Cloud Management: A Must-Have for Cloud Reliant Enterprises

In the digital era, businesses need the flexibility to innovate in order to make their mark on users and thrive. One of the most significant innovations in this regard is undoubtedly the “Cloud Movement”.

Businesses are capitalizing on the potential that Cloud has to offer to survive, drive business growth and thrive in this era.

With the promise of low-cost, easy-scalability enterprise applications, Cloud has become a business necessity to enhance user experience, portability, integrations, and security.

This has led to massive rates of Cloud adoption: Over 94% of enterprises already use a cloud service. To achieve this, IT departments often make use of a mix of public, private, and hybrid cloud environments depending on their goals and budgets.

However, to approach and handle the complexities that Cloud environments hold without compromising on delivering high business value across Cloud services, there has emerged a revolutionary solution - Cloud Management.

This blog is a simple guide on the basis, benefits, and features of a good cloud management service.

What is Cloud Management?

The need for Cloud Management Service Providers is soaring. Cloud Management practices have become a critical enabler of the Cloud ecosystem.

Cloud Management is a process that provides management capabilities for cloud environments. It overlooks and helps control the dynamically scalable cloud infrastructure.

Cloud Management involves the management of applications and associated datasets across multiple cloud service infrastructures, including both on-premise cloud infrastructure and public cloud service provider infrastructure.

Cloud Management helps organizations achieve the following goals:

1. Organize various cloud computing devices
2. Maintain and manage these devices and cloud-hosted services
3. Self-service and adjustment of cloud resources
4. Automation of managing cloud instances
5. Cloud analytics to track workloads and user feedback

The setup of a Cloud Management System consists of a culmination of various applications, software, and associated databases. These components are spread across multiple cloud infrastructures which work in unison to supervise and manage a wide array of users, data, applications, and services.

Cloud management presents a simplified management view of cloud resources and allows businesses to take charge of their cloud setups.

Why is Cloud Management needed?

On average, businesses across the globe use a combination of five or six different cloud environments - i.e., on-premises and public and private environments. With Hybrid cloud environments growing at a CAGR of 34.3%, they are said to reach an aggregate of $241.13 billion by 2022.

According to Forbes, the volume of corporate data stored in the cloud has grown from 30% in 2015 to nearly 83% in 2021. Organizations will continue to shift to the use of cloud computing and storage as it allows for security and reliability at a lower investment cost than IT infrastructure.

There are several challenges brought forth by hybrid cloud adoption. One such instance is the necessity for a large number of data points for gaining visibility of the variety of systems and resources.

To overcome these challenges, businesses need a Cloud Management Platform that provides a simplified management view through its functionality and integration of data from multiple Cloud environments.

This has created a demand for efficient cloud management capable of dealing with the complexities of hybrid cloud deployments.

Benefits of Cloud Management

1. Cost Control

Cloud management employs tools to monitor costs when browsing through complex vendor pricing models. It also helps in forecasting and reporting for various costs being managed in the cloud environment.

2. Performance

The performance of applications is enhanced through the use of optimization tools and proven strategies and methodologies. These methods are flexible and scalable to meet the growing needs of the organization. Administrators can automate repetitive tasks to be more efficient and reduce the risk of errors.

3. Sustainability

Many cloud management practices involve cost and environmentally sustainable strategies to be energy efficient.

4. Multi-Cloud Management

Organizations will need a mix of public, private, and hybrid cloud solutions. Cloud management provides the tools required to manage this ecosystem efficiently while optimizing costs.

5. Security

Some Cloud management platforms offer security checks to be performed to reduce risks and vulnerabilities.

6. Ensures Compliance

Cloud management platforms can generate reports for IT managers in real-time. The managers can then see when and where users or cloud configurations are not aligned with the corporate compliance policies and guidelines. These issues can then be addressed and resolved quickly.

Features of Cloud Management

1. Centralized Reporting

The cloud management platform allows the administrators to access all the necessary management actions from one single interface. It is especially important in a hybrid cloud environment, where the admins will need to visualize the data and applications across different cloud environments.

The overall view can help with functions like identifying the underutilization of resources and monitoring consumption patterns.

2. User Empowerment

Organizations stand to benefit from the self-service capability of cloud management platforms. Teams and departments within the organization can access data and services from the cloud without having to seek approval from the IT department. The workflow is thus more streamlined and efficient.

3. Future Proof

The public cloud environment is constantly evolving. Organizations that also maintain legacy data centers will have trouble keeping up with the changes.

To help ease this, public cloud providers are committed to bringing the latest software and services that can help. The integration between the latest innovations and the legacy data centers will allow organizations to work from a single interface.

4. Hybrid Management

The interoperability of cloud management is a key feature that most users would benefit from. It allows for an application built for one environment to run in another environment without having to change the base codes or configuration.

API translation tools would not work as virtual networks are different across different cloud environments. Cloud management platforms facilitate multi-cloud management and include application interoperability with various cloud providers.

5. Cost Management

Cloud pricing can often be complex and ever-changing. Tracking these costs manually can be tedious and repetitive, with the risk of overlooking critical information.

Cloud management platforms provide cost forecasts and reporting to help IT departments track their expenditure. Some offer tools to compare costs between public, private, and hybrid cloud resources to better optimize operations. Beyond management platforms, there are several long-term and short-term cost optimization strategies for cloud configuration.

Conclusion

Companies are making a switch to operating through cloud environments that allow for the storage of data in a virtual space that can be accessed through the internet.

In order to optimize the use of these spaces, cloud management software has become an essential investment. The main benefit of cloud management is the cost optimization feature that allows administrators to track and predict the costs incurred as well as compare various prices across vendors.