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Kay Kleinvogel
Kay Kleinvogel

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Day 7: Building a Cloud Infrastructure? Don't Forget about Non-Technical Requirements

Want to ensure your cloud infrastructure is a success? Make sure it fulfills the business's needs by considering non-technical requirements.


It can be challenging to build a cloud infrastructure, but it's essential to remember that there are more than just technical considerations. To make sure that the final design meets your client's needs, you should consider the non-technical requirements.

Identifying Non-Technical Requirements

Examining your customer's vision and goals is a great start when identifying non-technical requirements.

Are they attempting, for instance, to be more agile and responsive to changes in the market? This would necessitate the use of a cloud infrastructure that is simple to scale and modify.

Or the highest priority is global availability, requiring a highly redundant cloud infrastructure with strong failover capabilities.

These are only a few examples; every business will have its own particular set of non-technical requirements.

Regulatory Requirements

Regulation requirements are yet another crucial factor. It's critical to be aware of the specific rules that apply to your customer, as they can significantly impact design decisions.

Here are a few regulations you should be aware of:

The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) is a set of strict data security and encryption guidelines that applies to businesses that accept credit cards.

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), which applies to healthcare organizations, has strict guidelines for protecting individualized medical information.

Companies processing the personal data of individuals in the European Union are subject to the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which has strict data protection rules.

Every regulation will have its own specifications and requirements. To ensure that your cloud architecture complies with them, you must determine which regulations apply and check your architecture against them.

Conclusion

Simply put, when developing a cloud infrastructure, business, and regulatory requirements are crucial factors to consider. But don't only see them as restrictions. They will also provide valuable guidelines and direction for your cloud architecture.

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