What is Cloud Management?

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Cloudticity, L.L.C.

Over the last few years, the movement towards cloud computing architecture has accelerated to the point where it is nearly ubiquitous. Still, not every company has made a complete transition, and some are just looking to begin theirs. 

The choice of going to the cloud is often framed as whether to build a private cloud, or which vendor, or multiple vendors to select. That’s only part of the cloud architecture process. 

Assembling cloud resources alone doesn’t guarantee success. Those resources need to be carefully monitored, analyzed, and redeployed in a smart way to meet demand. This is called “cloud management.”

Understanding what cloud management is, and how it should be deployed is crucial to long-term success and sustainability.

By implementing a regime of optimal cloud management, organizations can:

  • Ensure that key computing resources will be available to everyone who needs them at any given time.
  • Control organizational costs
  • Maintain a high level of security

So what exactly is cloud management, and how can software and technology be deployed to ensure it’s put in place effectively? In this article, we’ll explore the aims of cloud management, and some of the best practices for putting it in place.

What’s the Difference Between Cloud Management and Cloud Computing?

It’s easy to confuse cloud terminology. Over the years, terms like the cloud have seen substantial creep to the point where it’s difficult to know what’s being talked about. It’s important to note that many of these terms are not interchangeable. Cloud computing refers to the massive pool of resources, including storage, applications, and software, that can be accessed by an organization. 

Cloud management, on the other hand, refers to the governance of cloud resources. It determines exactly how the cloud resources are allocated at any given time. It takes the policies and guidelines established by the company, and ensures they are followed. 

Why is this important? Because it’s an essential step in ensuring the quality and usefulness of the cloud itself. If organizations were to simply invest in a transition to a public, private or hybrid cloud, then do nothing else, users would find very little benefit. 

Resources they needed would not be available when they needed them, and costs could climb significantly with no good way to reign them in. That’s why cloud management can’t just be an afterthought. The very design of cloud architecture needs to include a management platform, allocate resources, and ensure security.

Cloud Management: Exercising Control Over Infrastructure

Putting your IT team in the driver's seat for all elements of cloud architecture sets your organization up for success. That’s what Cloud management is: having the ability to control the cloud environment, whether that’s public, private, or a combination of the two. 

There are a few generally accepted broad goals for good cloud management. These aims serve to drive the deployment of IT professionals so they can ensure a cloud that runs smoothly and has all the resources the organization needs to accomplish its mission.

Self Service

The first goal of cloud management is to achieve full self-service. This means that the IT team has the tools it needs to adjust resources, and provide a full picture of cost, usage, and allocation. For maximum usability, smart organizations use a self-service portal to be able to view all the data they need in one place. They can then employ the cloud management strategy in the most beneficial way possible.

Workflow Automation

Constant readjustment of resource allocation by humans is a huge drain on IT time and skill. Wouldn’t it be great if repetitive tasks, even fairly complex ones, could be automated? That’s the goal: to achieve a high level of automation in cloud management, so human resources can be deployed where they can be used even more effectively.

Cloud Analysis

Without a complete picture of data, IT teams can’t be expected to effectively provide governance and an allocation of resources. That’s why having a full set of analytical tools at the disposal of IT professionals is essential.

How Does Cloud Management Help an Organization?

Whether it’s governance of public cloud services, cost management, or cloud security, proper use of cloud management tools can give any business a huge competitive edge. Simply selecting a cloud provider and beginning the migration of data can end up being an exercise in frustration if it’s not handled properly.

The analytical tools that are part of a cloud management platform allow for the constant monitoring of resource usage, security threats, and policy compliance. This ensures that any investment in cloud architecture will be well worth it.

Better Cost Management Through Optimized Cloud Management

Cost management is one of the most essential aims of any organization. Reducing cloud costs is essential to being able to have enough resources to allocate throughout the cloud. 

With the analytics that proper cloud management can provide, resources can be allocated more effectively. This not only ensures resources are available to everyone who needs them, it also makes the cloud more efficient. Unused resources can easily be jettisoned, leading to a leaner, more cost-effective cloud.

Reducing data egress is one-way costs can be managed more effectively. Public cloud vendors usually charge more as you move data more. Cloud management can help to keep data in place, reducing expenses.

Improved Security

While most cloud platforms do offer a fairly high level of security, there are inherent vulnerabilities when compared to a full on-premises system. Cloud management aims to patch these holes, and do so in a timely manner.

Cloud management involves a nearly continuous system-wide analysis that can reveal any security weaknesses. Ideally, workflow automation can be deployed to ensure 24/7 safe operation with such security intrusions.

Consider cloud management as an investment in your long-term security and peace of mind. The cost of a ransomware attack or data loss from a destructive breach can be too great for any company to bear. Cloud management ensures that security procedures are followed at all times. 

Cloud Management Tools

There are a wide variety of cloud management tools available. There are third-party tools, as well as those developed from within an organization, customized specifically to their own needs.

The major cloud providers: Google Cloud Platform (GCP), Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, and more, provide some of the tools needed to begin providing a good level of cloud management. These aren’t the only cloud providers, even the lesser-known ones provide the ability to deploy a cloud management platform. 

It’s important to go beyond built-in tools to build a robust cloud management platform. There’s never a one size fits all solution. Each organization needs to evaluate its own goals and needs to determine the exact way that a cloud management platform should be built.

What is a Cloud Management Platform?

As with any aspect of cloud computing, it’s often easier said than done. There are a lot of behind-the-scenes tasks that need to be accomplished before any cloud management platform can be called a success. Here’s what goes into a cloud management platform going from concept to implementation.

Cloud management isn’t just a concept: it’s an actual platform of software and hardware that works hand-in-hand with the cloud infrastructure. This is why it’s typically called the “Cloud Management Platform” or “CMP.” 

What are The Goals of Cloud Management?

To really be considered a success, Cloud management needs to meet several different benchmarks. Every organizational situation is unique. That’s why there’s never a one size fits all solution. Cloud management implementation needs to align with the organizational missions of the company it serves.

Ensure Disaster Recovery

One of the top benefits of cloud computing is the ability to have multiple, redundant offsite backups. However, ensuring that those backups are fully synchronized isn’t as simple as it sounds. This is where workflow automation comes into play. Automation put in place as part of the cloud management platform can ensure that backups are made and updated nearly instantaneously.

Content Management

Achieving low latency of data access requires a higher level of resources. Not all users require the same latency at all times. Cloud management policies can ensure that low latency data access is used for situations where it’s required, saving resources for everyone.

Full Integration With Existing IT Architecture

First, it needs to integrate successfully with the existing IT infrastructure. If it doesn’t, It may create more problems than it solves. That’s why it’s essential for IT personnel who are familiar with the existing on-premise or cloud platform to be involved in the design of the new system and the selection of cloud management software.

High Level Of Automation

Automation is absolutely key to successful cloud management implementation. This allows your IT professionals to do a more effective job with the resources they have, rather than resorting to increasing the size of your team. 

The robust use of APIs is one way that automation is achieved on a cloud management profile. These pull data on security and resource usage from the entire public, private or hybrid cloud. The IT team can then set policies for taking action based on the data acquired. This frees up your IT professionals for other tasks.

Cost Management

One of the biggest pitfalls that companies need to watch for is the spiraling costs of cloud computing. This is often the result of poor planning and a lack of cloud management. It’s also associated with the concept of “cloud sprawl,” where the true amount of resources available becomes difficult to track. 

The right cloud management platform and governance can keep costs in check. Through the use of the advanced analytical tools available, every aspect of resource usage is carefully monitored, allowing for smart growth when it’s called far.

Functioning In Multiple Cloud Environments

Second, cloud management needs to support all the multiple cloud environments present in your organization. This includes:

  • Public cloud environments
  • Private clouds
  • Hybrid cloud environments. 

If a cloud management platform only works within one of these environments, it can never be successfully implemented.

Cloud Management Tasks

Now that you have a better idea of the aims and tools of cloud management, it’s a good idea to break down the operations that your cloud management platform will actually be performing. These can vary based on the exact setup, but the principles remain uniform, regardless. 

Auditing System Backup

The backup of your company’s data is one of the highest-priority tasks your CMP will be performing. If backups aren’t in sync with the current version, then restoring data loss will become exponentially more difficult when it becomes necessary.

In the case of public or hybrid cloud computing platforms, data is often duplicated in multiple data centers. Performing an audit to make sure the right versions are stored is a perfect task for cloud management automation.

Ensuring Data Flow

There are a host of tools available to ensure that data pipelines are flowing where they are supposed to, and the necessary latency is achieved. This is a task that is accomplished through the analytical tools that are part of a cloud management platform, and can also be automated.

Avoiding Vendor Lock-In

Vendor lock-in occurs when a company would like to move to a different cloud provider, but this migration is stymied by the high cost and difficulty of moving databases. This is why cloud management needs to be a priority from the start. 

Proper cloud management avoids vendor lock-in by ensuring the following:

Cloud services are carefully evaluated before making a choice. The long-term financial health of the provider needs to be evaluated, as is the ability to provide the services needed on the scale required by your organization.

Cloud management strategies should ensure that data portability is a priority. Even with the highest level of due diligence, there may be reasons down the road that a change in providers needs to take place. Cloud management ensures that databases can be moved, if need be, with a minimum of effort.

Employment of a multi-cloud approach. When a single vendor is relied on too heavily, it makes the vendor lock in a highly likely outcome. A smart multi-cloud approach can alleviate this. Companies may build out a private cloud for some data, and choose multiple public clouds for other vendors.

Then, the analytical tools and automation can ensure that regardless of where the data is stored, it’s ready for users when they need it.

Ensuring Compliance With Security Procedures

Every cloud vendor will have its own set of security protocols. These are very likely similar, but there are always idiosyncrasies. Cloud Management ensures these are followed, reducing or eliminating time wasted by having to repeat tasks the right way.

This ensures that the security posture is maintained, and reduces the chance of any form of intrusion or attack.

Monitoring Capacity Scaling

There will be times when resource needs climb dramatically. Certain industries are more prone to this situation than others, of course, but the concept is applicable to organizations of all sizes. Partnering with cloud vendors or working with existing private cloud infrastructure, the CMP needs to be able to scale according to demand.

Once again, the analytical tools provide a window into every part of the cloud, whether it’s private, public, or hybrid. Based on demand, resources can then be scaled to meet demand, without exceeding it.

Monitoring the Audit Log

Audit trails are an essential part of ensuring security and compliance. It’s tempting to think that audit trails are only achievable with on-premise servers and computers. With good cloud management, they are just as easy to achieve whether you are on a private, public, or hybrid cloud.

The CMP will monitor the audit log, and can even take automated action immediately. This ensures that security issues can be addressed in seconds, and provides an immutable record that is incredibly important for regulatory and legal compliance.

What Should a Company Look For in a Cloud Management Solution?

Cloud management solutions come in many different varieties. Certainly, some public cloud vendors will have their own CMPs that are worth considering. The bottom line is that any company needs to make sure that the CMP will align with its own end goals. There are a few other items that are important to look at.

First, a good Cloud Management solution should be simple to use. To get the most out of your CMP, it needs to be intuitive for end users to utilize. If you’ll be spending a high level of staff time training to understand the interface, the return on investment is going to be much lower.

The cloud management interface needs to be available to the IT team through an easy-to-access interface, regardless of where they are, or what platform they are using.

The CMP also needs to reduce the overall complexity of your cloud infrastructure. This is key, especially when an organization is using a hybrid public-private cloud architecture. The point of the CMP is to integrate the management of all those resources into a single, easy-to-manage experience.

If you are selecting a third-party cloud management platform, then vendor support is essential. Taking the time to view product demonstrations, and having IT team input is extremely important as a company makes a CMP selection.

Do All Organizations Need a Cloud Management Platform?

There isn’t necessarily a firm answer to this question. There’s an old saying: “If it isn’t broken, don’t fix it.” In smaller organizations, if your current cloud solution is working, there may be no need to change it.

As organizations start to scale larger, their need for a CMP increases. As a company’s cloud infrastructure becomes more complex, it too will probably need a cloud management platform. This is especially true when they have a multi-cloud approach and are merging resources from on-premise private clouds as well as public vendors.

Managed Cloud Services Vs. Cloud Management Platform

Oftentimes, an organization doesn’t have the internal skills and resources to properly manage a CMP. This can cause issues with performance, availability and security. If your organization needs more management around its cloud operations, partnering with a managed services provider (MSP) who can manage your cloud environment is the optimal solution.

If you want to learn more about how Cloudticity might be able to help you with cloud management, schedule a free consultation. Or download The Business Case for Managed Cloud Services to learn how we can help you offset costs.

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