Application Configuration Cloud Configuration
October 15, 2020
One of the biggest benefits of investing in cloud technologies is the opportunity to customize these tools and services to fit your specific business needs. In contrast to static, on-prem solutions, cloud tools can be configured and adjusted in countless ways, enabling greater levels of efficiency in everything from IT and security to operations, sales, and more.
However, this customization comes at a cost: many companies struggle to maintain acceptable reliability standards when implementing these complex, custom setups. To adequately balance customization with reliability, cloud customers are turning to third-party configuration management tools that make it possible to leverage the benefits of personalized solutions — without sacrificing product reliability.
The value of customization isn’t new. Companies large and small have long recognized the benefits of moving past the defaults and optimizing their systems to meet their specific requirements. But cloud tools open the door to a whole new world of customization. From relatively simple applications for authenticating users or collecting data, to large-scale platforms that underlie entire businesses; cloud solutions offer countless customization and personalization options.
For example, both the Google Cloud Platform and AWS offer custom configuration options that are optimized for different businesses and applications. As industry analyst Cindy Jutras explained in a recent report, configuring cloud services makes it possible for businesses to “get a tailored experience that matches your business needs and personal preferences without the hassle of customizing an on-premises solution.”
From custom reporting to layouts, user settings, and entire workflows, thoughtful configuration of these tools has the potential to create significant value for cloud customers.
Ultimately, this is a similar phenomenon as we see in the world of consumer products. B2C products such as iPhones, or even social media platforms such as Facebook or Twitter, all become more valuable after you tweak your settings, customize your layouts, and follow the people, groups, or apps that you enjoy.
B2B products are no different: to make the most of the tools you’ve invested in, customization is key.
Despite the advantages of customization, it can come at a cost: many custom solutions can significantly impact the reliability of your overall system. There are a few different ways in which customization can lead to reliability issues.
First, when you customize your configurations and settings, it can be difficult to keep track of all the different options. This makes it harder for both internal and external teams to support these systems, so when issues inevitably arise, it can be challenging to resolve them in a timely manner.
In addition, the interactions between different interconnected cloud systems can create network effects of complexity. Every time you add a new system into your tech stack, it has the potential to interact with existing infrastructure in unexpected ways, leading to product issues across the business. Add in custom configurations in every level of your cloud system, and you create opportunities for error on a massive scale.
So what is the modern cloud customer to do? To reap the benefits of customization without sacrificing reliability, you need a third-party configuration management tool to help you monitor and adjust your custom settings. These tools empower businesses to make the most of their investments into cloud technology by making it easy to customize all the relevant settings while minimizing the system complexity that leads to product reliability issues.
Instead of constantly putting out fires as config changes to one system unexpectedly break functionality in another, a cloud configuration management system makes it possible to identify — and resolve — configuration issues before the damage is done. To learn more about how these tools are helping cloud customers balance customization and reliability, visit us at https://cloudtruth.com/.
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