Let's be honest: In the cloud, provisioning servers is often like baking a cake. And what is crucial? Exactly - a proven basic recipe! In the IT world, this recipe is called Golden Image.
Why without Golden Image everything is for the garbage can
Imagine you want to bake a perfect cake. Would you improvise every time - with imprecise quantities and random ingredients? Hardly. You would rely on a tried and tested recipe, perhaps even use prepared ingredients.
Golden images are exactly what you need for your servers. Without them, deployment is as unpredictable as an improvised cake that sometimes succeeds and sometimes completely collapses. The consequences? Inconsistent environments, endless configuration errors and IT teams on the verge of a nervous breakdown.
Nobody wants that! That's why we rely on a tried and tested recipe for success:
The golden image hierarchy
Our strategy is built in layers - from the basic recipe to the specialty:
The foundation: The "operating system gold mine"
We define standard images for each OS family (Windows Server 2022, Ubuntu, Rocky Linux), which we enhance with company specifications. We integrate must-haves such as SIEM, antivirus, log forwarding and monitoring via CI/CD pipelines.
The specialties: Workload-optimized images
Teams receive customized images with preconfigured software. This means that every new dev build becomes an optimized image via CI/CD - for ultra-fast deployments.
The artifact approach: A golden image is not a disposable product
Transport instead of new construction
An image is not rebuilt again and again for QA, UAT or Prod - it is promoted! Release candidates are retained bit by bit.
Tested to the limit
Before an image goes into production, it undergoes several test cycles with specific stage configuration and data.
The speed joker: turbo provisioning with final control
Consistency and speed are not mutually exclusive - if you do it right.
SCM can become a bottleneck
Puppet, Ansible & Co. automate configurations - but who wants to wait 40 minutes for all packages to be installed?
Our hybrid approach: provisioning in seconds instead of an eternity
- Software goes into the image, configuration via SCM → The image remains lean & flexible
- Data is taboo → It has its own lifecycle and remains external
- Lifecycle hook as final acceptance → The server only goes live when all configurations are in place
Golden images are the foundation for efficient, consistent and reliable cloud deployments. They are not the whole meal - but without them there is only chaos in the kitchen.
We at 35x swear by this approach!
Would you like to learn more about our services? Here you can find more information about our offerings in the areas of Cloud Migration and an overview of our services in the area of Digital Transformation.
We offer customized solutions that are tailored to your individual needs. Contact us today to find out more about our services in the field of Cloud Managements !
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