Cloud Solution Design - Replatform to Alibaba Cloud

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