Keeping cloud infrastructure aligned with security, cost, and availability best practices is a constant challenge for any IT team. At Cloud8, the Best Practices module was built precisely for this: it continuously analyzes the customer’s multicloud environments (AWS, Azure, GCP, OCI, among others) and generates automatic recommendations to fix configuration flaws, reduce unnecessary costs, and reinforce security posture.
In addition to viewing these recommendations directly on the platform, Cloud8 allows you to export this data into custom reports, which can be scheduled, filtered by provider or business unit, and automatically sent via email. In this article, we show the complete step-by-step guide to generating and tracking these reports.
What is the Best Practices module? #
The Best Practices is Cloud8’s diagnostic module responsible for evaluating the customer’s cloud environment across four major categories:
- Backup – checks if backup routines are configured correctly and follow recommended standards;
- Compliance & Availability – evaluates compliance with availability and governance best practices;
- Cost Optimization – identifies savings opportunities and resource waste;
- Security Configuration – points out vulnerabilities and non-standard security configurations.
Each category receives a score and displays the number of findings (recommendations) discovered, classified by criticality: Critical, Alert, Improvement, Success, Disabled, and Credential Issues. The dashboard also shows an estimate of possible monthly savings from applying the recommendations — a direct view of the financial impact of keeping the environment well-configured.
Step by step: how to export recommendations #
1. Access the Best Practices module #
In the left sidebar menu of the Cloud8 platform, click on Best Practices. You will see the dashboard with scores per category and the findings summary.
2. Open the Reports area #
Still within the module, click on the Reports icon located at the top of the screen. This is where you will configure and track exported reports.
3. Create a new report #
Click on New report and fill in the available fields:
- Name – identification name for the report;
- Description – optional field for a brief description of the report’s purpose;
- Notification – allows integrating an email address to be notified when new recommendations are identified or when the report is generated;
- Scheduler – defines the report frequency: it can be generated daily or immediately upon configuration;
- Format Type – choose between PDF, JSON, or XLSX, according to how you will use the data;
- Version – choose between a detailed or summarized report.
You can also restrict the report scope by opting for All Providers, Selected Providers, or Selected Business Units — which is useful when you want to track only a specific provider or an isolated business unit.
4. Save and track generated reports #
After filling out the information, click on Save. To view already generated reports, simply access the Reports tab, where they are listed with name, description, scope, format, version, and generation date.
Exporting Best Practices recommendations is a simple and efficient way to turn Cloud8 diagnostics into actionable documentation — whether to share with internal teams, present to clients, or track the evolution of your security and cost posture over time. With scheduled reports that are filterable by provider or business unit, it becomes much easier to keep your cloud environment always aligned with market best practices, without relying on recurring manual checks.
