Software development in 2023 is all about doing more with less, making your applications more efficient, and optimizing your resources to the max.
None of that will come as a shock to you, we’re sure. But how are you making it happen for you?
Trying to shorten build times while improving your software is tricky at the best of times, never mind when resources are under the microscope.
Fortunately, cloud acceleration can help you achieve all of the above. It’s a win-win-win. Let’s dive into it.
What is cloud acceleration?
Cloud acceleration refers to the use of a service (or series of services) that accelerates the process of not only migrating to the cloud but also optimizing operations once on it.
Cloud acceleration can be achieved through various techniques like, for example, load balancing or caching.
It might also include creating abstraction layers between systems and the cloud, or the deployment of several Infrastructure-as-a-Service platforms.
For software devs, cloud acceleration is crucial for enhancing application reliability, improving application response time, increasing scalability, and reducing overall dev costs.
How do you choose the right cloud accelerator?
Choosing the right cloud accelerator is incredibly important, and your choice will vary depending on your specific needs and intended outcomes.
While cloud acceleration can help you cut costs and improve efficiency, choosing the wrong accelerator for your project may have the opposite effect.
- Take some inspiration from your planning stage. If you know your scope and roadmap, you can find a cloud accelerator that specializes in the specific type of migration you’re looking for.
- Measure the gaps in your implementation capability. You know what you have, and what you don’t, to succeed in your cloud migration. The question is, which vendor can fill the gaps to help you?
- Work out what you need from the cloud. What’s your goal for moving to the cloud? Depending on your answer, you might need a provider that offers abstraction tools, or which optimizes throughput for faster data transfer.
Incredibuild for cloud development acceleration
Incredibuild’s cloud development acceleration tools aren’t just there to shorten your build times.
Our solution also works for companies who are migrating their services to the cloud.
Our cloud acceleration services help teams that are facing longer compute times with shorter deadlines, as well as those who are wasting time manually managing resources.
We help devs like you optimize your cloud with compute power that automatically scales to your specific needs.
You can manage instances effortlessly with automatic deployment, and spot instances that are orchestrated end to end.
Build software faster with a powerful caching mechanism that lets you reuse previous build outputs.
No matter where you’re at in your journey, we can help.
If you’re already making the most of fully cloudified environments, we make it possible for you to get the right power, at the right price, without sacrificing performance.
Or if you’re just pondering it all, as an AWS Global Migration Partner (2022) we can accelerate your digital transformation seamlessly.
Incredibuild is on hand for every step of your cloud journey — from migration, right through to continued use and optimization.
Implementing cloud acceleration
Before you start accelerating your cloud migration, there are some important questions you’ll want to answer to ensure a successful move.
- Map out your current cloud footprint. Are you using the cloud? How? What for? All the time? What cloud services are you using? Which services still need to be migrated?
- Make a map all the way to the end. Are you planning on going full cloud or hybrid? Will everyone be on the cloud? Understanding this will let you know the scope of your migration and what you need accelerated.
- Make sure your team is ready. Are you aware of cloud tech and tools you’ll need? Do you have someone who can lead the process, or will you need external help? Do you need to hire new people to manage your cloud?
These steps are just the starting point, but they create the foundation that helps inform the whole process of software development in the cloud.
What are the benefits of cloud acceleration?
Some kind of cloud-based development looks to be the future – whether you’re aiming to migrate some of your dev to the cloud, or go full cloud adoption.
But if you still need some convincing around the benefits of cloud adoption and acceleration, let’s take a look at some of the bigger-ticket items.
Optimize your cloud usage
Optimizing your cloud usage means you’re getting the most out of your cloud setup by maintaining the required level of performance and reliability.
Techniques like load balancing and auto-scaling can help with ensuring resources are used in the most efficient way.
With load balancing, you can distribute traffic evenly across multiple servers to avoid overloading a single server.
While auto-scaling automatically adjusts the number of servers based on demand — adding more when demand is high, and reducing when demand is low.
So, instead of overpaying for space (and having to adjust later on), taking care of this from the start will ensure that cloud space and usage moves with your team’s actual needs.
Cut costs
As well as optimizing your cloud usage, cloud acceleration can help you cut costs and save some precious pennies.
Let’s say you’re using 50 instances but are paying for 100 — it’s clear that you’re wasting not only space but also cash.
By reducing the number of requests to the server, while also optimizing server resources, devs can reduce the cost of running and maintaining applications.
Having a cloud acceleration and migration strategy will help you set realistic specifications and keep costs significantly lower.
Improve efficiency and scalability
As well as preventing over-provisioning of resources and reducing costs, cloud acceleration can also improve the efficiency and scalability of your applications.
By leveraging the scalability features of a cloud platform for cloud applications development, devs can easily scale their operations to match peaks and dips in activity.
Seamless scalability is critical for ensuring that services run without any disruption to the users.
Although it can be tricky knowing how to scale up and down, starting off with a “healthier cloud usage” standpoint will give you a solid baseline to understand exactly when you need more cloud capacity, and when you can scale back.
