Documentation Levels
This documentation is organised into three levels, each targeting a different audience and stage of the sovereign cloud programme.
Documentation Hierarchy
Documentation Levels & Audience
Documentation Levels & Audience LEVEL 1: STRATEGIC FRAMEWORK Audience: Ministers, CTOs, Programme Directors Purpose: Secure approval, funding, and political commitment Content: Threat case, principles, governance, business case Status: ■ COMPLETE LEVEL 2: TECHNICAL IMPLEMENTATION Audience: Solutions Architects, Tech Leads, DevOps Engineers Purpose: Enable architecture design and implementation planning Content: Patterns, templates, security baselines, provider guides Status: ■ IN DEVELOPMENT...
Diagram representation - see page content for details
Level 1: Strategic Framework
COMPLETETarget Audience
- Cabinet Ministers and National Security Council
- Permanent Secretaries and Senior Civil Servants
- Chief Technology Officers and Chief Information Officers
- Programme Directors and Senior Responsible Owners
- Treasury and Budget Authorities
Purpose
Secure political approval, funding allocation, and cross-government commitment to sovereign cloud migration. Establishes the "why" and "what" without technical implementation details.
Content Includes
| Section | Content |
|---|---|
| Executive Briefing | Threat assessment, strategic case, cooperative model, ROI analysis |
| Common Framework | Architecture principles, technology stack overview, migration strategy, governance model |
| Jurisdiction Adaptations | UK, EU, Canada, Australia specific guidance on compliance, providers, regulations |
| Business Case | Cost analysis, investment requirements, economic benefits |
| Risk Register | Risk identification, mitigation strategies, contingency plans |
| Stakeholder Materials | Tailored briefings for ministers, parliament, security services, public |
| Implementation Playbooks | High-level phases, quick start guide, programme overview |
Questions Level 1 Answers
- Why is sovereign cloud migration necessary?
- What are the legal and geopolitical threats?
- What principles should guide our approach?
- How much will it cost and what's the ROI?
- How will multiple jurisdictions cooperate?
- What does success look like?
Level 2: Technical Implementation
IN DEVELOPMENTTarget Audience
- Solutions Architects and Enterprise Architects
- Technical Leads and Engineering Managers
- DevOps Engineers and Platform Engineers
- Security Architects and Engineers
- Database Administrators and Data Engineers
Purpose
Enable architecture teams to design solutions, select technologies, and plan implementation. Provides the "how" at an architectural level with reusable patterns and templates.
Content Includes
| Section | Content |
|---|---|
| Infrastructure Templates | OpenTofu modules, Kubernetes configurations, Helm charts, GitOps setup |
| Migration Patterns | Lift-and-shift, refactoring, strangler fig, workload-specific guides |
| Security Hardening | Kubernetes security, encryption, identity federation, compliance automation |
| Operational Runbooks | Incident response, disaster recovery, change management, capacity planning |
| Provider Guides | OVHcloud, Hetzner, Scaleway, IONOS specific configuration and evaluation |
Questions Level 2 Answers
- How do I set up a Kubernetes cluster on OVHcloud?
- What OpenTofu modules should I use for sovereign infrastructure?
- How do I migrate a PostgreSQL database with minimal downtime?
- What security baseline should Kubernetes clusters meet?
- How do I configure Keycloak for government identity federation?
- What's the architecture pattern for multi-region resilience?
Level 3: Operational Runbooks
PLANNEDTarget Audience
- Site Reliability Engineers (SREs)
- Platform Operations Teams
- On-Call Engineers
- Security Operations Centre (SOC) Analysts
- Service Desk and Incident Managers
Purpose
Enable day-to-day operations, incident response, and continuous improvement. Provides step-by-step procedures, scripts, and troubleshooting guides for operational teams.
Content Will Include
| Section | Content |
|---|---|
| Incident Response Playbooks | Detection, triage, containment, eradication, recovery procedures |
| Troubleshooting Guides | Common failure modes, diagnostic procedures, resolution steps |
| Maintenance Procedures | Patching, upgrades, certificate rotation, backup verification |
| Monitoring & Alerting | Alert response procedures, escalation paths, on-call handover |
| Scripts & Automation | Operational scripts, health checks, automated remediation |
Questions Level 3 Will Answer
- What do I do when this alert fires at 3am?
- How do I failover to the DR site?
- What's the procedure for rotating encryption keys?
- How do I scale the cluster when capacity is exceeded?
- What are the steps to recover from a database corruption?
- How do I onboard a new team to the platform?
Note: Level 3 documentation will be developed as sovereign cloud platforms become operational. Much of this content will be generated from real operational experience during pilot and migration phases.
How to Use This Documentation
| If You Are... | Start With... | Then Move To... |
|---|---|---|
| A Minister or Senior Official | Executive Summary | Threat Assessment if you want detail |
| A CTO or CIO | Common Framework | Level 2 Technical for implementation |
| A Solutions Architect | Level 2 Technical | Infrastructure Templates |
| A Programme Manager | Implementation Playbooks | Risk Register |
| A DevOps Engineer | Infrastructure Templates | Security Hardening |
| A Security Architect | Security Hardening | Threat Assessment for context |
| Evaluating Providers | Provider Guides | Supplier Consortium |