Technology Standards & Best Practices
Core Technology Stack
ServerConsultant maintains expertise across a comprehensive technology stack to deliver solutions that align with your existing investments and strategic direction:
Cloud Platforms
- Amazon Web Services (AWS)
- Microsoft Azure
- Google Cloud Platform
- IBM Cloud
- Oracle Cloud Infrastructure
Container & Orchestration
- Kubernetes (K8s)
- Docker
- OpenShift
- Amazon EKS/ECS
- Azure AKS
Infrastructure as Code
- Terraform
- AWS CloudFormation
- Azure Resource Manager
- Ansible
- Pulumi
CI/CD & DevOps
- Jenkins
- GitLab CI/CD
- GitHub Actions
- Azure DevOps
- CircleCI
Monitoring & Observability
- Prometheus & Grafana
- Datadog
- New Relic
- Elastic Stack (ELK)
- Splunk
Security Tools
- HashiCorp Vault
- CyberArk
- Qualys
- Rapid7
- Palo Alto Networks
Architectural Principles
Our architectural decisions are guided by these fundamental principles:
1. Cloud-Native Design
- Elasticity: Design for horizontal scaling and auto-scaling capabilities
- Resilience: Build fault-tolerant systems with no single points of failure
- Statelessness: Keep applications stateless where possible
- Managed Services: Leverage cloud-native services to reduce operational overhead
2. Security by Design
- Zero Trust: Never trust, always verify - implement least privilege access
- Defense in Depth: Multiple layers of security controls
- Encryption: Data encrypted at rest and in transit
- Compliance: Built-in compliance for relevant standards
3. Operational Excellence
- Automation First: Automate repetitive tasks and processes
- Infrastructure as Code: All infrastructure defined in version-controlled code
- Monitoring & Alerting: Comprehensive observability from day one
- Documentation: Clear, maintained documentation for all systems
Implementation Standards
Infrastructure Standards
# Standard Naming Convention Environment-Application-Component-Instance Examples: prod-webapp-frontend-01 dev-api-gateway-02 staging-db-mysql-primary # Tagging Standards Environment: prod | staging | dev | test Application: application-name Owner: team-name CostCenter: cost-center-code CreatedBy: automation | manual CreatedDate: YYYY-MM-DD
Network Architecture
| Component | Standard Practice | Security Consideration |
|---|---|---|
| VPC Design | Multi-AZ deployment with public/private subnet segregation | Network ACLs and security groups with least privilege |
| Load Balancing | Application Load Balancers with health checks | SSL/TLS termination, WAF integration |
| DNS | Route 53 or equivalent with failover routing | DNSSEC where supported |
| CDN | CloudFront or equivalent for static content | Origin access identity, signed URLs |
Security Standards
Access Control
- Multi-factor authentication (MFA) required for all privileged access
- Role-based access control (RBAC) with principle of least privilege
- Regular access reviews and automatic deprovisioning
- Segregation of duties for critical operations
Data Protection
- Encryption at rest using AES-256 or stronger
- TLS 1.2+ for all data in transit
- Key rotation every 90 days
- Secrets management using dedicated vaults
Development & Deployment Standards
Version Control
# Git Branch Strategy main/master - Production-ready code develop - Integration branch feature/* - Feature development hotfix/* - Emergency fixes release/* - Release preparation # Commit Message Format type(scope): subject Types: feat, fix, docs, style, refactor, test, chore Example: feat(auth): add multi-factor authentication
CI/CD Pipeline Standards
| Stage | Activities | Quality Gates |
|---|---|---|
| Build | Compile, dependency resolution, artifact creation | Build must complete successfully |
| Test | Unit tests, integration tests, code coverage | Minimum 80% code coverage |
| Security Scan | SAST, dependency scanning, container scanning | No critical vulnerabilities |
| Deploy to Staging | Automated deployment, smoke tests | All tests pass |
| Deploy to Production | Blue-green or canary deployment | Manual approval required |
Monitoring & Observability Standards
Metrics Collection
Golden Signals
- Latency: Response time for requests
- Traffic: Request rate and throughput
- Errors: Error rate and types
- Saturation: Resource utilization
Logging Standards
# Log Format Standard
{
"timestamp": "2024-01-20T10:30:00Z",
"level": "INFO|WARN|ERROR|DEBUG",
"service": "service-name",
"environment": "prod|staging|dev",
"message": "descriptive message",
"trace_id": "correlation-id",
"user_id": "user-identifier",
"metadata": {
"additional": "context"
}
}
Alerting Best Practices
- Alert on symptoms, not causes
- Include runbook links in alert descriptions
- Implement alert fatigue prevention
- Use escalation policies for critical alerts
- Regular alert effectiveness reviews
Disaster Recovery Standards
| Tier | RTO Target | RPO Target | Strategy |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mission Critical | < 1 hour | < 15 minutes | Multi-region active-active |
| Business Critical | < 4 hours | < 1 hour | Warm standby |
| Important | < 24 hours | < 4 hours | Pilot light |
| Standard | < 72 hours | < 24 hours | Backup and restore |
Important: All disaster recovery plans must be tested at least quarterly, with full failover tests conducted annually.
Performance Standards
Application Performance
- Page load time: < 3 seconds for 95th percentile
- API response time: < 200ms for 95th percentile
- Database query time: < 100ms for 95th percentile
- Error rate: < 0.1% for customer-facing services
Infrastructure Performance
- CPU utilization: Target 60-70% for optimal efficiency
- Memory utilization: < 80% to prevent swapping
- Disk I/O: Monitor for saturation and latency
- Network throughput: Plan for 2x peak capacity
Documentation Standards
Required Documentation
- Architecture Diagrams: High-level and detailed component views
- Runbooks: Step-by-step operational procedures
- API Documentation: OpenAPI/Swagger specifications
- Configuration Guide: All configurable parameters
- Disaster Recovery Plan: Detailed recovery procedures
- Security Documentation: Access controls and security measures
Documentation Maintenance: All documentation must be reviewed and updated quarterly or whenever significant changes occur.
Compliance & Governance
Compliance Framework Support
Our standards align with major compliance frameworks:
- SOC 2: Security, availability, processing integrity, confidentiality, privacy
- ISO 27001: Information security management systems
- HIPAA: Healthcare data protection requirements
- PCI DSS: Payment card industry standards
- GDPR: Data privacy and protection
Change Management
| Change Type | Approval Required | Testing Requirements |
|---|---|---|
| Standard | Technical lead | Automated testing suite |
| Normal | Change advisory board | Full regression testing |
| Emergency | On-call manager | Post-implementation testing |
Continuous Improvement
ServerConsultant is committed to continuous improvement of our standards and practices:
- Quarterly review of technology standards
- Regular training and certification for consultants
- Client feedback incorporation
- Industry best practice adoption
- Technology partner collaboration
Feedback Welcome: We value input from our clients and partners. Contact your engagement manager to provide feedback on our standards and practices.
Note: This documentation is provided for reference purposes only. It reflects general best practices and industry-aligned guidelines, and any examples, claims, or recommendations are intended as illustrative—not definitive or binding.