Learn More About Cloud Management Platforms
Who Uses Cloud Management Platforms?
IT industry: CMPs help IT teams secure and optimize cloud infrastructure, including the applications and data residing on it. Administrators can manage compliance, set up real-time monitoring, and prevent cyberattacks and data breaches. Today organizations have dozens of diverse applications running in the cloud. Cloud management gives visibility and control over this otherwise uncoordinated ecosystem, integrating operating systems, applications, storage frameworks, provisioning, cloud security, and anything else hosted on the enterprise’s cloud. Administrators gain access and control over the enterprise cloud through a web-based interface that they can access remotely.
Finance industry: Cloud services enable the digital transformation of the finance industry while cloud management platforms offer a dramatically improved experience for this industry using the platform. Due to the increase in mobile consumerization and mass digitization, financial services institutions are transforming data and automating core processes and workflows. The banking sector now provides customized solutions to meet the needs of their diverse customer base with the help of enterprise cloud managed services that support a multitude of enterprise applications. Since cloud offerings and adoption of cloud services are growing, a CMP solution aids in streamlining operations, enabling managed service providers (MSPs) to deliver financial governance, security and compliance governance, and identity and access governance across multiple public clouds. By implementing a CMP solution, the BFSI sector can lower infrastructure costs and increase asset utilization, thereby improving agility and operational efficiency.
Media and entertainment industry: A global consumer base with a growing demand for “bingeable” content is pushing the M&E industry to provide content that is not only available in a variety of formats, but also tailored for diverse audiences in disparate geographies. Implementation of a cloud management platform helps media enterprises streamline access to media from any location. It enables the management of huge quantities of digital content in a faster, dynamic, and cost-effective manner.
E-commerce industry: The scalability of the cloud complements the needs of the retail sector. Provisioning more servers on its own or obtaining funds to build a bigger IT infrastructure will slow down an enterprise's growth. Cloud management solutions provide a business the ability to view and search for non-compliant servers across environments. CMP provides superior stability for online retail and ensures cost efficiency. Cloud management provides advanced data security which has been a rising concern for e-commerce platforms.
Automotive industry: The automotive industry needs to be up-to-date with its supply chain as this allows them to interact effectively with customers and cater to their needs. Cloud management platforms help this industry as they can have a common environment for both automotive suppliers and manufacturers to share data to ensure that both sides have supply chain visibility. Cloud management platforms are useful for moving, storing, securing, and indexing massive volumes of data generated from connected vehicles.
Healthcare industry: Cloud healthcare solutions help doctors to easily stay connected to their patients which improves collaboration with each other. Cloud solutions for the healthcare sector enhance patient engagement, empower health team collaboration, and improve clinical and operational data insights to improve decision making and operational efficiencies. Implementing a cloud management platform by the healthcare industry makes it faster and easier to provide more efficient services to patients and helps ensure the end-to-end security, compliance, and interoperability of health data.
Software Related to Cloud Management Platforms
Cloud cost management software: Cloud cost management software allows an enterprise to understand and manage the costs and needs associated with its cloud technology. In particular, this means finding cost-effective ways to maximize cloud usage and efficiency. These tools are typically paired with an infrastructure as a service (IaaS) provider offering to minimize the costs of their pay-as-you-go model. Cloud cost management software helps companies reduce waste by alerting users of low demand or automatically scaling usage to optimal rates. Companies also use these tools to increase the efficiency of their cloud service usage—these solutions often provide reporting features to outline waste and redundancies. Cloud cost management software has some overlap with SaaS spend management software, but the latter is used to monitor and manage spending on cloud applications rather than infrastructure.
Cloud infrastructure monitoring software: Cloud infrastructure monitoring software allows companies to visualize and track the performance of their applications or services. These tools aggregate data in real time to display information related to a company’s cloud-based resources. These tools can track application performance, network availability, and resource allocation, among other factors. Cloud infrastructure monitoring is a process that makes sure an application both remains available and responds to user requests within an acceptable amount of time. It can also involve goals such as optimizing code or reducing infrastructure costs. Cloud infrastructure monitoring tools may have overlapping features with either cloud workload protection platforms or cloud cost management software. Those tools, however, perform more individualized and specific management capabilities and may not provide adequate or necessary monitoring capabilities.
Cloud infrastructure automation software: Cloud infrastructure automation technology is used to provision servers and computer data centers through metadata files, as opposed to physical configuration. The concept in practice can also be referred to as implementing "infrastructure as code" or performing continuous configuration automation. Developers will create templated infrastructure to run their application code, review, and integrate it. These templates can then be reused and generated automatically, minimizing a developer’s need to reconfigure infrastructure. Companies use cloud infrastructure automation technology in DevOps practices to reuse pre-configured infrastructure and ensure configuration visibility at all times. These tools can save developers time in configuring infrastructure as well as reduce downtime. These tools have a strong tie to the continuous delivery process. Many DevOps-focused configuration management software tools will have the ability to automate cloud infrastructure, but that capability is not inherent in all configuration management tools.
Other Software Related to Cloud Management Platforms: AWS management, Azure management, Google Cloud Platform (GCP) management, Others,
How to Buy Cloud Management Platforms
Requirements Gathering (RFI/RFP) for Cloud Management Platforms
If a company is just starting and looking to purchase its first CMP, or maybe an organization needs to update a legacy system--wherever a business is in its buying process, g2.com can help select the best cloud management platform for the business.
Finding the right cloud management platform for a business can be difficult due to numerous potential vendors and seemingly similar offerings. Without digging deeper to uncover the details, enterprises run the risk of selecting a solution that can result in unexpected costs, vendor lock-in, difficult-to-agree service level agreements (SLAs), or simply a lack of fit to requirements.
The functional or technical requirements are a core part of the purchase process. Functional requirements usually vary from one organization to the next. Organizations must determine the end goal of purchasing a CMP, whether it is for optimizing costs, requirements around data retention, security, performance, or specific functional requirements. Depending on the scope of the deployment, it might be helpful to produce an RFI, a one-page list with a few bullet points describing what is needed from the platform.
Compare Cloud Management Platform Products
Create a long list
As more and more organizations build internal private clouds or enter the service provider market with public clouds, choosing the right vendor and platform for managing today’s hybrid and multi-cloud environments boils down to more than just technical capabilities.
Long lists are created by eliminating the options that do not align with the organization’s cloud strategy. Vendor evaluation is an essential part of the CMP buying process, it helps to prepare a consistent list of questions regarding specific needs and concerns to ask each vendor.
Whether embarking on a proof-of-concept/pilot or a full enterprise-level deployment of the CMP, the following considerations should enable the establishment of realistic and achievable goals:
Business requirements: It is important to take into consideration which departments and clients will benefit from the platform deployment and the extent of disruption during the implementation. A business must also take into account the period within which implementation of the CMP will start generating ROI.
Product requirements: The enterprise willing to adopt a CMP should determine the consistency of the platform with its existing cloud strategy. The tool helps in the management of the various cloud platforms and cloud services. Achieving the full value of this investment also requires integration with other tools in the infrastructure that support functions such as service management, DevOps, configuration management, and financial management. A CMP should allow for seamless integration with the organization’s existing services to generate customized and actionable insights.
Depending on whether a SaaS or on-premises deployment solution is selected, there may be an impact on the existing connectivity and service level commitments. It is crucial to understand the management functions covered by the CMP in terms of resources, spend, and security and how fast it can detect usage of resources and determine their necessity.
Support requirements: The enterprise should be aware of the extent to which it will be dependent on the vendor after the full implementation of the platform. Additionally, vendor patch releases are an important consideration when evaluating cloud management vendors. The user must find out about the release cycles and frequency of the releases in their development cycles. Vendors should provide regular fixes and functional enhancements. If an organization is using a CMP with a SaaS model, it can usually minimize the impact of software releases. The process is usually more seamless than an on-premises deployment.
Create a short list
From the long list of vendors, it is pragmatic to narrow down the list of contenders. Enterprises must select solutions that are aligned with the enterprise’s goals. With this list, businesses can compare the features offered by different vendors and the pricing structure of various solutions.
Conduct demos
Demos provide an opportunity to buyers to see how a cloud management platform works. While pre-recorded demonstrations and slide decks are available online, it is lucrative to request the vendor for a live demo of the CMP platform using the system to dive deep into their technical capabilities.
Additionally, mapping out a draft deployment plan or proof of concept (POC) is highly recommended before making a selection as it provides a roadmap for subsequent activities and defines the resources that are required in each phase. A PoC should prove (or disprove) whether the technology matches the organization’s requirements.
Selection of a Cloud Management Platform
Choose a selection team
It is important to recognize that project success is based on a team’s effort including the vendor that will support the CMP deployment with their training and professional services staff as well as the tenant and end-user community. Forming the team and establishing a common vision is imperative. The partnerships for deployment must extend into the enterprise itself.
Final decision
Cloud services and CMPs are still evolving, it is unlikely that any one platform can serve as a “one size fits all” solution. However, selecting a vendor that has a strategy aligned with the enterprise’s directions and objectives will accelerate growth as the product matures. Rapid developments have pushed providers to innovate and develop mature solutions that work with top public cloud providers as well as on-premises virtual stacks.
Here are few factors to consider while making the final decision:
Total cost of ownership and cost associated with day-to-day data transfers: One way to evaluate a cloud management vendor is to establish the total cost of ownership (TCO) of its CMP. This involves calculating the cost of acquisition and the recurring operational costs for the service. If there are any additional integrations required, it’s best to include the anticipated costs into the TCO estimate. Some cloud providers offer a low base price but charge extra fees to transfer data. This could lock the user into their product by making it a costly affair to transfer to another provider, hampering the user’s ability to use their data in a way that best suits their requirements. Many cloud service providers encourage customers to move data into their respective clouds by not charging for data ingress. However, data transfer fees do exist for data egress—or moving data out of a cloud data center—not just from the cloud to on-premises, but also between data centers within the same provider, or another cloud provider. The data transfer fees can add up over time. It is crucial to keep data transfer fees in mind when choosing a cloud management solution.
Product licensing or service subscription model: A CMP is either a vendor SaaS offering, open-source or a licensed on-premises product. Acquisition and recurring costs will vary widely based on the model an enterprise opts for. It is imperative to scrutinize the terms and conditions of the product support and licensing agreements or SaaS SLAs to achieve enterprise goals within the defined OPEX (operating expense) and CAPEX (capital expenditure) budgets.
Identifying risks and opportunities early: Whether a commitment to a given CMP product has been made, or early evaluation is underway, it is important to capture and monitor deployment and operations risks, and improvement opportunities early so that it is possible to leverage the lessons learned, contain cost overruns, and modify plans when needed. Whenever a new technology is leveraged, it is good to devise back-out plans or alternatives when assumptions and outcomes change. It must be ensured that the solution chosen will be adaptable to the organization’s future requirements.
