I previously imagined a world where designing, deploying and managing cloud technologies was as simple as drawing a diagram. A world where Diagram-Driven-Infrastructure (DDI) would enable IT Pros, as well as software engineers, to adopt the power of cloud technologies quickly and easily.

Since launching Cloud Maker, from private beta to general availability, we have had thousands of pieces of amazing feedback from our users. Two things really stood out when we asked our users what they needed when designing cloud systems: the ability to work collaboratively with co-workers and ensuring those cloud systems that were being designed were secure.

I’m incredibly excited to announce the next step in helping our users achieve these goals. Today, we’re releasing our new pricing plans, which now come with bundled user accounts, to give even more members of your team access to Cloud Maker. We are also celebrating the launch of our brand new security scanning capability: Cloud Maker Overwatch. Now you can shift security left, and ensure that vulnerabilities are closed down at design time!

Why Diagram Driven Infrastructure is the future

Until now, to deploy cloud infrastructure reliably, repeatably, and at scale, engineers would have to adopt Infrastructure-as-Code and CI/CD orchestration tools.

This is exemplified by Microsoft’s crawl, walk, run methodology, which advocates for engineers to start in the Azure portal and work up to Infrastructure-as-Code and CI/CD as their experience grows.

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However, there are significant hurdles to the adoption of Infrastructure-as-Code and CI/CD tools. Not only are they complex technologies that require engineers to have the skill and knowledge of a software engineer, but code templates are hard to manage. What’s more, it’s easy to introduce security vulnerabilities through poor configuration — security tokens left in templates anyone?

DDI can solve all these problems, as well as, lower the bar to entry for IT Pros, and speed up engineers with existing cloud automation skills.

Instead of learning a complex new code language and managing CI/CD systems, DDI enables IT Pros and engineers to work in a language they already know: diagrams!

Now cloud architectures can be mapped out visually, with dependencies clearly visible. Configuration can be applied in an easy to use graphical user interface, with always-on validation providing checks on configuration best practice and security.

Once the diagram and configuration have been completed, the machine can do all the heavy lifting of converting to Infrastructure-as-Code and deploying in a CI/CD methodology at the click of a button. No new coding skills required, no complex systems to manage!

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Securing your cloud future

In light of the recent SolarWinds hack, IT security has been brought sharply back into focus. While security has always been a key ingredient, historically it’s been common practice to scan IT environments for poor configuration and security vulnerabilities after they’ve been deployed.

However, this is a bit like closing the stable door after the horse has bolted. Attackers are becoming ever-more sophisticated, using automation to quickly identify vulnerable systems as soon as they are plugged into the Internet. This means security scanning post-deployment alone is no longer a valid option.

That’s why the security industry is advocating for a shift-left approach. Moving scanning and vulnerability detection left of the cloud workflow to the design stage. This allows for security vulnerabilities and poor configuration to be identified before deployment!

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DDI platforms like Cloud Maker are perfectly placed to enable a shift-left, design-time approach to security. That's why I’m incredibly excited to be able to announce Cloud Maker Overwatch. This new capability will scan your Cloud Maker blueprint and identify security issues within your design and configuration prior to any deployment to the cloud.

We’re just getting started!

If you would like to benefit from the power of DDI, don't hesitate to sign up at cloudmaker.ai. We’re just at the start of delivering our vision to unlock the cloud for everyone. Security is the next step, and we have more exciting features coming soon that will continue to supercharge your cloud workflow!

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