Question 1

What are Cloud Management Platforms?

Accepted Answer

A cloud management platform (CMP) is a set of unified software tools which help companies monitor and control cloud computing resources. While these tools can be deployed by an enterprise exclusively for a public or private cloud arrangement, CMPs commonly focus on the management of hybrid and multi-cloud models to help optimize control of various cloud-based infrastructures. CMPs also include open-source software modules that provide a framework to create and manage both public and private cloud infrastructure. This aids cost management, backup and disaster recovery, and enhancement of performance and security. 
 Cloud management platforms offer the administrative visibility and capability of cloud cost management software, cloud infrastructure monitoring software, cloud infrastructure automation software, and more. CMPs are designed to integrate with a variety of infrastructure as a service (IaaS) tools as well. 
 What Types of Cloud Management Platforms Exist? 
 Focused platforms 
 Platforms that offer only one type of cloud problem solving, say, cloud security to protect data, applications, and infrastructure from threats, and automation of tasks to reduce manual intervention, or cost optimization to increase business efficiency. These products will generally focus on a specific task. 
 Multi-cloud platforms 
 In multi-cloud infrastructure, cloud assets, software, and applications are distributed across several cloud environments. With a typical multi-cloud architecture involving two or more public and private clouds, a multi-cloud environment aims to eradicate the dependency on any single provider or instance. Multicloud management is the set of tools and procedures that allows a business to monitor and secure applications and workloads across multiple public or private clouds or a combination of both. By offering simplified, centralized management, a multi-cloud management solution allows IT teams to more effectively manage applications and workloads across multiple clouds. 
 Hybrid cloud and hyper-converged infrastructure (HCI)  
 Platforms that support hybrid clouds as well as on-premise infrastructure fit into this category. Hyper-converged infrastructure (HCI) is a software-defined, unified system that combines all the elements of a traditional data center—storage, computing, networking, and management. Hybrid cloud solutions combine a private cloud with one or more public cloud services, with proprietary software enabling communication between each distinct service. Hybrid cloud computing is powerful because it gives businesses greater control over their private data. An organization can store sensitive data on a private cloud or local data center and simultaneously leverage the robust computational resources of a managed public cloud. Due to complexities such as migration of services, compatibility issues between different cloud service providers, etc., in the management of such an infrastructure, these tools rely heavily on custom implementation.

Question 2

What are the Common Features of Cloud Management Platforms?

Accepted Answer

The following are a few essential features that a cloud management platform should have to help organizations gain visibility into their cloud deployments and take necessary actions. 
 Cost control: A good cloud management tool should provide insights to the user to help them visualize the utilization and cost of current infrastructure and track cost consumption across all cloud resources. Insights will help the user to reduce overall costs. A cloud management platform is a software solution whose main attribute is a vast and extensive set of APIs that allow it to extract data from every area of the IT infrastructure. The tools should be able to provide cost savings by giving one the capability to hibernate their unutilized resources and provide insights into each service with estimated savings.  
 Logs monitoring: What makes a cloud management tool unique is its ability to integrate monitoring processes by providing logs from all the major resources. CMPs are purpose-built to draw humongous volumes of data from the user’s application stack in the form of automatically generated computer logs. Log files contain information about every event that occurs in the user’s cloud environment. Analyzing those files can yield information about errors, vulnerabilities, compliance, security, and more.  
 Compliance: Cloud compliance is the principle that cloud-delivered systems must be in accordance with the standards their customers require. It ensures that cloud computing services meet the compliance requirements of enterprise customers. Maintaining compliance takes effort on the part of both the cloud service provider and the enterprise; without that effort, the organization's data could be at risk of not adhering to mandatory rules and regulations. 
 Optimizing the overall workload: CPM implementation in the IT market makes workflow better, optimizing the best practice and managing the resources to get better outcomes without losing out on either money or time. Features of the cloud management tools are connected internally and work together. This means that the tool can automatically control the infrastructure and make adjustments when necessary. The platform also helps in decision making. It can also play a role in managing and creating policy frameworks. 
 Billing and metering: This is another crucial feature provided by a cloud management platform. CPM accounts for an organization’s unique cloud architecture and finds ways to manage billing and chargebacks effectively. Metering refers to the methods and tools used to track the usage of infrastructure and software delivered via the cloud. IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS vendors have a variety of options for metering the usage of the solutions they provide to clients, including per-user metering, per-account metering, and per-transaction metering.

Question 3

What are the Benefits of Cloud Management Platforms?

Accepted Answer

Self-service management: Most CMP solutions support self-service cloud resource management. Enterprises can provision resources for their cloud environment themselves rather than having a set amount of resources delivered. A CMP can help enterprises determine if they are using the optimal amount of resources for their business needs. That can help in determining the correct amount of resources to request from the cloud provider in the future. 
 Cloud cost management: Enterprises want to manage their resource usage to reduce costs. Resources that aren't being used will just be a drain on the company’s finances. By managing operations to ensure that every resource is being used, cloud cost optimization can reduce the wastage of resources.  
 Automated management policies: CMPs deliver automated cloud management policies and tasks to help utilize resources using automatic orchestration. For example, it automates the process of finding spare resources on the network whenever one needs them. Rather than waiting until the IT team discovers wasted resources, the CMP automatically fixes resource usage problems. 
 Cloud compliance and governance: Usage of cloud services requires the integration of traditional IT governance best practices, such as compliance and chargebacks. Therefore, to govern the cloud for operational excellence, it is important to implement cloud management tools for compliance, incident, and transparent financial management. By doing this, the IT team will run responsible, compliant operations—with tight fiscal controls and transparency. As a result, an organization can benefit from economies of scale, lower individual usage costs, and centralize infrastructure costs while extending or improving current governance capabilities.

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Best Cloud Management Platforms - Page 12