Introduction

This whitepaper describes in detail the components of AWS Managed Services offered and the benefits an organization can realize by embracing Cloud Managed Services. Manging services in the cloud require professionals with a good understanding of cloud services, cloud-native development, and tools for monitoring & alerting, and handling incidents proactively. We also put forward the unique value proposition Tech Vedika brings to help organizations in enhancing the ROI from their cloud investments and improving the overall application performance and security.

Cloud Managed services are either the partial or complete management and control of a client’s cloud platform. The services include migration, maintenance, and optimization of infra and applications hosted on the cloud. By using a managed cloud service provider, a business can ensure that its cloud resources are used efficiently to keep cost and performance at optimal levels.

The cloud management lifecycle includes the configuration and management of the cloud environment’s core processes, services, operations, and support components. Clients can adopt Cloud Managed Services throughout the cloud management lifecycle. These services can be used to help with an initial adoption or can be provided continually.

AWS Managed Services – Overview

Tech Vedika’s offering for AWS Managed Services comprises of the following core services:

• An assessment of the current AWS support services
• AWS Services support for the full DevOps cycle including development, testing, staging, and production deployment
• Design and implementation of cloud services and resources to set up new systems
• Operations management with 24/7 active monitoring & IT support
• Cloud account security and compliance
• Cloud resource optimization which includes cost and performance optimization
• Infra as a code, automation

By offloading these types of tasks to Tech Vedika, organizations can free up their internal IT teams to focus on more complex initiatives and efforts that drive new business outcomes.

AWS Managed Service Offerings

The following are the service offerings that are included in Tech Vedika’s AWS Managed Services model:

Application Deployment & Configuration

• Tailored for providing deployment support to Project Teams
• Design Deployment Architecture
• Setup Environments
• Develop Scripts & Automate Deployment
• Manage User Access to Infra Services

24 by 7 Infra and Application Performance Monitoring

• Tag Infra and App Services for collecting data
• Configure AWS and 3rd Party tools for Infra and App Monitoring
• Setup thresholds and alerts
• Proactively identify Performance Issues for Corrective Action
• Ensure Optimal Application performance

Incident Analysis & Resolution

• Help Desk (L1) Support
• Prepare User Guides & Technical Support docs
• Application Usage, Dashboards & Reports
• Involve AWS SREs (L2) for root cause analysis and incident resolution
• Route incidents to Application Development Team (L3) as needed
• SLA and incident management reporting

AWS Backup and Disaster Recovery

• Design Backup & DR Strategy
• Setup Backup & DR Environments
• Configure AWS tools and build scripts for Backup and archival
• Support for Restore Operations

Account Monitoring & Cost Optimization

• Manage AWS account and user access
• Monthly reports on resource utilization and billing
• Usage and Cost Monitoring for Reporting, Billing Analysis, and Cost Optimization
• Analysis of unused, over-provisioned resources
• Recommendations for Cost Optimization
• Implement proven strategies for Cost Reduction

DevOps Automation

• Implement CI/CD Pipelines using AWS & 3rd Party Tools 
• Source Code control Audit & Management
• Provisioning, configuring and managing AWS infra resources using AWS tools & templates
• Deployment of microservices using AWS container services
• Log collection and analysis for app/infra health monitoring using AWS and 3rd Party Tool

Managed ServicesScope – AWS Infra Support

• 24*7 Monitoring of the Cloud infrastructure
• Basic Monitoring of Infrastructure using tools such as CloudWatch, Cloud Trail (Optional RAM, Disk File Metrics)
• Manage cloud services and components
• Elastic Cloud Compute (EC2) instances
• Storage
• Network and Security (public subnets, private subnets, security rules, VLAN, etc.)
• Identity and Access Management
• Load Balancer
• Take backups and snapshots of application servers and database
• Creation of new AWS resources from pre-configured AMIs, creating read replicas, automating backups for new resources in AWS part of existing resources
• Provide dashboards for monitoring and SLA reports using the ITSM tool

TechVedika Managed Services Model

Tech Vedika managed services are based on SLA-driven technical support.

Alerts that are triggered from the monitoring tools are converted to incidents using the ITSM tool. The Cloud monitoring team acknowledges the incident based on the priority and assigns a team to the cloud ops team for resolution. Customers are provided with access to the ticket management system for raising support requests. The Service request raised is then routed to the CloudOps team for resolution.

The below diagram depicts the flow of the incident and the SR that is being raised.

SLA Model

The service level agreement is prepared along with inputs from customer business and IT teams and the actual time expected to resolve issues is determined based on the system impact and customer expectations.

 

Priority	Priority Definition	Response Time	Resolution Time in hours
Priority 1 (P1)	Unavailability of service for all end-users High Business Impact High Operational Impact System Unavailability Critical Incident No workaround available	24X7 availability Less than 15 mins	1 hour
Priority 2 (P2)	Partial unavailability of service Low Business Impact Low Operational Impact Some end users impacted Critical Incident No workaround available	During Normal Business Hours Less than 1 hour(s)	4 hours
Priority 3 (P3)	Non-critical problem Low or no business impact Low or no operational impact Workaround available	During Normal Business Hours Response within 4 hours	24 hours
Priority 4 (P4)	Service Request	During Normal Business Hours Response within 24 hours	48 hours

Other than the above-defined priorities there will be an option to raise a service request for the ad-hoc activities through the ticket system. These ad-hoc requests are considered as low priority service requests and completion time is decided based on the type and scope of activity.

Managed Services Governance & Reporting Model

TechVedika will set up a governance model comprising of a steering committee and other stakeholders. TechVedika recommends the following communication and issues resolution process in the form of weekly, and monthly updates to ensure that the managed service is effective.

Meeting	Schedule	Objectives	Members involved (both “Company Name” and Customer)
Project Meetings	Weekly	Review status against plan within project management, understand any issues that are impacting progress	Project Manager, Support team lead
Steering Committee Meetings	Monthly	To review progress, provide guidance and oversight to the project. To monitor and communicate progress and status to company executives on a regular basis To commit the required resources to the program	Members of Steering Committee from “Company Name” and Customer (Sponsors, Business leaders, “Company Name” Delivery Executive) “Company Name” and Customer Project Managers

Why TechVedika for Cloud Managed Services?

Tech Vedika has proven experience in cloud-native development and ongoing support of cloud-hosted applications. Tech Vedika brings technical architects and consultants with strong experience in handling public cloud platforms.

At TechVedika, we are committed to helping businesses leverage custom cloud solutions to control costs and automate critical processes. As a cloud-managed services provider, we set up, manage, and protect your cloud environment so you can focus on growing your business. With the experienced and certified AWS team, Process, Tools, and framework TechVedika can help manage customers’ workloads in a more optimized and secure way.