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Advantages and challenges of cloud management platforms
Effective cloud management: how to centrally manage and optimize your resources
The cloud journey of many companies has long since begun and a large proportion of IT infrastructures and solutions are successfully operated in cloud environments. With this trend, companies are faced with the challenge of already operating a hybrid cloud or multi-cloud environment that includes solutions from different providers. This "best of breed" approach makes it possible to make optimum use of the individual strengths of the providers. At the same time, it brings with it the difficulty that IT teams have to manage, adapt and further develop different cloud environments without losing sight of the cost focus and complying with required guidelines. Cloud management platforms (CMPs) are used to master this task. These tools enable companies to manage multi-cloud and on-premise environments centrally with one platform.
In this blog, we will show you which aspects a cloud management platform covers, where we see the limitations of such tools and what you should look out for when choosing a suitable solution.
What is a cloud management platform?
Central management as a key feature
A cloud management platform can be seen as a multifunctional tool that enables centralized management of different cloud providers and on-premises solutions. The main disciplines are in particular the management and optimization of multi-cloud and hybrid cloud environments via a central interface. The platform should be as user-friendly and intuitive as possible so that users can manage their workloads via the graphical interface. A modern and future-oriented CMP supports multi-cloud capability and the integration of on-premises resources.
Find out more about multi-cloud scenarios and why companies are consciously or unconsciously facing this challenge in the following blog post:
Multicloud - Does it really make sense?
The functionalities of cloud management platforms are constantly evolving and the tools are becoming ever more comprehensive. A trend can be seen that larger public cloud providers such as Microsoft Azure, Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Google Cloud Platform (GCP) are expanding their native platforms so that they are not only focused on their own services and infrastructures, but also offer APIs and tools for integration with other platforms and services.
Some providers focus more strongly on individual subject areas and therefore offer specific functionalities. We do not consider these solutions, also known as "mini-suites", to be fully-fledged CMPs. In contrast, other providers pursue a holistic approach with which they cover a broad range of functionality. They achieve this by integrating other products and manufacturers. Let's take a look at the key components of a cloud management platform in the following sections.
Provisioning and orchestration: With a CMP, your IT team can provide workloads as efficiently as possible. This is achieved by automating recurring tasks. Manual intervention should be minimized as far as possible to reduce the time required and potential sources of error.
Service enablement: With service enablement, you can create a service catalog that is individually tailored to your needs. This enables cloud users to order the IT resources they need in a simple and standardized way. The requested resources are then provided automatically and in accordance with internal security requirements.
Monitoring and surveillance: CMPs collect data from all providers and consolidate it for you so that you have an overview of your hybrid and cloud resources via a dashboard. This ensures comprehensive monitoring and seamless surveillance of all IT resources. You can use this data for reporting purposes, for example.
Inventory and categorization: CMPs help you to have a comprehensive overview and control of your infrastructure. Resources are automatically discovered and managed, changes monitored and configurations centrally managed. Missing tags are detected and automatically added according to criteria defined by you.
Cost control and resource optimization: With cost control and resource optimization, CMPs provide detailed insights into your expenses and make it possible to identify unused resources and thus eliminate unnecessary costs. Through automatic scaling, CMPs can help you minimize cloud costs.
Cloud migration, backup and disaster recovery: A CMP supports you in setting up recovery and business continuity architectures. In addition, the central platform gives you comprehensive backup control, allowing you to secure the integrity of your data and protect it from loss.
Identity, security and compliance: With a CMP, you have an overview of security-relevant topics across all cloud platforms. This includes, for example, access monitoring (IAM) as well as dashboards for security compliance in relation to your security guidelines.
The individual subject areas can help you to select evaluation criteria in order to carry out a successful evaluation of a CMP.
Differentiation of tools - what can't CMP solutions do?
Cloud management is a complex domain. This becomes clear as soon as you look at the range of functions. The various providers of CMP solutions continue to align themselves and sometimes focus on individual or related subject areas.
One important aspect that CMPs may not fully cover is the initial creation and configuration of cloud infrastructures. CMPs are primarily designed for the operation and management of existing infrastructures and less for engineering. An infrastructure is usually not set up with a CMP, but with specialized tools such as Terraform or the native platforms. CMPs are added to support the management and optimization of the existing infrastructure. A CMP is primarily intended for the operations team, which monitors and manages the ongoing processes.
While many CMPs offer integrations for Infrastructure-as-Code (IaC) approaches and allow the use of existing Terraform and Ansible scripts, the creation and configuration of the infrastructure remains outside the core functional scope. It is possible to build an infrastructure directly with a CMP, but this is often not practical as CMPs are designed more for management and do not provide the in-depth flexibility and control required for engineering.
The benefits of a CMP depend on the way resources are deployed. Experienced DevOps teams with high IaC maturity often work with code and use fewer graphical interfaces, as text-based configuration files and scripts can be efficiently integrated into their CI/CD pipelines.
You can find out more about the role of CI/CD in the IaC approach in the blog post:
CI/CD and IaC
Furthermore, CMPs may not be able to fully support the specific, proprietary services of all cloud providers, which can lead to limitations in functionality. This is because cloud platforms are constantly evolving and new functionalities are constantly being added while others disappear.
Possible variants and tools
CMPs differ in terms of their operating mode. Some providers offer their solutions as Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), which enables quick implementation and easy maintenance. Others rely on self-hosted solutions, which offer more control and customization options, but also require more administrative effort.
Below you can find a list of some providers of cloud management platforms, the list is not exhaustive:
- BMC Cloud Lifecycle Management
- CloudBolt
- Flexera
- IBM Cloud Pak for Multicloud Management
- Morpheus Data
- Nutanix Cloud Manager
- Red Hat CloudForms
- Scalr
- VMware vRealize Suite
Who needs a CMP and what is the best solution for you?
A cloud management platform is beneficial for various organizations and scenarios. Below we explain possible scenarios and what the advantage of CMPs is for the use case.
This allows companies with a multi-cloud strategy to benefit from the centralized management of different cloud providers via a single user interface. Large companies and corporations use CMPs for centralized control and overview of their extensive IT infrastructures as well as for scaling and managing complex environments. Companies that operate as IT service providers and managed service providers (MSPs) use CMPs to efficiently manage the cloud infrastructures of multiple customers from a central dashboard and to automate processes. Companies that are subject to strict regulations and security requirements use CMPs to comply with legal requirements and industry standards across different cloud environments and to apply security policies consistently. There are many other scenarios where CMPs can be beneficial. These are not limited to specific industries or only relevant to technology companies.
To find the right solution for your company, we recommend that you check why you are using a hybrid cloud or multi-cloud environment. This will help you to find out which functions your future solution should primarily cover. You should also decide which tools will complement each other and which tools you want to replace.
Conclusion
Using a CMP solution makes particular sense if you are pursuing a multi-cloud strategy, have a high level of complexity in your IT infrastructure, or are looking for ways to automate management and increase efficiency. A CMP solution can help to overcome the challenges of cloud management, control costs and ensure that all security and compliance requirements are met.
Even though many providers advertise cost optimization, implementation and operation can be costly, as additional licensing and operating costs are incurred. Employees need to be trained on the new solution before efficiency can be felt. The effort involved in setting it up should not be underestimated. Whether and which CMP is the best solution must be considered on an individual basis. There is no universal solution or de facto standard. The best choice depends on your individual starting position, coupled with the needs and strategic goals of your company.
