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Introduction

Cloud architecture is never finished. You continuously evaluate, test, and improve it as your business and workloads evolve.

The Cleura Cloud Well-Architected Framework gives customers a structured, repeatable way to design, build, and operate workloads on Cleura Cloud.

It is organized around five pillars:

  1. Operational Excellence,
  2. Security & Digital Sovereignty,
  3. Reliability,
  4. Performance Efficiency, and
  5. Cost Optimization.

Each pillar defines design principles, practical guidance specific to Cleura Cloud’s OpenStack-based platform, and a self-assessment checklist you can use during design reviews.

The framework is deployment-model agnostic: the same principles apply whether you run on Cleura Public Cloud, Cleura Compliant Cloud, or Cleura Private Cloud. The specific controls available differ between them (see the deployment model note below).

Who this is for

  • Solution architects and platform teams designing new workloads on Cleura Cloud.
  • Engineering and operations teams who want a checklist-driven way to review existing workloads.
  • Compliance, security and procurement stakeholders evaluating whether a workload meets internal or regulatory requirements before go-live.

How to use this framework

  1. Define the workload. Scope the review to one workload or system at a time. Do not scope your entire estate.
  2. Work through each pillar. Use the design principles as guidance and the checklist as a gap-finder.
  3. Prioritize findings. Not every gap needs immediate remediation. Weigh the risk, cost, and effort.
  4. Create an improvement backlog. Track remediation items alongside your normal engineering backlog.
  5. Repeat regularly. Re-run the review after major changes, and at minimum quarterly for production workloads.

A note on deployment models

Cleura offers three IaaS deployment models built on the same open source, OpenStack foundation:

  • Public Cloud (flexible, standard-tools environment for developers and SMBs),
  • Compliant Cloud (enhanced security configuration, availability zones, and controls for regulated and mission-critical workloads),
  • Private Cloud (a dedicated, turnkey OpenStack environment).

Many practices are strongest on Compliant Cloud or Private Cloud, especially under Security & Digital Sovereignty and Reliability. Choosing the right model is a foundational decision that you must make early. Base it on the workload’s regulatory, security, and availability requirements. Your choice shapes which controls and practices in this framework are available from the outset.

A note on Cleura Cloud Launch Pad

Launch Pad is a lightweight bootstrap utility, not a landing zone in the enterprise sense.

Run via OpenStack Heat, Ansible, or OpenTofu, it creates:

  • an SSH keypair,
  • a virtual router connected to an internal IPv4/IPv6 network with public internet access, and
  • a Pad Ramp jump host that you can restrict to a specific source IP or network.

This is a genuinely useful starting point for reaching a brand-new environment. Launch Pad does not create projects, quotas, or IAM boundaries. Launch Pad does not create a security baseline beyond the jump host’s own access rule, logging, or multi-environment structure. Treat every other practice in this framework, including basic hygiene like project segmentation and security groups, as work that still needs to happen after Launch Pad hands off.