Post Syndicated from Douglas Chang original https://www.anchor.com.au/blog/2021/01/25624/
If you’re an IT Manager or Operations Manager who has considered moving your company’s online assets into the AWS cloud, you may have started by wondering, what is it truly going to involve?
One of the first decisions you will need to make is whether you are going to approach the cloud with the assistance of an AWS managed service provider (AWS MSP), or whether you intend to fully self-manage.
Whether or not a fully managed service is the right option for you comes down to two pivotal questions;
- Do you have the technical expertise required to properly deploy and maintain AWS cloud services?
- Do you, or your team, have the time/capacity to take this on – not just right now, but in an ongoing capacity too?
Below, we’ll briefly cover some of the considerations you’ll need to make when choosing between fully managed AWS Cloud Services and Self-Managed AWS Cloud Services.
Self-Managed AWS Services
Why outsource the management of your AWS when you can train your own in-house staff to do it?
With self-managed AWS Services, this means you’re responsible for every aspect of the service from start to finish. Managing your own services allows for the benefit of ultimate control, which may be beneficial if you require very specific deployment conditions or software versions to run your applications. It can also allow you to very gradually test your applications within their new infrastructure, and learn as you go.
This will result in knowing how to manage and control your own services on a closer level, but it comes with the downside of a very heavy learning curve and time investment if you have never entered the cloud environment before. In the context of a business or corporate environment, you’d also need to ensure that multiple staff members go through this process to ensure redundancy for staff availability and turnover. You’d also need in either case to invest in continuous development to keep up with the latest best practices and security protocols, because the cloud, like any technical landscape, is fast-paced and ever-changing.
This can end up being a significant investment in training and staff development. As employees are never guaranteed to stay, there is the risk of that investment, or at least substantial portions of it, disappearing at some point.
At the time of writing, there are 450 items in the AWS learning library, for those looking to self-learn. In terms of taking exams to obtain official accreditation, AWS offers 3 levels of certification at present, starting with Foundational, through to Associate, and finally, Professional. To reach the Professional level, AWS requires “Two years of comprehensive experience designing, operating, and troubleshooting solutions using the AWS Cloud”.
Fully Managed AWS Services
Hand the reins over to accredited professionals.
Fully-managed AWS services mean you’ll reap all of the extensive benefits of moving your online infrastructure into the cloud, without taking on the responsibility of setting up or maintaining those services.
You will hand over the stress of managing backups, high availability, software versions, patches, fixes, dependencies, cost optimisation, network infrastructure, security, and various other aspects of keeping your cloud services secure and cost-effective. You won’t need to spend anything on staff training or development, and there is no risk of losing control of your services when internal staff come and go. Essentially, you will be handing the reins over to a team of experts who have already obtained their AWS certifications at the highest level, with collective decades of experience in all manner of business operations and requirements.
The main risk here is choosing where the right place to outsource your AWS management is. When choosing to outsource AWS cloud management, you’ll want to be sure the AWS partner you choose offers the level of support you are going to require, as well as hold all relevant certifications. When partnered with the right AWS MSP team, you’ll also often find that the management fees pay for themselves due to the greater level of AWS cost optimisation that can be achieved by seasoned professionals.
If you’re interested in finding out an estimation of professional AWS cloud management costs for your business or discussing how your business operations could be improved or revolutionised through the AWS cloud platform, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with our expert team for a free consultation. Our expert team can conduct a thorough assessment of your current infrastructure and business, and provide you with a report on how your business can specifically benefit from a migration to the AWS cloud platform.
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