Gartner predicts that 60% of cloud workloads will be built and deployed using CDEs. In fact, cloud data environments are the next logical step in automating the software development lifecycle. The cloud has revolutionized software development because it offers scalability, reliability, and flexibility through platforms like AWS (Amazon Web Service). However, as your business grows, so do the complexities of managing cloud infrastructure.
If your developers are spending hours dealing with AWS instead of writing code, you aren’t alone. In fact, studies have shown that developers can spend up to 60% of their time managing cloud infrastructure, and this inefficiency can slow innovation, increase costs, and frustrate your team.
So, the big question is how you can reclaim the lost time for your developers and make AWS cloud infrastructure management seamless. Let’s explore the problem and possible solutions to bring balance back to your team’s workflow.
The Hidden Costs of AWS Management
While AWS is immensely powerful, it is complex as well. From configuring EC2 instances to managing security groups, monitoring performance, and optimizing costs, the list of AWS management tasks feels endless, and as your application scales, your AWS cloud infrastructure will need more attention.
Ideally, you hire your developers to build and enhance your product. However, they can be bogged down by this operational overhead. As AWS-intensive tasks demand specific expertise, your developers will also have to spend time leading about the salesforce service cloud, troubleshooting, and maintaining cloud infrastructure, instead of focusing on core development tasks.
So, would you prefer this “context switching” where your developers move from writing code to managing AWS, which would lead to inefficiencies and make them lose a significant portion of their day on AWS operations?
So, Why Does AWS Management Take So Much Time?
AWS is no cakewalk, and that being said, here are some key reasons why managing AWS can consume a disproportionate amount of your developers’ time:
- Complexity of Services:
For one, if you know AWS, you probably already know how it offers more than 200 services ranging from computing and storage to networking, AI/ML, and database service. Besides, each service comes with its own configurations, settings, and management tools. Developers need to understand how these services interact with one another and optimize them, which requires an in-depth knowledge of the AWS cloud infrastructure.
For instance, a simple task like configuring an S3 bucket might seem quite straightforward, but integrating that bucket with a Lambda function, managing permissions through IAM (Identity and Access Management), and setting up monitoring adds layers of complexity. In a nutshell, the more components you add, the more time you will take to manage and troubleshoot issues.
- Constant Updates and New Features
AWS and Google are similar in one aspect: they never cease to innovate. AWS frequently rolls out updates and introduces new services. While these innovations are beneficial, they can be truly overwhelming as well because developers need to stay up-to-date with the latest features to ensure they are not missing out on better, more efficient ways to manage AWS cloud infrastructure.
- Security and Compliance
In any cloud environment, security is a top priority, and AWS is no different. The tool provides robust tools for security management, but they also come with their own learning curve. Managing IAM roles, configuring VPCs, ensuring encryption, and auditing access can take a massive amount of time. On top of that, developers also have to struggle with compliance regulations like GDPR, SOC 2, or HIPAA, which also complicate the compliance process because they require constant monitoring and adjustments.
- Monitoring and Troubleshooting
Believe it or not, a developer’s day can be significantly derailed by infrastructure issues like unexpected downtimes, performance bottlenecks, or security vulnerabilities. For them, AWS can provide tools like CloudWatch and X-Ray for monitoring, but interpreting the data, identifying issues, and fixing problems in the AWS cloud can become a full-time undertaking. Also, the complexity of the system makes it daunting for developers to pinpoint the root cause of the problem, which makes the problem more time-consuming than it already is.
The Impact on Your Development Team
Spending 60% of time managing AWS infrastructure means developers have less time for innovation, coding new features, or improving the user experience. Over time, this can affect your business in several ways:
1. Slower Product Development
When developers are busy with AWS operations, product releases slow down. Features take longer to develop, bug fixes are delayed, and your roadmap can stretch further than anticipated. This can give competitors an edge as they may be able to iterate and innovate more quickly.
2. Developer Burnout
Context switching between building features and managing infrastructure can lead to frustration and burnout. Developers may start to feel like they’re not doing the work they were hired to do, leading to disengagement. Over time, this can increase employee turnover, further adding to costs as you need to hire and onboard new talent.
3. Increased Operational Costs
The longer it takes to manage AWS, the more expensive it becomes. Not only are you paying for the infrastructure, but you’re also paying for the extra hours your developers spend managing it. Misconfigurations and lack of optimization can also lead to higher AWS costs, such as over-provisioned instances or inefficient use of resources.
How to Streamline AWS Management?
There are several strategies and tools available to help you reduce the time your developers spend managing AWS infrastructure.
#1 DevOps Automation
Implementing DevOps practices can significantly reduce the time spent on cloud management. Automating tasks like infrastructure provisioning, deployment, and scaling allows developers to focus more on code rather than operations. Tools like Terraform, Ansible, and AWS Cloud Formation enable infrastructure as code (IaC), which makes managing cloud resources repeatable and less error-prone.
By automating routine tasks, you free your developers from manual configurations, reducing human error and increasing efficiency.
#2 Leverage Managed Services
AWS offers managed services for databases, machine learning, security, and more. Using these services reduces the need for manual intervention. For example, rather than maintaining your own MySQL database on an EC2 instance, you can use Amazon RDS to handle backups, updates, and scaling automatically. Similarly, Amazon Lambda can manage scaling for serverless applications without requiring developers to provision servers. Managed services can offload much of the operational burden, freeing your team to focus on core product development.
#3 Use AI and Machine Learning Tools
AWS provides AI-driven tools such as AWS Trusted Advisor and Cost Explorer that offer recommendations for improving security, reducing costs, and increasing performance. These tools analyze your infrastructure and provide actionable insights. Implementing these recommendations can save significant time on manual monitoring and optimization.
Conclusion
If you want to save your developers’ time and improve their efficiency by cutting time on AWS cloud infrastructure, you can always resort to professionals. With AWS managed services, you can automate the routine tasks on which your developers used to spend quite a lot of time. If managing AWS is beyond your team’s expertise or bandwidth, you can outsource it to a cloud management provider, and they can help you handle the infrastructure, while your developers remain focused on building applications.