Lately, there have been so many applications using the most recent technologies, such as immersive websites, 3D Map, and many other applications that are using heavy computation capabilities. The applications that we have mentioned of course need proper codes, and also proper infrastructure.

Then, we’ll get into the usual question, “Why?”. The answer is simple. It’s because those applications that need an enormous cost on its computational activities will need well-managed infrastructure. And most importantly, fit the budget that the owner of the application needs. For instance, website immersive–this kind of website application commonly handles a lot of media files, especially 3D Graphics, or even embedded videos.

To handle it properly and correctly, in order to achieve top performance of the application, the appropriate plan to create a managed-infrastructure will be much needed for the application that will be developed.

Managed infrastructure means maintaining and managing the infrastructure of the application, including setting up the hardware, software, networks (intranet & ethernet), monitoring and optimization, data backup, or even security management. The influencing components from digital infrastructure that have to be managed are as follows:

Network Management for Managed Infrastructure

Network is one of the most essential and foundational parts of digital infrastructure, where a server needs a network that is always up and running. If the connection is cut off, the user won’t be able to access the server and even the whole application, making it inaccessible. We also have to make sure that the networks should have a stable speed and capacity. So that data transfer delay won’t occur.

Server Management

Server is the central operation of the application that we have deployed. The specification must have met certain requirements such as high uptime, and most certainly secure from various threats. This can be considered a quite significant factor because when some parts of the requirements are not met, then the whole infrastructure could be vulnerable, for example, someone could get some important access to the application and give some dangerous threats. It’s not what we seek, as the owner or as the developer, right? So, proper managed-infrastructure is a must for every application.

Storage Solution

Data storage is also a critical component, for which the function is to store all of the application data to the server. Data storage will need to be adjusted according to the design of the application. Managed-infrastructure covers that. It’s how we can design the infrastructure system from scratch, for instance to accommodate every data transaction and data storage, so that the application can run smoothly and all important data could be stored safely.

Security Management for Managed Infrastructure

In most recent times, we had seen so many cyber threats, data theft, or even application deface, or even more, phishing cases that commonly users get. These kind of things could be prevented when we have a secure application. The need to set up the firewall, intrusion detection systems, and antivirus will get your application not only great to use but also secure from outsiders threats.

Data Backup and Disaster Recovery

Data loss, whether it is accidental or intentional, we don’t wish it to be happening, at anytime, anyplace, and of course, at all cost. It’s something that maybe could be considered as a small problem. But when it comes to important data, a huge amount of data, or even sensitive data, a business or organisation could get some serious problems. So, it’s essential to get a Disaster Recovery Center, where we are not only designing for the main storage, but we also get the backup storage as the storage that will be used when there’s anything disastrous happening. Threats are everywhere, not only from human, but those will also came from the mother nature. For thus, managed-infrastructure teaches us to be more preventive and skeptical about the future. Even though this is quite complex, when you get this, you can run your organisation or business smoothly without worrying about anything.

From the points mentioned above, there’s a few best practices that we can implement right away throughout our system and infrastructure:

• Optimising Cloud Services

There are a lot of Platform-as-a-Service like AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud that offer managed-services that apply flexibility, scalability and cost control. So that we can just easily afford them and manage them just as easily as dragging and dropping. There are also other services such as managed databases, serverless computing or even seamless cloud storage that enable us to be more in control towards the infrastructure of the application.

• Implementing Strong Protocol Security

As security is fundamental for managed infrastructure. Through implementing identity and access management (IAM) to control permission and to reduce some essential data to be exposed to the public. We could use VPN, Firewall, or even Zero Trust Model services to secure access to our whole infrastructure system.

• Creating Automation for Infrastructure Management

Infrastructure-as-a-Code (IAAC) like Terraform, Ansible or CloudFormation by AWS can facilitate us to manage our infrastructure properly using automation. Automating tasks like provisioning, scaling, and monitoring to reduce human errors will get you more advantages, ensuring consistency and improving the deployment accuracy and speed.

• Always Prioritise Scalability and Easy-to-Scale Managed Infrastructure

Managed infrastructure empowers us to scale up the application that we have developed according to the need of the application. By utilising auto-scaling to handle workload fluctuation, it could get you more efficient infrastructure costs. When there’s any sudden high load from the users or for the application, the auto-scaling service will automatically scale up. Giving you a hassle-free solution to manage the infrastructure.

• Performance Monitoring and Optimisation

Monitoring tools like Grafana, Prometheus or other monitoring tools could get you real time insights of what’s happening to the system health and also to its performance. It’s important because as the owner or as the developer, we need to see some essential metrics such as CPU, memory and also network latency. So that we could adjust everything accordingly as the issues come to our infrastructure.

To manage is to secure, to secure is to maintain what’s in control and to prevent what can occur in the near future, so that our organisation or business could preserve with on-going disruptions. For thus, managed infrastructure is important, fundamental, and also a mandatory thing to do for you, whether you are an owner of a business, or a developer.