Cloud Management

Cloud management is a term applied to the process of managing any type of cloud environment, whether that’s the public cloud, a private cloud, or a hybrid cloud. A well-planned cloud management strategy is necessary to ensure that control is maintained over these environments without sacrificing scalability, dynamism, or security.

What’s Cloud Management All About?

When most people think of the cloud, they imagine an environment that’s largely managed for them, by the cloud provider. This is natural, as many of the benefits of the cloud stem from the lack of a need for hands-on management. However, there are aspects of the cloud that do need to be managed on the user end of things. The cloud provider will handle many things, from updates and patching to resource allocation, but the user (the business or organization purchasing cloud services) does have some responsibilities.

What Should You Know about Cloud Management?

When it comes to cloud management, the tools used are of the utmost importance. It is crucial that a business ensure the tools utilized have the ability to handle all areas that need to be monitored and managed. The following are just some of the most important areas:

• Performance monitoring, which includes latency, response times, uptime and more
• Security monitoring, which includes threat monitoring, malware and virus protection, and more
• Compliance auditing to ensure that organizations are in compliance with government and industry regulations
• Disaster recovery planning, which ensures that plans are in place should a disaster strike
• Contingency planning, which determines what an organization will do in the face of a serious situation

A well-thought out cloud management strategy can help an organization achieve some very important goals. Three of these are discussed below.

Analysis of the Cloud – By ensuring that you’re able to analyze cloud computing workloads and user experiences, adjustments can be made through requests to the cloud provider. This is particularly important in a private cloud environment, where it is vital that the infrastructure works correctly. Workload balancing and capacity planning are just two of the things that need to be considered here.

Self-Service – Cloud management planning allows organizations to benefit from self-service capabilities. For instance, utilization can be monitored and resources reallocated or changed to meet those needs on the fly. Budgets can be tracked, and resources can be scaled up or down depending on usage needs.

Automation – Automation can be achieved through accurate cloud management. For instance, it is possible to transform business policies into actionable steps that can be carried out without the need for human staff members to do them. This can reduce costs, but can also help with compliance issues and potential security problems, such as moving sensitive data from the private cloud to the public cloud.

As you can see, cloud management is a vital area for organizations to master. Without a robust cloud management strategy, it can be difficult to benefit from cloud-based services.