AWS Cloud Services: The key to keeping monolithic architectures competitive.


Cost optimization is one of the pillars of the AWS Well-Architected Framework and is a critical pillar for monolithic architectures, in order to stay competitive. This blog post aims to provide an argument for the use of AWS services to reduce the TCO (total cost of ownership) for on-premise/hybrid environments which must maintain on-premise/hybrid infrastructure.


When it comes to cloud adoption, "cloud-native" is not a reality for environments which adhere to stringent requirements for compliance purposes. 

The e-book titled, "Cloud-native DevOps: A guide to implementation and best practices on AWS" takes a strong stance, when it comes to criticizing on-premise monolithic applications. In reality, this depends entirely on the use case and if it actually makes sense to have a SaaS application become "cloud native". Some software applications are so technical, complex, operating in heavily regulated industries, and require resources which demand a greater amount of control than AWS managed services are able to provide. For example, the use of an Oracle database is one such resource which allows for an extreme amount of customizable control. The customization features of Oracle Database is a critical component for SaaS applications which operate in compliance-driven environments; and yet I feel that AWS cloud services may be used to complement on-premise applications in ways which have never before been possible for on-premise monolithic architectures. 


To further improve operational efficiency, demanding, monolithic SaaS applications which use Oracle databases, as an example, may further reduce cost by strategically leveraging AWS services for various use cases.

Many SaaS applications have customized PL/SQL stored procedures, triggers, and packages, which require full Oracle database support rather than the use of an AWS managed RDS instance. Furthermore, SaaS applications which operate in highly regulated environments, also have strict data residency, encryption, auditing, and patch control requirements which self-managed Oracle databases support through Database Vault, TDE (Transparent Data Encryption), and Label Security (access to individual table rows) while Amazon RDS for Oracle only offers limited support or restricted privileges when using Amazon RDS for Oracle (RDS for Oracle features) (Oracle, Database Vault Administrators' Guide). In conclusion, for SaaS applications which operate in highly regulated industries, maintaining on-premise infrastructure ensures compliance and granular control, while selectively leveraging AWS services for auxiliary tasks--such as backups, disaster recovery plans, and analytics--may help reduce the total cost of ownership (TCO) and enhance operational efficiency in a hybrid environment. 

                       

How may SaaS applications strike the perfect balance between securite, compliance, and cost efficiency in highly regulated environments?

SaaS applications may strategically leverage AWS cloud services to enhance disaster recovery plans whilst maintaining compliance with sovereignty laws (govcloud-us.pdf). For instance, encrypted AWS backups may be utilised without violating data residency requirements, and AWS services such as logging and monitoring may help reduce the total cost of ownership 

Several areas in which SaaS applications could take advantage of AWS cloud services would be in the development of a Disaster Recovery Plan, which uses AWS encrypted backups without violating sovereignty laws and helps reduce the total cost of ownership (i.e., logs and monitoring) (AWS, User Guide AWS GovCloud (US)). For SaaS applications which deal with highly sensitive environments, FIPS 140-2 validated encryption, customer-managed keys (CMKs) to control the encryption key life cycle, or dedicated hardware security modules (HSMs) for ultra-sensitive backup encryption with full customer control--AWS offers Key Management Service (KMS) for full control over the encryption key life cycle.  AWS Backup and AWS Storage Gateway may facilitate secure and compliant Disaster Recovery Plans to maintain regulatory requirements; AWS CloudTrail, Amazon CloudWatch, and AWS Config are able to enhance logging capabilities and monitoring to help further reduce the total cost of ownership (Pishardody, 2023). 


Highly secure environments require on-premise infrastructure, and in order to stay competitive, have the ability to leverage services like AWS Certificate Manager and the Snow Family to enhance securite, reduce costs, and support a scalable disaster recovery strategy--upholding the pillars of the Well-Architected Framework where it matters most.

AWS even offers AWS Certificate Manager features to provide SSL/TLS certificates to encrypt backups in-transit, and for the ultra-sensitive data centers, the use of the AWS Snow Family offers an additional benefit of not only helping to maintain security requirements but also reduce the cost of real-time connectivity ("What is Snow Family in AWS?", 2024). The demands of a fully customizable network architecture makes the cloud native approach unfeasible because of the variables which highly sensitive or sensitive network architectures must adhere to, however, I am a proponent of making use of AWS services to manage some sort of cloud-based scalable disaster recovery plan, and offset investment costs in core on-premise infrastructure by outsourcing to AWS non-critical core tasks (AWS, n.d.). This hybrid approach ensures the focus remains on investment in the on-premise core infrastructure for SaaS applications--using AWS services whenever possible.


By leveraging AWS GreenGrass for on-premise monitoring and the Well-Architected Framework for securite and reliability, businesses may seamlessly integrate cloud services without compromising regulatory adherence.

When maintaining SaaS applications which require extraordinary specifications which must be adhered to, the benefits of maintaining a competitive edge in the areas of cost optimization, scalability, and automation makes the use of AWS a strategic way to gain an edge. For such environments, the Security Pillar of the AWS Well-Architected Framework includes monitoring of physical infrastructure to maintain compliance with required security measures as well as the requirement of ensuring system uptime (Reliability Pillar). What I like about AWS Greengrass is the fact that AWS Greengrass provides the ability to have environmental sensors monitor data from a data center (temperature, humidity, power usage) and abide by data residency requirements, keeping sensitive data within a specific geographic location while still utilizing cloud services for monitoring, aggregation, and long-term storage.

In conclusion, the cloud native approach is certainly cost effective for industries which do not require stringent regulations to abide by, yet there is a way for monolithic architectures to take advantage of cost savings, scalability, automation, and reliability by using AWS services in a manner which supports the core infrastructure of such SaaS applications which operate in heavily regulated industries. 


Cited Sources

Amazon Web Services (AWS). (n.d.). RDS for Oracle features. Retrieved [date], from https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonRDS/latest/UserGuide/Oracle.Concepts.FeatureSupport.html

Amazon Web Services (AWS). (n.d.). User Guide AWS GovCloud (US). Retrieved [date], from https://docs.aws.amazon.com/pdfs/govcloud-us/latest/UserGuide/govcloud-us.pd

Amazon Web Services (AWS). (n.d.). Disaster recovery of on-premises applications to AWS [Whitepaper]. Retrieved [date], from https://docs.aws.amazon.com/pdfs/whitepapers/latest/disaster-recovery-of-on-premises-applications-to-aws/disaster-recovery-of-on-premises-applications-to-aws.pdf

Amazon Web Services (AWS). (n.d.). AWS Backup in AWS GovCloud (US). Retrieved [date], from https://docs.aws.amazon.com/govcloud-us/latest/UserGuide/govcloud-bkp.html

Oracle. (n.d.). Oracle Database Vault Administrator's Guide: Introduction to Oracle Database Vault. Retrieved [date], from [URL if available]

Pisharody, S. (2018, March 19). AWS Key Management Service now offers FIPS 140-2 validated cryptographic modules enabling easier adoption of the service for regulated workloads. AWS Security Blog. Retrieved [date], from https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/security/aws-key-management-service-now-offers-fips-140-2-validated-cryptographic-modules-enabling-easier-adoption-of-the-service-for-regulated-workloads/

Unknown Author. (2024, October 4). What is Snow Family in AWS? GeeksforGeeks. Retrieved [date], from https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/aws-snow-family/#benefits-of-aws-snow-family


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