Cloud Solution Design - Replatform to Alibaba Cloud
Tags: alibabacloud
Published: 2020-10-20 01:20:05

Solution Design Replatform to Alibaba Cloud, the cloud computing division of Alibaba Group.

Cloud Solution Design - Alibaba Cloud

DISCOVERY 

Why you are moving to the cloud 

-	Financial Reasons 

o	Reduce expenses 

o	Increase operations 

o	Enhance outcomes 

-	Improve overall ROI

-	Meet competitive challenges  

PRESENTING A SOLUTION

Current Architecture 

Current Architect
2-tier solution:
-	Web
-	Database 
Access 
-	Web tier: customers on web ports 
-	Database tier: web tier on database ports 

Nightly database backups to tape 
Proposed Solutions 
Alibaba Cloud - moving applications to the cloud without major changes, but taking advantage of benefits of the cloud environment on below services 

To Be Cloud Architect 
-	Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) - Helps you construct a logically isolated networking environment where you can customize your own IP address range, subnets, route tables, and network gateways.
-	Web tier (Web Proxy) - Web (web traffic) Internet 
-	App tier (App Server) - App (app traffic) Web 
-	DB tier (ApsaraDB for RDS) - Databases (db traffic) App
-	Load balancing - Server Load Balancer (SLB)
-	Auto Scaling Group – Auto Scale 
-	Database migration - Data Transmission Service (DTS)
-	Alibaba Cloud Security - Bastion hosts (management traffic) – Small instance type 
-	Resource Access Management (RAM) – least privilege  
-	Security 
o	Only the web hosts in public subnet 
o	Security groups 
	Web - only allow internet traffic on 80/443
	App hosts - only allow web proxy on app port 
	ApsaraDB Relational Database Service (ApsaraDB for RDS) - only allow app host on 3306
	The management of Bastion Host with Alibaba Cloud - Elastic Compute Service

(ECS) Systems
o	Alibaba Cloud Security Groups - NACL (Network Access Control Lists) - as an additional layer 
o	Object Storage Service (OSS) Storage spaces have security features enabled 
o	Resource Access Management (RAM) policies configured along the principles of least privilege 
o	Monitoring and logging 

DELIVERING A PROOF OF CONCEPT (POC)
Evaluating the solution in the Alibaba Cloud’s environment 
Let’s start Alibaba Cloud A Free Trial - https://www.alibabacloud.com/campaign/free-trial?spm=a3c0i.7911826.2886971040.1.244714b3hLUrv9 

IMPLEMENTING SOLUTION

Production Solution Implementation post POC everything is OK

KEY TAKEAWAYS

•	Moving applications to the cloud as-is

-	App/DB Servers -> Elastic Compute Service (ECS) 

-	Storage  Object Storage Service (OSS)

Tools: Alibaba Cloud VM Import/Export 

•	Moving applications to the Alibaba Cloud without major changes, but taking advantage of benefits of the Alibaba Cloud environment

-	Migrating databases to ApsaraDB for RDS

-	Migrating applications to Alibaba Cloud Web Hosting

•	Improving the Design of Existing Code 

-	Using cloud native features (Cloud-Native Applications Management https://www.alibabacloud.com/solutions/container)

Alibaba Cloud Architecture Best Practices  

-	Design for failure and nothing fails

o	Avoid single points of failure 

o	Multiple instances 

o	Multiple Zones 

o	Separate single server into multiple tired application 

o	For ApsaraDB for RDS, use Multi Zone feature  

-	Build security in every layer

o	Encrypt Data at rest and in transit 

o	Enforce principle of least privilege in Resource Access Management

o	Implement both Security Groups and Network Access Control Lists (NACL) (Alibaba Cloud Security Groups) 

o	Consider advanced security features and services 

-	Leverage different storage options

o	Move static web assets to Object Storage Service (OSS) 

o	Use Alibaba Cloud CDN to serve globally 

o	Store session state in Table Store

o	Use ApsaraDB for Redis between hosts and databases  

-	Implement elasticity

o	Implement Auto Scaling policies 

o	Architect resiliency to reboot and relaunch 

o	Leverage managed services like Object Storage Service (OSS) and Alibaba Cloud Table Store

-	Think parallel

o	Scale horizontally, not vertically 

o	Decouple compute from session/state 

o	Use Server Load Balancer (SLB)

o	Right-size your infrastructure  

-	Loose coupling sets you free

o	Instead of a single, ordered workflow, use multiple queues 

o	Use 

Alibaba Cloud Message Queue (MQ) 

and 

Alibaba Cloud - Message Service 

o	Leverage existing services 

-	Don’t fear constraints

o	Better Input/output operations per second (IOPS) for databases

Source: Alibaba Cloud