, unforeseen expenses may be connected with maintaining the system.

The cloud service provider can meet all your infrastructure requirements at a flat monthly rate. Furthermore, cloud services are analogous to other utility options. The cloud service handles all necessary upkeep, and you pay only for the resources you use.

Highest Capacity for Hardware Use

Providers of cloud servers can save money by consolidating and standardizing the hardware used in their data centers. When you move to a cloud-based model, the cloud provider’s server architecture handles your workload and the computing demands of other clients.

This will ensure that all hardware resources are used to their utmost potential, depending on the demand. When using the cloud, businesses can save money since the cloud service provider can take advantage of economies of scale.

Effortless Energy Cost Cuts

An in-house information technology infrastructure, especially one with always-on servers, can have astronomical energy needs. This highlights the necessity of strategically deploying IT resources. There’s a risk of inefficient server use and rising energy costs when handling IT in-house.

On the other hand, cloud computing is highly effective and requires less energy. Maximizing server efficiency means less money spent on electricity. Your cloud service provider can charge you much less for the systems you use since they save so much money on energy.

No Internal Group

You must be aware of the high cost of maintaining an in-house IT department if you have been responsible for administering an IT system on your own. Due to the specialized nature of IT jobs, earnings and wages tend to be on the higher end. The industry’s high pay scales can also be traced back to the talent crunch. Then there are the expenses and headaches of hiring and housing the squad.

With cloud computing, you don’t have to worry about maintaining a local IT department to meet your demands. Not having an in-house team also means not paying for team members benefits and salaries. The costs of things like an office lease are not included either. In addition, you won’t have to stress about how things will proceed without a key employee.

If you currently have IT staff, put them to use in areas of the business, such as app development, where you can save the most money.

Eliminates Redundancies

Internal IT management faces a significant challenge from redundancies. You can’t rely on just one piece of hardware to keep system management running well. In the event of a system failure or crash, backup hardware must be ready to take over.

More expensive hardware is worth it, but it will increase your budget. In addition, whether you utilize them or not, they still need regular maintenance. To pay for upkeep on useless hardware is a waste of money.

Migrating to the cloud is a low-cost option for meeting your redundancy needs. Typically, cloud service providers use a network of data centers to store your information and guarantee its availability in the event of a data center failure. With cloud computing, your system can be up and running again quickly after a catastrophic event such as a flood, fire, or system crash.

To conclude

While using the cloud can assist cut expenses, it can also be an integral part of an organization’s strategy and, in some cases, the foundation for unrivaled competitive advantage and market supremacy.

 

Learn More: Cloud Services of Metaorange Digital 

Multicloud Storage Adoption Challenges
And Best Practices

Cloud adoption  has been a slow process for many organizations, but that’s changing. In 2018, more than half of the Fortune 100 companies were using some form of Multicloud storage,or cloud computing services from Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, or Google Cloud Platform (GCP). The number of businesses moving to the cloud is expected to grow by another 40% within the next five years.

But before you can make your transition to a Multicloud environment. You must understand how it will impact your organization and the risks involved with these changes.

MultiCloud

Multicloud Storage Skills and Resources

The biggest challenge to Multicloud adoption is the skills and resources required. You need people with cloud experience, but also those who can help you get started.

You also need money. Many organizations do not have adequate funds in their budgets for an extensive migration strategy. The large-scale project management activities like they would if they were moving from on-premises to cloud-hosted applications (often called legacy apps).

Cloud Platform Lock-in

The cloud is a big investment, and you want to make sure that your cloud provider is right for your business. With so many options available, it can be difficult to choose the right one. However, lock-in isn’t just a risk for small businesses—it’s also an issue for large enterprises that want to move their data over time.

Lock-in has two main causes:

  • The first cause is when vendors decide which platforms they’re going to use because of their internal policies or because they think customers will demand these features for them to stay competitive. This can lead smaller companies into situations where they have no choice but to stay with one vendor forever (especially if there are few alternatives).
  • On top of this issue is bad news for consumers who end up stuck on outdated products without any real alternative options available at all times; it’s also bad news since it means less innovation overall since new ideas aren’t tested against existing systems before being implemented into production environments (which means less innovation overall).

Multicloud Storage Costs

Costs are always a concern, but they can vary depending on the provider and service. For example, if you’re using an enterprise cloud provider that offers a multi-cloud approach (that is, multiple clouds), then your cost will be lower than if you were to use only one cloud provider with its own data center infrastructure.

If your organization doesn’t have any experience with public clouds yet but is interested in using them as part of your Multicloud storage strategy, there are some cost-cutting options available :

  • Avoiding purchasing dedicated hardware by using virtual machines instead
  • Using third-party services such as Amazon Web Services (AWS) instead of buying internal servers yourself

Multicloud Storage Application Performance, Latency, And Security

The Application performance, latency, and security are the top challenges for cloud adoption. Application performance is the number one challenge. Because it directly impacts how users interact with a system. How much value they derive from it. This can be measured in terms of things like response time (how long it takes to get back), throughput (how many requests per second), or latency (the average time between when an event happens and when your request is processed).

Latency is the second most important factor affecting user experience. If there’s a slow response time or poor performance during peak hours, customers will switch providers. Because they don’t want to deal with those issues anymore. And security concerns are also directly tied to application performance—if someone hacks into your system, then anyone else who uses that same server could also be at risk!

Migration Strategy

As you’re planning your migration strategy, it’s important to understand your current environment and goals. You may have a lot of data in place, but if you don’t know how much capacity there is or what the underlying hardware is like, then it will be difficult for you to decide which cloud providers are best for your needs. For example:

  • If there aren’t enough storage space on-premises (or even local), then migrating apps into one virtual machine instead of several physical ones will reduce costs while still giving them access to all their data.
  • If employees want to access from any device with an internet connection—and they do—then migrating them over may not be possible because they can’t be transferred offsite quickly enough during peak periods when demand is high and servers aren’t available locally anymore.”

Cloud Operations Strategy

The next challenge is to manage cloud services and applications as a portfolio. You can use a cloud management platform to manage your cloud services and applications, which allows you to keep track of all of them in one place. This helps with monitoring, security, and control over the entire stack.

A good example of this would be the Google Cloud Platform (GCP). It offers many tools that help organizations monitor their infrastructure more effectively:

  • G Suite Enterprise edition has built-in reporting functionality which helps customers analyze data across all platforms (private clouds, public clouds like AWS or Azure), users within each organization who use different mobile devices (Android phones vs iPhones), etc., so they can understand how much storage space each user consumes per day/month/year, etc., based on usage trends over time.
  • Machine learning models enable automated discovery of potential problems before they become serious issues – such as detecting when someone is using too much bandwidth unexpectedly because they forgot about it getting billed as usual but didn’t realize until later when checking their account balance online;

Multicloud is growing in interest and adoption, but that doesn’t mean it’s the right option for your organization or, it will solve your challenges. Especially, if you’re not prepared to deal with the complexities of Multicloud management and operations.

Multicloud storage is a complex environment

You need to think about how each cloud service provider will deliver their services. How they’ll manage them; how all this fits together into a cohesive whole. And then there’s also the issue of who owns each part of your infrastructure—and what happens when any one part fails? Do you have an Operations Center (OC) team dedicated specifically to monitoring these services 24/7? If not, where do they come from? What skill sets do they require? And can they scale as needed when problems arise mid-day rush hour traffic jam on I-5 where everyone else has stopped dead because some idiot just tried driving through someone else’s lane onto their own side of the road.

Conclusion

This is a complex topic and it’s important not to get caught up in the hype. We’re excited about Multicloud Storage. It has a lot of potential, but we also want everyone to be aware. This is still very much an emerging technology with evolving best practices. Forcing your organization into the Multicloud model without planning for these challenges could lead to serious problems down the road. It’s better to work with your cloud provider on a strategy that matches your needs today. So you can make sure you don’t regret it tomorrow!

 

Learn More: Cloud Services of Metaorange Digital 

Application Modernization Patterns And Antipatterns

In today’s times, Enterprise Application Modernization is imperative for organizations and businesses. Technology leaders have the sound idea that in order to drive business value, infrastructure needs to be evolved. It makes the business operations more flexible, efficient and cost effective.

Here comes the concept of app modernization!

It is a practice of upgrading the old software for the new computing approaches. It includes the new implementation of languages, frameworks, and infrastructure platforms. The modern and advanced technologies like containerization on cloud platforms and serverless computing mean that businesses need to meet their respective objectives.

Additionally, there are an overwhelming array of potential paths. Even though what needs to be done is clear, the approach is unclear.

Let’s read more about application modernization patterns and antipatterns.

Enterprise Application Modernization Context

The process of taking the currently existing legacy application and modernizing its infrastructure- the internal infrastructure. It helps improve pace of new feature delivery, improve scalability, boost performance of application, and expose the functionality of an array of new cases.

Critical Capabilities to look for When modernizing your infrastructure

The IT teams need to go beyond the regular shifting and lifting to migrate and modernize with confidence. So, in order to meet the challenges of the application modernization:

Cost and resource requirement comparison

It helps evaluate and find the right size of workload migration based on the organization’s unique infrastructure as well as the usage before selecting the cloud service provider.

Integrations

They help in ingesting different metrics, topologies and events from numerous third party solutions for the extensive visibility.

Dynamic Service modeling

Have a comprehensive topology of view of services that helps enable service centric monitoring for a continuous visibility into the state of business software.

Intelligent Automation and Analytics

Identify the best opportunities for automated and corrective action as well as detect trends, patterns, and anomalies before the breaching of baselines.

Technology driven cases

The implementation of artificial intelligence and machine learning helps derive correlation, root cause isolation, and situation management that further helps in reducing the mean time to repair (MTTR).

Log Analytics and Enrichment

Across all the wide variety of data sources we have access to, they help in achieving the early diagnosis of potential issues with the application and also avoid service disruptions.

Meeting the What if Situations

Understand the impact of different business drivers and the right size Kubernetes  to help deal with the what if situations. Ensure that the resources are optimally brough to use to optimize container environment, and make sure all the resources are allocated and provisioned efficiently.

Modernization Patterns and Antipatterns

A pattern is considered more of a general form of an algorithm. Where the algorithm focuses on specific programming tasks, the pattern emphasizes challenges beyond the boundary and into areas like increasing the maintainability of code, reducing defect rates, or allowing the teams to work together efficiently.

On the other hand, Antipattern is considered a common response to a recurring problem that is ineffective and has risks of being highly counterproductive. Note that it is not the opposite of patterns- as it does not just include the concept of failure to perform the right thing. Antipatterns incorporate the set of choices that seem ideal at the face value but lead to challenges and difficulties in the long run.

The reference to “Common response” indicates that antipatterns are not occasional mistakes. In fact, they are the common ones that are followed with good intentions. Along with regular patterns, the antipatterns can be either very specific or broad.

In the realm of programming languages and frameworks, there are over hundreds of antipatterns to consider.

Application Modernization for Enterprises

Most Enterprise Application Modernization indulge in crucial investments in their existing application portfolio- from both operational and financial points. Few companies are even willing to start over and retire with their existing applications. Sure, the costs, productivity losses, and other relative issues are magnificent. Therefore, the application modernization makes more sense in order to realize and leverage the new software platforms, architectures, tools, libraries, and frameworks.

Planning on Enetrprise application modernization? Connect with our experts now for an extensive solution.

 

Learn More: Application Modernization Services of Metaorange Digital 

Unlocking Development Speed Using DevOps

Many organizations are adopting DevOps, as it is considered the latest and most popular way of working. DevOps is a culture that helps people work together to continuously enhance existing technology. DevOps Benefits are to develop new products, services, or platforms.

During the DevOps benefits buzz, you might wonder what it entails and if it suits your organization. Over 83% of IT decision-makers adopted DevOps for enhanced business value. Here’s a concise guide on why DevOps suits your tech team, how to implement it, and its role in boosting development speed.

Increasing the development speed is the primary goal of DevOps. Studies have proven that quicker development results in reduced time and resources spent on resolving issues later. There are many different factors to consider when determining what time period qualifies as ‘fast’.

In particular, multiple things can have an impact on the speed at which a team develops software. This article will provide an overview of some of these factors and how they relate to your actual project objectives.

What is DevOps Benefits?

DevOps is made using the words “development” and “operations”. It’s a term that refers to the process by which teams collaborate on software development projects, with an aim of getting them out faster than they would if done manually.

The term DevOps was first used in 2009 by Patrick Debois and Eric Ries in their book The Lean Startup. The idea behind it is simple: instead of having developers build their products using traditional SDLC methods, they should work closely with operations staff who are responsible for actually deploying them into production environments.

This way you can avoid many problems associated with traditional development processes such as long release cycles which can lead to inconsistencies across multiple platforms/environments, slow rollouts due to lack of automation and testing infrastructure, etc.

In 2021, the Global DevOps Market reached a size of USD 5,114.57 million, and it is estimated to reach USD 12,215.54 million by 2026, with a compound annual growth rate of 18.95%.

Current Challenges That Slow Down The Development Speed

One of the major issues responsible for slowing down of the development is the lack of clear communication between the stakeholders and team members. Even being unclear about the specific terminology leads to miscommunication between the client and end developer.

Also, most development projects start from a feature perspective rather than being solution perspective. So it’s very important to align your development with the compelling business need.

Also, 88% of the organizations get the work approved by two or more employees and it takes hours to fulfill the request.

Benefits of DevOps Implementation

  • DevOps Benefits is a set of practices that provides advantages to improve the flow of information between software developers and IT operations staff.
  • By ensuring that all changes undergo testing before being pushed out to production, DevOps helps to reduce errors and increase productivity.

Automation in DevOps Benefits

Automation refers to the usage of software for performing tasks that could be done manually. DevOps uses automation to simplify manual processes such as deployments or change management. In most cases, this involves automating repetitive tasks so that they can be performed in bulk instead of manually one by one. For instance:

You could have three different servers running your application (A1, A2, and A3). If you need to deploy an update on all three at once then it would take longer if each one had its own deployment process and dependencies. Instead of doing this manually with each server individually, you could create an executable script that does everything for all three servers at once — no more waiting around.

Continuous Integration and Continuous Delivery

Continuous integration (CI) is a software development process that involves building, testing, and releasing code to production. It also involves automating the build and deployment so that your team can continue to focus on writing code instead of manually performing these steps. This means there’s less chance of bugs slipping through the proverbial cracks.

Continuous delivery is when you have automated tests run in your CI environment every time an artifact is pushed out. This way you can quickly identify any issues before they affect customers or end users. If something goes wrong during production deployment, it will only take one person for all affected areas to fix it as soon as possible. Rather than having everyone go back to their desks and work through any issues individually. It also helped 22% of the businesses to operate at the highest security level using advanced stages of DevOps.

How DevOps Acts As A Catalyst To Make The Development Faster?

DevOps is a set of practices that offer DevOps benefits to organizations, helping them develop, test, deploy, and operate software and services faster. It’s a team sport and requires cooperation between developers and IT operations.

DevOps provides a benefit of improving development speed by automating the CI/CD process, which can significantly reduce errors. It also facilitates the automation of deployment processes.It is including manual steps or scripts necessary for deploying applications onto various environments. Such as staging or production environments. Reducing your workload, it keeps track of all changes made during the development phase to ensure smooth application in the next release cycle without any hiccups at any stage of the life cycle, such as the testing stage. More than 77% of organizations rely on DevOps to deploy any software or plan something in the near future. `

Conclusion

DevOps aims to improve the way software is developed and integrated by providing a set of best practices. The goal of DevOps is to reduce the time it takes to build, test and deploy software products. We have seen how it can provide us a benefit of improving our development speed and make our services more reliable. If you are still unsure about it then try it out for yourself. See what DevOps benefits you get from this technology.

 

Learn More: DevOps Services of Metaorange Digital

How Do I Cut My Bills On Cloud

The new era of cloud computing has been an exciting one. It’s opened up a world of possibilities for entrepreneurs and businesses alike. And, according to a recent article on Cloud Computing Today, the potential benefits of cloud cost are even greater than we thought.

Introduction Cloud Cost

If you want to save money, the easiest way to do that is by switching to cloud-based services.

Cloud-based services can help you save money in a number of ways. For one, they’re often more affordable than traditional on-premises solutions. It reduces energy costs and helps you make the best use of your resources.

Read on to learn how cloud-based services can help you cut your bills.

What is a Cloud?

A cloud is a remote server used for storing data and provides access from anywhere. Cloud computing is the delivery of computing services—including servers, storage, databases, networking, software, analytics, and intelligence—over the Internet (“the cloud”) for faster innovation, flexible resources, and economies of scale.

Why Do I Need To Cut My Bills On The Cloud?

Reduce Cloud Bills

If you want to save money on your cloud bills, it’s easier than you  think. Here are four tips to help you cut your bills on the cloud or reduce cloud costs:

1. Use A Cloud-Based Budgeting Tool

There are a number of budgeting tools that can help you track your spending and find ways to save money. Mint is a great way to connect your financial accounts in one place and see where your money is going.

2. Negotiate Your Bills

If you’re not happy with the rates you’re paying for things like your cable or Internet service, don’t be afraid to negotiate. Many companies provide good discounts to customers, especially to the ones who haggle to reduce cloud costs.

3. Get Rid Of Unused Subscriptions

Do you need that gym membership? Or that magazine subscription that you never read? Ditch the unused subscriptions and save yourself some money each month.

Which will I use, Public or Private Cloud?

The debate over which type of cloud service is better for businesses, public or private, continues. Some companies feel that a public cloud is a way to go because it is less expensive and more flexible. Others believe that a private cloud offers more security and control.

Here are some factors that will help you make the best decision.

1. Cost

One of the main considerations for many businesses is cost. Public cloud costs are typically less than private clouds because you only pay for the resources you use. Private clouds can be more expensive because you are responsible for the entire infrastructure.

2. Flexibility

Another important factor to consider is flexibility. Public cost clouds are more flexible because you can scale up or down as needed. Private clouds can be more rigid because you may need to commit to a certain amount of resources upfront.

3. Security

When it comes to security, private cloud costs are often seen as more secure because you have more control over who has access to your data. However, public clouds are also secure if you take the necessary precautions, such as encrypting your data.

How Will I Reduce My Bills On The Cloud Cost?

If you’re like most people, you’re always looking for ways to save money. And if you’re using cloud-based services, there are a number of ways to reduce cloud costs. Here are a few tips:

1. Use A Cost-Effective Cloud cost Service

Not all cloud-based services are created equal. Some are more expensive than others. Do your research and choose a service that fits your budget.

2.Opt For Reserved Spots

Companies can opt for cheap alternatives if they have certain tradeoffs. You can make an upfront commitment for a period of time to save on cloud costs. They can help you save up to 80% as compared to on-demand instances.

3. Pay As You Go

Many cloud-based services offer pay-as-you-go plans, which can be more cost-effective than paying for a yearly subscription upfront.

4. Take Advantage Of Free Trials

Many providers offer free trials of their paid services. This is a great way to try out a service before committing to it long-term.

5. Use Coupons And Promo Codes

When signing up for a new service, be sure to search for coupons and promo codes that can help you save money on your purchase.

6. Compare Prices

Don’t just go with the first cloud-based service you find. Compare prices between different providers to ensure you’re getting the best deal possible.

7. Serverless Computing

It is a great way to solve your scaling issues and requires some upfront planning to reduce runway prices. Queuing and caching can help you take care of unexpected traffic spikes without managing servers.

Conclusion

There are a few key ways to cut your bills on cloud cost cloud services. First, negotiate with your provider for a lower rate. Second, use free or low-cost alternatives where possible. Finally, be sure to always monitor your usage and costs so that you can make changes as necessary. By following these tips, you can save a significant amount of money on your cloud computing costs.

 

Learn More: Cloud Services of Metaorange Digital 

Distribute Monolith Vs. Microservices

DevOps practices and culture have led to a growing trend of dividing monolith and microservices. Despite the efforts of the organizations involved, it is feasible that these monoliths have evolved into “distributed monoliths” rather than microservices. Since You’re Not Building Microservices argued that “you’ve substituted a single monolithic codebase for a tightly interconnected distributed architecture” (the piece that prompted this one).

It is difficult to determine whether your architecture is distributed monolithic or composed of several more microservices. It’s essential to remember that the answers to these questions may not always be clear-cut exceptions—after all, the current software is nothing if not complicated.

Let’s understand the definition of Distributed Monolith:

Distributed Monolith resembles microservices architecture but is monolithic. Microservices are misunderstood. Not merely dividing application entities into services and implementing CRUD with REST API. These services should only communicate synchronously.

Microservices apps have several benefits. Creating one may result in a distributed monolith..
Your microservice is a distributed monolith if:

  • One service change requires the redeployment of additional services. In a truly decoupled architecture, changes to one microservice should not require any changes to other services.
  • The microservices need low-latency communication. This can be a sign that the services are too tightly coupled and are unable to operate independently.
  • Your application’s tightly connected services share a resource, such as a database. This can lead to data inconsistency and other issues.
  • The microservices share codebases and test environments. This can make it difficult to make changes to individual services without affecting others.

What is Microservice Architecture

Instead of constructing a monolithic app, break it into more minor, interconnected services. Each microservice has a hexagonal architecture with business logic and adapters. Some microservices expose REST, RPC, or message-based APIs, and most services consume them. Microservice architecture affects the application-database connection. It duplicates data. Having a database schema per service ensures loose coupling in microservices. Polyglot persistence design allows a service to use the best database for its needs.

Mobile, desktop, and online apps use some APIs. Apps can’t access back-end services directly. API Gateways mediate communication. The API Gateway balances loads, caches data, controls access, and monitors API usage.

How to Differentiate Distributed Monoliths and Microservices

Building microservices and distributing monoliths are our goal. Sometimes implementation turns an app into a distributed monolith. Bad decisions or application requirements, etc. Some system attributes and behaviors can help you determine if a system has a microservice design or is a distributed monolith.

Shared Database

Dispersed services that share a database aren’t distributed—distributed monolith. Two services share a datastore.

A and B share a datastore. Changing Service B’s data structure in Datastore X will affect Service A. The system becomes dependent and tightly connected.

Small data changes affect other services. Loose coupling is ideal in a microservice architecture. Use case: If an e-commerce user table’s data structure changes. It shouldn’t affect products, payments, catalogs, etc. If your application redeploys all other services, it can hurt developer
productivity and customer experience.

Monolith and Microservices Codebase/Library

Microservices can share codebases or libraries despite having distinct ones. Shared library upgrades can disrupt dependent services and require re-deployment. Microservices become inefficient and changeable.
Consider using a private auth library across services. When a service updates the auth library, it forces all other services to redeploy. This will create a distributed monolith program. An abstracted library with a bespoke interface is a standard solution. In microservices, redundant code is better than tightly connected services.

Monolith and Microservices Sync Communication

Coupled services communicate synchronously.

If A needs B’s data or validation, it depends on B. Both services communicate synchronously. Service B fails or responds slowly, harming service A’s throughput. Too much synchronous communication between services can make a microservice-based app a distributed monolith.

Deployment/test environments shared

Continuous integration and deployments are essential for microservices architecture. If your services use shared deployment or standard CI/CD pipelines, deploying one service will re-deploy all other application services, even if they haven’t changed. It affects customer experience and burdens infrastructure. Loosely linked microservices need independent deployments.

Shared test environments are another criterion—shared test environments couple services, like deployments. Imagine a service that must pass a performance test before production. This stage tests the service’s performance. Suppose this service shares the test environment with
another that conducts performance tests simultaneously. It can impair both services and make it challenging to discover irregularities.

To sum up Monolith and Microservices

Creating microservices is more than simply dividing and repackaging an extensive monolithic application. Communication, data transfer across services, and more will have to be changed for this to work.

 

Learn More: Web Development Services of Metaorange Digital 

What is DevOps and Why do we Require it?

DevOps depicts the culture and a set of processes that bring development and operation teams together for complete software development. Organizations can create and tweak products at a swift pace compared to the traditional software development processes.

Also, it is gaining popularity at a rapid rate! According to the statistics of Deveops.com, the adoption rate has exponentially increased over the years. Also, the IDC forecast says that the worldwide market for DevOps software may reach $6.6 billion in 2022 from $2.9 billion in 2017.

What is DevOps?

DevOps- referred to as the amalgamation of the Development (Dev) and Operation (Ops) teams. To define it precisely, it is an organizational approach that allows businesses to have a faster application development with easier maintenance of existing deployments. Organizations build and create a stronger bond between Dev, Ops, and other stakeholders of the company.

It is not technology per se, but it does promote shooter and more controllable iterations adopting the best practices, advanced tools, and automation. Covering everything from organization to culture to business process to tooling for the business.

IDC analyst Stephen Elliot says enterprise investments in software-driven innovation, microservice architectures, and associated development methodologies are driving DevOps adoption, as is their increased investment by CTOs and CEOs in collaborative and automated design and development processes.

4 Reasons why DevOps is Important

Reason to implement DevOps

  • Maximizes Efficiency with Automation

The authority Robert Stroud exclaimed that DevOps is all about fueling business transformation. It encourages process, people, and culture change. The effective strategies focus on structural improvements that help build community. Any successful DevsecOps require culture or mindset change. However, the change must bring greater collaboration between different teams- engineers, product IT, operations, etc., along with automation to achieve greater results.

  • Optimizes the Entire Business

DevOps software has the biggest advantage of providing the insights provided. Organizations are able to optimize their whole system, not just IT siloes. It improves and takes the business to a whole new level of business success. You can be more adaptive and have a data-driven alignment with business and customer needs.

  • Improves Speed and Stability of Software Development

Multiple analysis by Accelerate State of DevOps Report shows that deploying DevOps organizations are better for software development and deployment. It helps in achieving speed and agility while achieving the operational requirement to ensure that your product and services are available to the end users.

  • Focus More on What Matters

What People are a critical part of the DevOps initiative who can increase the odds of success, for instance, DevOps evangelists. They are a persuasive leader who can illustrate the business benefits while eradicating fears and misconceptions. All this ensures that you have the most flexible, well-defined, adaptable, and highly available software.

Future of DevOps

Still, wondering why DevOps is important? The future is more likely to bring changes in organizational and tooling strategies. In the transformation, automation will remain a major component, and AIOps, or artificial intelligence for IT operations, will enhance the success of organizations that are committed to becoming DevOps- driven organizations. Automation, root cause analysis (RCA), machine learning, performance baselines, anomaly detection, and predictive insights are the elements of AIOps. IT operations teams will be reliant on this emerging technology to manage alerts and solve issues in the future.

Furthermore, in the future, DevOps will focus more on optimizing cloud technologies. The centralized nature of the cloud provides a platform for testing, deployment, and production, which benefits from automation.

Conclusion

The world along with all its industries has evolved with the deployment of software and internet in the business operations. Right from shopping to entertainment to banking software not only supports the business but has become the most integral part of the
business operations.

Know that DevOps is not a destination but a journey. You can use DevOps automation frameworks, processes, practices, and workflows to build security in your software development life cycle. It ensures safety, speed, and scalability while ensuring compliance,
reducing cost, and minimizing risks.

 

Learn More: DevOps Services of Metaorange Digital

Microservices And Polyglot

Several years ago, the concept of microservices and polyglot emerged as a novel design paradigm for large-scale software applications. It’s not just one enormous application, but rather a series of smaller (or more precise micro, whatever that means) services communicating with one another. Each microservice focuses on a specific, well-defined feature of a business. This approach compels you to think more about your business domain and model it, and includes other benefits such as independent deployments. Every aspect of IT is ever-changing. The development of new technology, programming languages, and tools occurs almost daily.

Polyglot programming is the practice of using a variety of programming languages to solve a given problem.

Let’s understand What are polyglot microservices?

Polyglot programming is the foundation of polyglot microservices built on this principle. Multiple data storage methods can meet diverse needs in one application, known as polyglot persistence.

As an illustration, consider the following:

  • Applications that require fast read and write access times commonly use key-value databases.
  • Relational databases (RDBMS) are the preferred choice when data structures and transactions need to be fixed.
  • Document-based databases are ideal for handling large amounts of data.
  • Graph databases are used to navigate across links quickly when necessary.

So why use polyglot microservices?

Delegating the decision of which technology stack and programming languages to utilize to the service developers is at the heart of a polyglot design. Google, eBay, Twitter, and Amazon are prominent technological organizations that offer a polyglot microservices architecture. There are many products and many people at these organizations, and they all operate on the same massive scale as Capital One. Before undertaking a polyglot architectural thought experiment, there must be a compelling business reason to pursue a multi-language microservice ecosystem in a company.

A Polyglot Environment has several advantages.

Innovate with Creativity

The latest technologies such as .NET Core, Spring Boot, and Azure/AWS Cloud dominate microservices architecture and libraries. These ecosystems have evolved to incorporate microservices design, and they offer a set of suggestions on production-ready requirements and a base microservice scaffolding to developers who can choose their favorite language. Developers are dedicated to their profession. As a result, reducing linguistic limits boosts developers’ creativity and problem-solving ability. It fosters an engineer’s creativity and pride in their profession.

When it’s time to sell

Removing engineering impediments tends to result in faster delivery of business solutions. It’s easier for teams to focus on value-added work when they access technologies they already know. Engineers can now focus on the business goal rather than containerizing their application, adding circuit breaker patterns, or reporting events. If the microservices are standardized across languages, they can be easily extended across platforms and infrastructures. This simplifies application deployment and operation across platforms and infrastructures. Engineers can learn more about the system they are creating in the larger context in which they function.

A Stream Of Talent

Recruiting from a larger pool of potential employees is feasible through languages. Java programmers have doubled the number of qualified candidates. Even if the language is “obscure.” employment is scarce. Programmers anxiously await new programming challenges.

A Bright Future awaits

To keep on top of new technologies and trends, teams need a solid foundation to build upon as more and more client logic moves to the server. Teams can create in their chosen language while preserving operational equivalence with current systems. There should be no language barrier, but each language should have the same monitoring, tracing, and resilience level as the technological stack now in use. We believe polyglot microservices will be especially useful for the mobile teams we serve and, in the end, for our end users.

Learn More: Application Modernization Services of Metaorange Digital 

Service Mesh and Microservices

Indeed, microservices have taken the software industry by storm and for a good reason. Microservices allow you to deploy your application more frequently, independently, and reliably. However, reliability concerns arise because the microservices architecture relies on a network. Dealing with the growing number of services and interactions becomes increasingly tricky. You must also keep tabs on how well the system is functioning. To ensure service-to-service communication is efficient and dependable, each service must have standard features. Moreover, System services communicate via the service mesh, a technology pattern. Deploying a service mesh enables the addition of networking features, such as encryption and load balancing, by routing all inter-service communication through proxies.

To begin, what exactly is a “service mesh?

A microservices architecture relies on a specialized infrastructure layer called “service mesh” to manage communication between the many services. It distributes load, encrypts data, and searches for more service providers on the network. Using sidecar proxies, a service mesh separates communication functionality onto a parallel infrastructure layer rather than directly into microservices. A service mesh’s data plane comprises sidecar proxies, facilitating data interchange across services. There are two main parts to a service mesh:

Plane of Control

The control plane is responsible for keeping track of the system’s state and coordinating its many components. In addition, it serves as a central repository for service locations and traffic policies. Handling tens of thousands of service instances and updating the data plane effectively in real-time is a crucial requirement.

Data Plane

In a distributed system, the data plane is in charge of moving information between various services. As a result, it must be high-performance and integrated into the plane.

Why do we need Mesh?

An application is divided into multiple independent services that communicate with each other over a local area network (LAN), as the name suggests. Each microservice is in charge of a particular part of the business logic. For example, an online commerce system might comprise services for stock control, shopping cart management, and payment processing. In comparison to a monolithic approach, utilizing microservices offers several advantages. Teams can utilize agile processes and implement changes more frequently by constructing and delivering services individually. Additionally, individual services can be independently scaled, and the failure of one service does not affect the rest of the system.

The service mesh can help manage communication between services in a microservice-based system more effectively. However, it’s possible that creating network logic in each service is a waste of time because the benefits are built-in in separate languages. Moreover, even though several microservices utilize the same code, there is a risk of inconsistency because each team must prioritize and make updates alongside improvements to the fundamental functionality of the microservice.

Microservices allow for parallel development of several services and deployment of those services, whereas service meshes enable teams to focus on delivering business logic and not worry about networking. In a microservice-based system, network communication between services is established and controlled consistently via a service mesh.

When it comes to system-wide communications, a service mesh does nothing. This is not the same as an API gateway, which separates the underlying system from the API clients can access (other systems within the organization or external clients). API gateway and service mesh vary in that API gateway communicate in a north-south direction, whereas service mesh communicates in an east-west direction, but this isn’t entirely accurate. There are a variety of additional architectural styles (monolithic, mini-services, serverless) in which the need for numerous services communicating across a network can be met with the service mesh pattern.

How does it work?

Incorporating a service mesh into a program does not affect the runtime environment of an application. This is because all programs, regardless of their architecture, require rules to govern how requests are routed. A service mesh is distinct because it abstracts the logic that governs communication between separate services away from each service. It involves an array of network proxies, collectively referred to as a service mesh, that is integrated within the program. If you’re reading this on a work computer, you’ve probably already used a proxy — which is common in enterprise IT.

  • Your company’s web proxy first got your request for this page when it went out.
  • Once it passed the proxy’s security measures, it was transferred to a server that hosts this page.
  • It was then tested against the proxy’s security measures once more
  • Finally, the proxy relayed the message to you.

Without a service mesh, developers must program each microservice with the logic necessary to manage service-to-service communication. This can result in developers being less focused on business objectives. Additionally, as the mechanism governing interservice transmission is hidden within each service, diagnosing communication issues becomes more complex.

Benefits and drawbacks of using a service mesh

Organizations with established CI/CD pipelines can utilize service meshes to automate application and infrastructure deployment, streamline code management, and consequently improve network and security policies.The following are some of the benefits:

  • Improves interoperability between services in microservices and containers.
  • Because communication issues would occur on their infrastructure layer, it would be easier to diagnose them.
  • Encryption, authentication, and authorization are all supported.
  • Faster application creation, testing and deployment.
  • Managing network services by sidecars next to a container cluster is effective.

The following are some of the drawbacks of service mesh:

  • First, a service mesh increases the number of runtime instances.
  • The sidecar proxy is required for every service call, adding an extra step.
  • Service meshes do not address integration with other services and systems and routing type or transformation mapping.
  • There is a reduction in network management complexity through abstraction and centralization, but this does not eliminate the need for service mesh integration and administration.

How to solve the end-to-end observability issues of service mesh

To prevent overworking your DevOps staff, you need to have a simple deployment method. You understand in a dynamic microservices environment. Artificial intelligence (AI) may provide you with a new level of visibility and understanding of your microservices, their interrelations, and the underpinning infrastructure, allowing you to identify problems quickly and pinpoint their fundamental causes.

For example, Davis AI can automatically analyze data from your service mesh and microservices in real-time by installing OneAgent, which understands billions of relationships and dependencies to discover the core cause of blockages and offer your DevOps team a clear route to remediation. In addition, using a service mesh to manage communication between services in a microservice-based application allows you to concentrate on delivering business value. It ensure consistent handling of network concerns, such as security, load balancing, and logging, throughout the entire system.

Using the service mesh pattern, communication between services can be better managed. In addition, because of the rise of cloud-native deployments, we expect to see more businesses benefiting from microservice designs. As these applications grow in size and complexity, they can separate inter-service communication from business logic, which makes it easier to expand the system.

To sum up

It is becoming increasingly important to use service mesh technology because of the increasing use of microservices and cloud-native applications. The development team must collaborate with the operations team to configure the properties of the service mesh, even though the operations team is responsible for the deployments.

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Microservices vs. Serverless Architecture

The main themes in the area of cloud-native computing are microservices and Serverless. Although the architecture of microservices and Serverless frequently coincide, they are independent technologies and play a different role in modern software environments.

Serverless and microservice technologies are used to build highly scalable solutions at the same time.

Let’s understand what these technologies are and which ones should be used for creating your application.

Microservices

The phrase ‘microservices’ refers to an architectural model in which applications are divided into several small services (hence the term ‘microservice’). The structure of microservices is the opposite of monoliths (meaning applications where all functionality runs as a single entity). Imagine an app that allows users to look for things, put them in their carts, and finalize their purchases as a simplistic example of a microservice application. This app can be used as a series of independent microservices:

  • The application interface is at the front.
  • A search service that searches products in a user-generated search query database.
  • A product-detail service with additional information regarding products on which customers click.
  • A shopping cart service to track the goods in your cart.
  • A check-out service for the process of payment.

Microservices can also increase the reliability and speed of your program by extending the footprint of your application. If one microservice fails, you keep the remainder of your app operating, so your users are not locked out totally. Also, because microservices are smaller than complete applications, spinning out a new microservice is faster than re-loading the full application, replacing a failing instance (or adding capacity if your application load increases).

Let’s Gain Some Benefits of Microservices Architecture

We should use microservices for evolving, sophisticated, and highly scalable applications and systems because they are a good solution, particularly for applications that require extensive data processing. Developers can divide complex functions into multiple services for easier development and maintenance. Additional benefits of microservices include:

  • Add/Update Flexibility: Developers can implement or change one feature at a time rather than update the complete application stack.
  • Resilience: Since the application is separated, a partial stoppage or crash does not always affect the remainder of the application.
  • Developer Flexibility: Developers can create microservices in different languages, and each microservice can have its own library.
  • Selective Scalability: Only the microservices with high use can be extended instead of extending the entire application.

Microservice Framework Challenges

  • When divided into autonomous components, complexity increases
  • More overview to manage many databases, ensure data consistency and monitor each microservice continually
  • Four times more vulnerable to security breaches are Microservice APIs
  • The demand for know-how and computer resources can be costly
  • It can be too sluggish and complicated for smaller businesses to install and iterate fast
  • A distributed environment requires a tighter interface and higher test coverage.

Serverless

In the Serverless model, the application code performs upon request to answer triggers that the application developer has specified in advance. While the code running in this way can represent the entire program, referred to as a Serverless function, it is more commonly used for implementing discrete application function units.

Compared with typical cloud or server-centered infrastructure, the advantages of Serverless computing are many. The Serverless architecture enables many developers with more scalability, flexibility, and shorter release times at cheaper costs. Developers do not need to bother about buying, setting, and managing backend servers using Serverless architecture. Serverless computing, however, is not a panacea for all developers of web applications.

Let’s Gain Some Benefits of Serverless Architecture

  • Reduce the time and cost to construct, maintain and update the infrastructure
  • Reduce the cost of recruiting server and database specialists
  • Focus on producing high-quality, quicker deployment applications
  • Best suited for customized and projected to grow short-term and real-time processes.
  • Multiple subscription price models for efficient estimates
  • Rapid scalability has little impact on performance

Serverless Architecture Framework Challenges

  • Long-term contracts with the third-party manager.
  • Business logic or technological modifications can make a change to another provider with challenges.
  • Multi-tenant Serverless platforms can introduce performance problems or defects on a pooled platform if the nearby tenant uses defective code.
  • Inactive applications or services for an extended period may necessitate a cold start that requires additional time and effort to establish resources.

Microservices versus Serverless Architecture

Which one should we use to create applications? Of course, both microservices and Serverless architectures have advantages and limitations. Determining which architecture to use is necessary to analyze the business objectives and the extent of your firm.

A fast marketing deployment and costs are important considerations, which make Serverless a smart bet. A firm that intends to create a large and complex application that is expected to evolve and adapt would find microservices to be a more feasible solution. It is also possible to mix these technologies in one cloud-native instance with the correct team and effort.

You should consider these considerations while making an informed selection on what to utilize — the degree of Serverless granularity affects tools and frames. The higher the granularity, the more complex integration testing becomes, the more difficult it will be to debug, resolve and test. In contrast, microservices are a mature method with well-supported tools and processes.

To Sum up

Microservices and Serverless architecture follow the same fundamental ideas. They oppose typical monolithic approaches to development that prioritize scalability and flexibility. Albeit, Companies must examine their product scope and priorities to pick between a Serverless architecture and microservices. If cost-effectiveness and a shorter market time are a goal, Serverless architecture is a choice.

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Design Patterns vs Anti-Patterns in Microservices

When it comes to building an application, Microservices have become the go-to structure on the current market. Despite their reputation for solving many problems, even talented professionals can face issues while using this technology. The standard examples in these problems may be investigated and reused by engineers, who may work on the application’s exhibition. Consequently, I will discuss the necessity for a configuration example in this essay on Microservices Design Patterns and the reception of anti-pattern in microservices that are enchanted dust.

Let’s hit it to understand microservices and their pattern of design a bit better.

Microservices are small self-contained administrations spread across a business. Microservices are self-contained and only do one thing. The design of microservices is composed.

Microservices can have a big impact. Microservice engineering requires understanding MSA and a few Design Patterns for Microservices.

Linking and interacting elements are frequently depicted in a pattern. Effective development/design paradigms reduce development time. Aside from that, design patterns help solve common software design issues. In a computer language, design patterns are generic solutions to issues. Patterns express ideas rather than specific procedures. The use of design patterns can help your code be more reusable.

Uses of a Microservices Design pattern are: –

Design patterns, in particular, are used to find solutions to design issues.

  • To help you discover the less obvious, look for appropriate objects and the things that capture these abstractions.
  • Choose an appropriate granularity for your object — patterns can assist with the compositional process.
  • Define object interfaces — this will aid in the hardening of your interfaces and a list of what’s included and what isn’t
  • Help you comprehend by describing object implementations and the ramifications of various approaches.
  • Eliminating the need to consider what strategy is most successful by promoting reusability.
  • Provide support for extensibility, which is built-in modification and adaptability.

Problems with Design

Because of this, patterns aren’t the cure-all for good: —

  • Over-engineering
  • Time-consuming and inconvenient
  • Intricate to keep up with

Using anti-patterns — “it seemed like a good idea at the time” could lead to you installing a screw in the wrong place.

Like design patterns, Antipatterns define an industry vocabulary for the standard, flawed procedures, and implementations throughout enterprises. A higher-level language facilitates communication among software developers and allows for a concise explanation of more abstract concepts.

Microservices Antipatterns are classified as:

  • What’s the reason for all of this?
  • Signs — what made us realize there was a problem?
  • Effects: What is the impending doom?
  • A solution to the problem is a strategy for resolving the issue.
  • Antipatterns That Are Frequently Seen
  • Decomposition of the Functions — -a programmer whose mentality is still firmly fixed on procedural programming
  • This creates functional classes.
  • There is an excessive amount of decay taking place.
  • Blocked in procedural thinking,
  • the creation of a single course encompassing all of the requirements
  • Decomposition is not occurring fast enough.

Let’s take a look at some real-world examples that can help you design and execute microservices:

The diplomat can be used to offload everyday customer network tasks like checking and logging. It can also be used to direct and secure communications (like TLS). Sidecar transportation is frequently used to transport envoy administrations.

The anti-depreciation layer acts as a front between new and legacy applications, ensuring that inherited framework requirements do not constrain the design of a different application.

Separate backend services for different types of consumers, such as office and mobile, are created using Backends for Frontends. This eliminates the need for multiple backend administrators to deal with the conflicting requirements of various customer categories. With this example, you can isolate customer clear concerns and keep every microservice minimal.

Using a bulkhead isolates resources like the association pool, memory, and CPU. Bulkheads stop a single duty (or administration) from starving the rest of the organisation. This example shows how the framework can be applied in many situations to avoid single-help disappointments.

Door Aggregation combines all requests for different microservices into a single request, reducing confusion for buyers and administrators.

Through the employment of API doors and entryway offloading, every microservice might transfer shared assistance usefulness to an API. An example of this might be SSL endorsements.

Door Routing directs requests to various microservices using a single endpoint so that buyers do not need to keep track of numerous different endpoints.

To provide disengagement and embodiment, the sidecar transports application assistance components as a distinct holder or cycle.

Using Strangler Fig, an application’s prominent portions of usefulness are steadily replaced with new administrations, ensuring constant restructuring.

Design Patterns, on the other hand, are almost always the result of conscious choice. When we create patterns, we’re consciously deciding to make life easier for ourselves.

However, not every pattern is beneficial.

Engineers and business leaders should be wary of the anti-pattern because it could lead to further problems.

Let’s explore the anti-pattern in microservices in depth.

Anti-patterns, like patterns, are easily recognizable and reproducible. Anti-patterns are unintentional, and you only become aware of them when their consequences become apparent. In pursuit of speedier delivery, tight deadlines, and so on, people in your business frequently make well-intentioned (if misguided) decisions.

Anti-patterns are a significant roadblock for enterprises trying to make the switch to microservices design. There are some prevalent anti-patterns that I’ve noticed in firms making the conversion to microservice architecture. Ultimately, these decisions jeopardized their progress and exacerbated the issues they were attempting to solve.

An anti-pattern differs from a regular pattern in that it has three components:

  • In microservice adoption, the difficulty is typically about enhancing software delivery frequency, speed, and reliability.
  • An anti-pattern solution does not follow the expected pattern.
  • A refactored solution provides a more practical answer to the issue.

Since the advent of computers, monolithic software has been in use. Instead of only doing one thing, these programs do everything. Developers have comprehensive access to source code in these programs.

The common dependencies are also grouped in a nutshell they are:

Uniformity — To interact with the code, engineers or developers use a range of tools. Reviewing, building, and testing code are examples of this.

Awareness — All team members share monolithic software code. The rest of the team’s effort is visible.

Endurance — It is possible to build an entire project from a single repository.

Concentration — The code is accessible in one repository.

Aside from that, Google still uses a monolithic approach with one repository for all code. The issue with monolithic programs is that everyone works on the same code and database. The challenge with these applications is that small changes can have big effects. It can take hours to re-deploy, and It’s not always easy for newbies to interpret code. Monolithic apps are expensive, slow, and difficult to understand. To improve the design and architecture, various principles are used. Microservices and SOA are the newest fundamentals.

Changes in process, strategy, and structure are today as important as changes in technology. There are answers to migration concerns, but they only work in particular settings. Reusing software yields mixed results. A failure to reuse yields several unfavourable patterns.

Here’s sharing some of the well-known Anti patterns of microservices

Micro Everything

One of the most common anti-patterns is micro. This anti-pattern is frequent in business. In this situation, all microservices share a big data store. The critical problem with this anti-pattern is data tracking.

Bankrupt the Piggy

Another prevalent anti-pattern is a piggy bank. When refactoring an existing application to microservices. Refactoring is risky and takes hours or days.

Agile

Changing from waterfall to agile software development. The team starts by creating a rudimentary version of agile-fall. It’s like combining pieces that get worse over time.

Albeit, we propose a methodology for recovering a microservice-based project’s resource structure and two metrics for gauging network closeness and betweenness.

Here are a few anti-patterns:

Ambiguous Service

An operation’s name can be too long, or a generic message’s name can be vague. It’s possible to limit element length and restrict phrases in certain instances.

API Versioning

It’s possible to change an external service request’s API version in code. Delays in data processing can lead to resource problems later. Why do APIs need semantically consistent version descriptions? It’s difficult to discover bad API names. The solution is simple and can be improved in the future.

Hard code points

Some services may have hard-coded IP addresses and ports, causing similar concerns. Replace an IP address, for example, by manually inserting files one by one. The current method only recognizes hard-coded IP addresses without context.

Bottleneck services 

A service with many users but only one flaw. Because so many other clients and services use this service, the coupling is strong. The increasing number of external clients also increases response time. Due to increased traffic, several services are in short supply.

Overinflated Service

Excellent interface and data type parameters. They all use cohesiveness differently. This service output is less reusable, testable, and maintainable. For each class and parameter, the suggested method will validate service standards.

Service Chain

Also called a messaging chain. A grouping of services that share a common role. This chain appears when a client requests many services in succession.

Stovepipe Maintenance

Some functions are repeated across services. Rather than focusing on the primary purpose, these antipatterns perform utility, infrastructure, and business operations.

Knots

This antipattern consists of a collection of disjointed services. Because these poor cohesive services are tightly connected, reusability is constrained. Anti-patterns with complicated infrastructure have low availability and high response time.

To summarise,

Anti-patterns show designers how to apply and avoid anti-patterns in real-world implementations. In software development, Design Patterns can identify issues but do not provide complete answers. Programmers and others must develop and create software, sometimes breaking the rules to meet user expectations.

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Zero Downtime with Microservices

While certain programs can withstand planned downtime, most consumer-facing systems with a global audience must be available 24/7. Zero Downtime is unavoidable with a single backend server. Multiple servers help avoid downtime. Small businesses can use the strategies described here since cloud providers provide tools for zero-downtime installations. It helps to grasp the basic concepts, how easy it is to implement, and the repercussions once the vast size is reached.

“When you want to deploy or upgrade your microservices. Don’t wait to upgrade- with Zero Downtime Deployment; you may reconfigure on the fly.

A new year means a new set of goals, and the essential one for this year is to use microservices to reduce development costs and accelerate time to market. There are numerous frameworks and technologies available today for developers that want to build microservices quickly.

Next, you must make sure that the frequent microservice deployments do not affect the microservice’s availability.

Here comes Zero Downtime Deployment (ZDD), which allows you to update your microservice without disrupting its functioning.

When we talk about zero-downtime deployment, what exactly are we referring to?

Zero-downtime deployment, the optimal deployment situation from both the users’ and the company’s perspectives because new features and defects may be incorporated and eradicated without a service interruption.

Three typical deployment techniques that guarantee minimal downtime

Rolling deployment — In a rolling deployment, existing instances are gradually taken off of service. In contrast, new ones are brought online, ensuring that you retain a minimal percentage of capacity during deployment.

Canaries — You test the dependability of version N+1 by deploying a single new instance before continuing with a full-scale rollout. This pattern adds an extra layer of security over and above a standard rolling deployment.

Use of blue-green deployments — You put up a set of services (the green set) that execute a new version of the code while gradually shifting requests away from the old version (the blue set). This may be preferable to canaries in situations where service users are extremely concerned about error rates and will not tolerate the possibility of a sick canary.

So, what’s the most efficient method?

There are other approaches, but one is as simple as:

  • Implement your service’s first iteration.
  • Your database should be upgraded to the latest version
  • Concurrently roll out the v2 and v1 of your service

Once you’ve verified that version 2 is flawless, simply deactivate version 1 and move on.

That’s all there is to it!

Isn’t that simple?

Let’s have a look at the blue-green deployment procedure right now.

Blue-green deployment is something you may not be familiar with. However, it’s a breeze to use Cloud Foundry to accomplish this.

To summarize, to deploy blue and green is as simple as the following:

  • keep two backups of your production environment (blue and green)
  • Map production URLs to the blue environment to direct all traffic there;
  • Any application updates should be deployed and tested in a green environment
  • Turn on the switch by mapping URLs to green and turning them off by mapping them to blue.

A blue-green deployment strategy makes it easy to introduce new features without worrying about something going wrong in the field because you can quickly “flip the switch” to revert your router to a previous setting, even if that happens.

Maintaining two copies of the same environment doubles the amount of work necessary to support it; therefore, they have a lot in common. Another option is to utilize the same database for the web and domain layers and then toggle them using blue-green switches. However, if you need to alter the schema to support a new software version, databases can be a real pain to work with.

What if the database change isn’t backward compatible anymore?

Isn’t it possible that my first application may go up in flames?

The truth is… ​

Despite the enormous advantages of zero-downtime / blue-green app deployment, enterprises prefer to launch their apps using a less risky method:

  • Put together a new application package using the current version.
  • Put an end to the currently running program
  • The database migration scripts should be executed
  • Install and use the latest version of the software

When implementing Microservices, why is it critical to have zero downtime?

Uptime is critical for many major web applications. A service interruption can frustrate customers or provide a chance for them to switch to a competitor. In addition, for a site with e-commerce capabilities, this can result in actual revenue being lost.

A website with zero downtime is free of service interruptions. Redundancy becomes a must at every level of your infrastructure if you want to attain these lofty ambitions. Are you redundant to other availability zones and geographies if you use cloud hosting? Using globally dispersed load balancing, do you use it? Do you have many load-balanced web servers and multiple clustered databases on the backend?

Uptime can be increased by meeting these conditions, but it may not be possible to achieve near-zero interruptions. You’ll need to conduct extensive testing to be able to do that. The idea is to demonstrate that parts of your infrastructure collapse rapidly without a significant outage by triggering them. The real test will be when the power goes off.

Zero Downtime Deployment has several advantages.

  • More dependable releases will be made in the future.
  • Process of releasing software that is easier to repeat.
  • There will be no deployments during odd hours of the day or night.
  • Upgrades to the software are completely unknown among end-users.

Conclusion:

The pursuit of Zero Downtime Deployment is worthwhile. However, supporting agile development more quickly doesn’t compromise on the end-user experience. Platforms for container management make it simple to do so.

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CI/CD Pipeline in
Software Development

The CI/CD pipeline includes continuous integration, delivery, and deployment. DevOps teams use it to generate, test, and release new software automatically. This pipeline benefits from regular software changes and a more collaborative and agile team process. You have probably heard about the benefits of CI/CD tools that provide code more frequently and reliably. Let’s examine what it is and how it benefits software development.

What Does CI/CD Pipeline Stand For?

There are two abbreviations for CI and CD: CI stands for continuous integration and CD for continuous delivery and deployment. Continuous Integration is the software development methodology based on the idea of making incremental code changes frequently and consistently.CI/CD (Continuous Deployment) is also based on this idea. Continuous Integration (CI)-triggered automated build and test stages ensure that code changes submitted into the source are trustworthy.

Integration, testing, delivery, and deployment are some of the processes that make up the CI/CD pipeline for DevOps services. It uses automated testing to identify potential problems earlier and test code changes in various environments. Automated testing covers nearly every aspect of pipeline quality management, including API performance and protection.
Software and app deployments will be more reliable, faster, and of higher quality due to the CI/CD pipeline’s ability to automate multiple stages.
A CI/CD pipeline should be set up before beginning the development process itself, as the parallel operation of CI/CD tools will fundamentally alter your workflow. You must first set up the pipeline phases correctly to make this happen. CI/CD Pipeline phases are now complete.

What’s the Purpose of CI/CD Pipeline?

CI/CD helps companies deliver software on time and budget. It is now possible to bring products to market faster than ever before, ensuring a continuous flow of new features and bug fixes using the most efficient delivery mechanism. CI/CD enables an efficient procedure. Getting back to the point of this article, let’s identify the scenarios in which a CI/CD pipeline is most beneficial.

It Goes Beyond Automated Testing

Quality assurance engineers use automated testing frameworks to write, execute, and automate various types of tests that inform development teams if a software build is successful or not. They create regression tests at the end of each sprint and combine them into a single test for the entire application.

It is important to note that this process does not stop there. Instead, it provides a quick and convenient way to automate processes beyond what was tested above.

Automate Changes To Numerous Environments

Continuous delivery refers to deploying apps to production environments regularly. It is common for software developers to have multiple developments and testing environments for testing and reviewing application updates. Data management, storing data resources, and programme and library updating may all be included in a more complicated CD. All environment parameters must be maintained outside of the app after a CI/CD tool has been selected. CI/CD tools help set up these variables, hide them, and configure them for the target environment at the time of deployment.

It Makes It Easier to Deploy Code Regularly

Businesses that need a dependable way to regularly deliver updates to their apps design CI/CD pipelines. Organising builds, running tests, and automating deployments are all part of the production process for distributing code changes. Once a computing environment has been set up, a team can focus on improving apps rather than on the technical details of transferring them to the environment. As a result, developers may now push updates more frequently because of automation.

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Application Modernization & 6Rs

Enhancement of functionality. Innovation more rapidly and efficiently. Reduced operational and infrastructure costs. Scalability improvement. Improved overall experience and application. Enhanced ability to bounce back. It’s like a door has been unlocked.

For example, shifting your business’ apps to the cloud has numerous advantages, including those outlined above. The problem is that many firms don’t grasp that realising the cloud’s benefits requires a little more than just application transfer. Not every application can run on the cloud since not all have been designed.

Contrary to popular belief, most legacy programs are based on a single database with a monolithic architecture with very less scope of on demand Scalability, Agile Development, High Availability and many more. Despite the simplicity of this technique, it has significant constraints in terms of size and complexity and continuous deployment, start-up time, and scaling.

Let’s gain some insight into what Application Modernization is?

An application’s modernization is the process of bringing it up to date with newer technologies, such as newer programming languages, frameworks, and infrastructure. This process is referred to as “legacy modernization” or “legacy application modernization”. Making improvements to efficiency, security, and structural integrity is akin to re-modelling an older house. As an alternative to replacing or retiring an existing system, application modernization extends the useful life of an organization’s software while taking advantage of new technology.

Why go for app modernization?

By implementing application modernization, a business may safeguard its existing software investments while also taking advantage of the latest advancements in infrastructure, tools, languages, and other technology areas. A sound modernization approach can reduce the resources needed to run an application, increase deployment frequency and reliability, improve uptime and resilience, and provide other benefits. Thus, a digital transformation strategy often includes an application modernization plan.

Why do enterprises need application modernization?

Most businesses have made significant financial and operational investments in their current application portfolio. “legacy” has a negative connotation in software but is one of the most important business applications. No one wants to throw out these applications and start over because of their high costs, productivity losses, and other issues. Therefore, it is sensible for many businesses to modernize their existing applications by using newer software platforms, tools, architectures, and libraries.

Let’s understand some trends in legacy application modernization

Multi-cloud and hybrid cloud are two of the most significant trends in modernizing legacy apps. Multiple public cloud services can be used for cost savings, flexibility, and other reasons. On-premises infrastructure and public and private clouds are all included in the hybrid cloud model.

Rather than requiring software teams to rewrite their critical applications from scratch, modernization helps them optimize their existing applications for these more distributed computing paradigms. Legacy modernization is aided greatly by multi-cloud and hybrid cloud deployments.

The IT industry’s adoption of containers and orchestration to package, deploy, and manage applications and workloads is another modernization trend. A more decoupled approach to development and operations — specifically a microservices architecture — is best served by containers rather than a legacy app.

Here’s a look at some of the key advantages of Application modernizing your apps. Intensify the shift to digital

The need to transform the business to build and deliver new capabilities quickly motivates application modernization. It takes days to deploy a new system instead of hours with DevOps and Cloud-native tools, which helps businesses transform faster.

Change the developer’s experience.

Containerization and adopting a cloud-native architecture allow you to develop new applications and services quickly. Developers don’t have to worry about integrating and deploying multiple changes in a short period.

Delivery should be speed up.

It is possible to reduce time to market from weeks to hours by adopting best practices from DevOps. Deploying code changes quickly and human intervention-free as possible.

Hybrid cloud platforms to deploy enterprise applications.

A hybrid multi-cloud environment helps to increase efficiency by automating the operations. A result of this is “Build Once, Deploy on Any Cloud.”

Integrates and builds faster

Using DevOps principles, one can integrate multiple code streams into one. One need not worry about changes in the current environment as the entire integration cycle can be integrated at once, allowing for the last deployment to be possible.

Why Move an Application to the Cloud?

The desire to swiftly add new capabilities drives application modernization. Adopting DevOps and cloud-native tools reduces development to deployment, allowing businesses to shift faster. Most firms moving to the cloud want to be more agile, save money, and reduce time to market.

Most of them opt for the simplest ‘Lift and Shift’ model. They realized that cloud-native techniques and architectures could provide more value and innovation than traditional infrastructure-as-a-service options. Keeping old apps and architectures would hinder their capacity to innovate, optimize, and be agile and their primary cloud objectives. Cloud-native is the future of application development, allowing for rapid prototyping and deployment of new ideas. Reorganize people, processes, and workflows to be “cloud-native”; create apps with the cloud in mind. This necessitates a cloud-native development strategy that aligns with the overall cloud strategy. Demands for speedier market entry and modernization are increasing.

Re-platforming traditional apps on container platforms or refactoring them into cloud-native microservices is an option. Using Cloud Modernization approaches, modern apps may be seamlessly migrated to the cloud. Cloud-native microservices allow clients to take advantage of the cloud’s scalability and flexibility. Modernizing apps with cloud-native tools allows for seamless concurrency. To design new user experiences, productivity and integration barriers are reduced. Many cloud-native architectures address the requirements of rapid scaling up and down, thus optimizing compute and cost. These days’ business contexts demand speedier development, integration, and deployment. Requiring syncing of development and deployment cycles. DevOps tools may integrate the complete development to deployment cycle, reducing cycle time from days to hours.

What are the 6 Rs of Cloud Migration?

Each app’s value proposition and potential opportunities are clearly defined by scoring it following the 6 R system. To sum up, what are the “six Rs” of moving to the cloud? In a nutshell, there are a variety of approaches that can be used when migrating applications. Each letter of the alphabet stands for a distinct approach, value, or outcome. Retain, Rehost, Replatform, Replace, and Refactor are among the six Rs to success. This system is critical to maximizing the return on your cloud migration investment because it incorporates all four essential R’s.

Rehost

Companies looking to move their IT infrastructure to the Public Cloud commonly use the Rehost strategy, which is at the top of the list. Rehosting, also known as ‘lift and shift,’ is the most straightforward method of moving your on-premises IT infrastructure to the cloud, requiring the least amount of adjustment to your workloads and working methods. Simply copy your servers to the cloud service provider’s infrastructure and move them there. This is known as Rehosting. Even though the Cloud Provider now manages the hardware and hypervisor infrastructure, you continue to manage the operating system and installed applications. With the help of well-known tools from the Cloud Service Providers such as AWS Cloud Endure and Azure Site Recovery, you can quickly move your servers into the cloud.

Replatform

Replatforming allows you to use cloud migration to upgrade your operating systems or databases, for example, rather than lifting and shifting your servers. Cloud migration may necessitate platforming if you have outdated operating systems that the cloud provider no longer supports. When moving to the cloud, you may want to switch from a commercially supported to an open-source platform to enhance further your business case for doing so; The architecture of your applications, however, will not change because you are only changing the underlying services while keeping the core application code the same.

Refactor

Refactoring means changing the application code to take advantage of cloud-native services, which can be thought of as an ‘application modernization’. It’s possible that you’d prefer to use cloud provider serverless functionality rather than server-based applications. Choosing to rehost or replatform an application first is a common strategy for businesses looking to get some momentum behind their cloud migration. However, if you rehost or replatform an application you want to modernize, there is a risk that the refactoring will be deprioritized, and the application modernization may never take place. This is the most resource-intensive option.

Repurchase

Managing installed software on infrastructure you manage may no longer be necessary if you use commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) applications available as Software as a Service (SaaS). It’s also possible that you’d prefer to entirely use a different application from a different vendor.

Retire

To avoid paying for application infrastructure that does not provide any business benefit, it is critical to identify no longer needed applications before migrating to the cloud.

Retain

You might also have applications in your portfolio whose migration to the cloud isn’t an option because they simply aren’t good candidates. Moving them to the public cloud may not make financial sense for some applications because you’ve just invested in new on-premises infrastructure or because the vendor refuses to support a specific piece of software in a public cloud platform. Nowadays, there are a few reasons to keep an application on-premises, but this will depend on your situation and the needs of your business.

Learn More: Application Modernization Services of Metaorange Digital 

Microservices & Micro-frontends

With microservices becoming more prevalent, many organizations are using this architecture approach to avoid the limitations of large, robust backend systems. Many companies continue to struggle with Micro frontends codebases that are solid, despite much has been written about worker-side programming. However,Frameworks like React, Vue, or Angular contain patterns and best practices to assist in developing a single-page application (SPA).

Microservices & Micro-frontends

The React framework, for example, uses JSX to display information based on changes in the user or data. SPAs have become commonplace in modern construction, although they aren’t without flaws. There are several drawbacks to use a SPA. The loss of search engine optimization occurs since the application is not displayed until the user views it in the browser. As a result of Google’s web crawler attempting to render the page but failing, you will lose many keywords necessary to go up the search rankings.

Another shortcoming is the complexity of the structure. As previously said, several structures may provide the SPA experience and allow you to build a great SPA. Still, each aims at different needs, and recognizing which to embrace might be difficult.
It’s also possible that program execution will be a problem. Since the SPA is in charge of all client connection delivery and preparation, it can have a considerable impact on how the client is configured. Not all consumers will need a rapid connection with complex software to operate your application. A smooth customer experience necessitates maintaining a modest box size and minimizing client handling to the most significant degree possible.
Scale is a problem in light of all that has gone before it — making a complex application that meets your client’s needs necessitates a large team of programmers. Many people working on the same code are trying to make changes, and clashing might occur while dealing with a SPA.

So, what’s the answer to all of these issues now?

Microfrontends

The notion of web apps plays a crucial role in the increasing popularity and almost universal usage of micro frontends, and it is hard to refute this fact. Developers must work with a combination of front-end technologies to be aware of these modifications, which are necessary to advance programming methods and processes. In this scenario, micro frontends play a crucial role.

Let’s take a closer look at WHAT ARE MICRO FRONTENDS?

When it comes to micro frontends, they are an extension of a microservices architecture, where the utility is extended to the system’s front-end. This is why the use of micro frontends has a wide variety of advantages. Such as arrangement autonomy and simpler component testing.
It’s no wonder that micro frontends are becoming a popular way to develop web apps. Businesses like IKEA and Spotify have successfully adapted micro frontends to their business models in recent years.

Learn More: Application Modernization Services of Metaorange Digital

Difference Between
Hybrid & Multi Cloud

Today’s cloud ecosystem comprises various cloud techniques geared to meet infrastructure, workloads, security, and more needs. Hybrid cloud and multi-cloud are two sometimes confusing phrases.

What distinguishes a multi-cloud setup from a hybrid cloud? What is the difference between these two? Let’s bridge it and find out about the distinctions between hybrid cloud and multi-cloud.

Difference Between Hybrid Cloud And Multi-Cloud

A detailed Market Research report by Future states that the hybrid cloud market size is expected to reach USD 173.33 billion by 2025, with a CAGR of 22.25 percent.

The dynamic nature and diversity of labor enhance its importance. Several end-user sectors such as transport, health, media and entertainment, manufacturing, retail, IT, telecommunications, and BFSI widely use the hybrid cloud due to its attractive characteristics and benefits.

Multi-Cloud

A multi-cloud infrastructure covers several public cloud environments from various suppliers. In multi-cloud infrastructure, organizations typically use various public clouds for distinct activities, including using one for program logic, another for databases, and a third for machine learning. Organizations select a multi-cloud strategy to use the flexibility and characteristics of different clouds.

Another cloud adoption survey investigated companies integrate services from the three leading multi-cloud suppliers (Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud Platform) in their network infrastructures. The results show that 40% of respondents utilized two or more of these providers, while 18% used all three providers for diverse applications.

However, by 2025, multi-cloud initiatives will lessen vendor dependence for 2/3 of companies. This will happen mostly in other ways than program portability.

Hybrid Cloud

Hybrid cloud is a dynamic and versatile IT solution that combines public and private cloud environments. It allows businesses to optimize workloads, seamlessly integrating on-premises infrastructure with cloud services. This versatile approach offers greater flexibility, scalability, and cost-effectiveness, catering to unique business needs.

Organizations can enjoy the benefits of the public cloud, such as accessibility and elasticity, while retaining control over sensitive data through private cloud components.

Embracing the hybrid cloud empowers businesses to achieve optimal performance and efficiency, propelling them towards success in the digital age.

Learn More: Cloud Services of Metaorange Digital