Edge Resiliency

Chapter 3. Strategies to Meet the Challenges

The scenarios outlined in Chapter 2 illustrate that although the cloud paradigm has become an always-available, easily accessible endpoint for users, it can also represent a somewhat murky and mysterious platform inherent with unseen risk for many businesses. It is no longer sufficient to simply deploy applications into a cloud and assume that the end-to-end user experience will be what we expect. Where the cloud is insufficient to cover the risks, we must move more responsibility (and thus more reliability) toward resiliency at the user edge.

Edge services were once the endpoints, gateways, interfaces, and routers located on our in-house networks. Today’s edge services are hosted in the public cloud and must now be more intelligent, strategic, and fault-tolerant than ever before. They must not just allow our users to access applications when required; they must also allow them to stay securely connected and able to complete their transactions.

In this chapter, we look at some strategies around edge services to meet these challenges and provide users with the stable, reliable interactions they expect.

Strategy 1: Consider the End-to-End User Experience

In any interaction with your website, application, or network, the user’s experience establishes an impression of your business. Take some time to evaluate the scenarios that a user might encounter if your cloud provider encounters problems. How able are you to provide a reasonable experience ...