Welcome to the first step in our three-part guide on setting up your cloud tags on autopilot with Tailwarden. This initial step is all about understanding the current tag situation in your cloud infrastructure. Proper tag management is key to organized, efficient cloud resource management and cost tracking.
The Importance of Tag Assessment: Before diving into a new tagging strategy, it's crucial to understand your existing tag setup. This assessment will reveal the strengths and weaknesses of your current approach.
How to Assess Your Tags with tailwarden:
Audit Existing Tags: Utilize Tailwarden's Tags Audit feature to review your current tags. This audit helps you see the big picture, including what's working well and what's not. Refer to this page to learn how to master the tag audit feature.
Identify Inconsistencies and Gaps: Look for inconsistencies, missing tags, or misapplied tags across your cloud resources. This step is crucial for understanding the areas that need improvement. You will find below the most typical tagging issues.
Evaluate Tagging Practices: Assess how tags are being used and whether they align with your cloud management goals. This evaluation will guide your strategy moving forward.
Common Tagging Issues
As you assess your current tagging situation, you might encounter typical issues such as:
Inconsistent Tagging: Different teams or projects using varied tagging conventions.
Missing Tags: Essential tags not applied to all relevant resources. You can easily leverage the inventory to find ressource without a specific tag as in the screen below where I'm looking for resources without the tag owner
Outdated Tags: Tags that are no longer relevant or accurate.
Over-Tagging: Applying too many tags, leading to complexity and confusion.
Non-Standardized Tags: Lack of a unified tagging system across different cloud environments.
Duplicates / typos in tags: the most common one is Env;env;environment :)
Keys used once: if a key is only used once, it's already an issue!
Conclusion
Understanding your current tag situation is a vital first step in establishing an effective tag management system with Tailwarden. By identifying the existing issues and areas for improvement, you can better plan and implement a tagging strategy that aligns with your organizational needs.