What is the difference between cloud architecture design and cloud migration?

Cloud architecture design focuses on how systems are structured in the cloud, including how components communicate, scale, and recover from failures. Migration is about moving existing workloads to the cloud. Good architecture should inform migration, but many organizations migrate first and redesign later. We recommend getting architecture right from the start to avoid expensive rework, though we understand business constraints sometimes require a phased approach.

Should we use a single cloud provider or multi-cloud strategy?

Single cloud is simpler and often more cost-effective. Multi-cloud adds complexity in networking, identity management, and operational tooling. We recommend multi-cloud only when you have specific requirements like avoiding vendor lock-in for contractual reasons, leveraging unique services from different providers, or serving regulated industries that mandate data residency across regions. For most organizations, mastering one cloud platform delivers better results than spreading expertise thin across multiple providers.

How do you approach designing for high availability and disaster recovery?

We start by understanding your actual availability requirements and the cost of downtime. Not every system needs 99.99 percent uptime. We then design redundancy at each layer: multiple availability zones for compute, read replicas for databases, content delivery networks for static assets, and automated failover for critical paths. Disaster recovery planning includes regular backup testing, runbook documentation, and periodic DR drills. The architecture must balance availability targets against budget constraints.

When should we use microservices versus a monolithic architecture?

Microservices add significant operational complexity. They make sense when you have multiple teams that need to deploy independently, when different components have drastically different scaling requirements, or when you need technology flexibility across services. For smaller teams or early-stage products, a well-structured monolith is often the better choice. We can always extract microservices later when clear boundaries emerge. Starting with microservices on speculation usually creates more problems than it solves.

How do you handle cloud cost optimization in architecture design?

Cost efficiency is built into our architecture decisions from the start. We right-size resources based on actual usage patterns, leverage reserved instances and savings plans for predictable workloads, use spot instances for fault-tolerant processing, and design for auto-scaling so you only pay for what you use. We also identify opportunities for serverless patterns that eliminate idle capacity costs. Post-deployment, we conduct regular cost reviews and adjust recommendations as your usage evolves.