Cloud management Complete guide and solutions

Cloud management encompasses the processes, tools, and strategies organizations use to monitor and optimize their cloud environments. This involves everything from provisioning and scaling cloud infrastructure to managing workloads, apps, and cloud services.

Cloud management differs depending on the type of cloud deployment, as we’ve outlined in the sections below.  

Public cloud management

Public cloud service providers like Amazon Web Services (AWS) or Google Cloud offer managed cloud computing resources, but this doesn’t mean organizations can sit back and relax.

Cloud management is essential to streamline workflows, optimize cloud spend, and maintain security across IT infrastructure. This can include automating repetitive resource allocation tasks, introducing self-service provisioning guidance and using cloud management services to find cost optimization opportunities.

Private cloud management

Private cloud management generally requires more attention than public cloud management, with organizations having more security, data center, and compute responsibilities. But with these responsibilities also comes greater control — many organizations in highly regulated and sensitive industries prefer bespoke private cloud environments for this reason.

Managing private cloud resources can deliver greater opportunities for operational efficiency, but only with sufficient attention to resource allocation and performance optimization across underlying cloud infrastructure. Implementing robust backup and disaster recovery strategies is also critical.    

Hybrid cloud management

Hybrid cloud management can deliver the best of both worlds, affording organizations more control over sensitive data and workloads, while also leveraging the scalability, elasticity, and potentially lower costs of public or multi-cloud environments. But this can also pose some of the most complex cloud management challenges.

Tools like VMware and Kubernetes are essential for orchestration, while APIs help organizations connect cloud management solutions and increase overall cloud visibility.

Cloud management services explained

Cloud management platforms help organizations navigate various challenges, acting as centralized hubs for orchestration, automation, and resource optimization across public, private, hybrid, and multi-cloud environments.

These tools can deliver more cost-effective cloud usage, real-time performance metrics, and simplified lifecycle management.

Organizations must typically leverage several types of cloud management services to have the most success:

• Cloud cost management – Selecting the best cloud provider pricing, optimizing resource usage across IT operations, and gaining on-demand cost data are all cloud cost management fundamentals. Tools like our very own Cloud Cost Optimization platform help organizations through real-time insights, negotiation assistance, automation for savings, and more.
• Cloud automation and orchestration – Cloud management software is crucial for automating tasks and workflows for cloud resource provisioning, configuration, and management. Vertice can automate processes on the cost-saving side, while services like Ansible Automation Platform by Red Hat assist with automation playbook creation and more.  
• Cloud monitoring and performance management – Cloud asset management requires in-depth and real-time insights — from general network health and performance to resource allocation and security posture. Datadog is a top option, offering comprehensive monitoring and analytics for cloud environments.    
• Hybrid and multi-cloud management – Tying together on-premise IT infrastructure and cloud environments is a challenging process. Cloud management software like IBM Cloud Pak for Multi-Cloud Management can help here, providing consistent governance and orchestration across diverse cloud platforms.
• Cloud security and governance – Robust cloud security posture is only possible with targeted security practices. McAfee Cloud Workload Security is a top cloud management service for security, offering features for vulnerability management, threat detection, workload compliance, and more.

The benefits of effective cloud management

An effective cloud management strategy can deliver numerous benefits:

• Enhanced cloud visibility – Cloud management services deliver in-depth views of entire cloud environments, offering real-time insights into resource utilization, performance metrics, and application health. Enhanced cloud visibility is vital for data-driven decision-making and a proactive approach to security and cost management concerns.
• Better cloud cost management – Cloud management platforms can identify and eliminate wasteful spending by optimizing resource usage, rightsizing applications, and discovering shadow IT. Savings can be immense. For example, Vertice’s Cloud Cost Optimization service achieved over $1 million in cloud savings with one leading cybersecurity company.
• Improved operational efficiency and agility – Implementing effective cloud management practices can improve operational efficiency and agility by taking the burden off departments that could make better use of resources on more strategic tasks. For example, DevOps teams could be free from repetitive tasks like manual configuration and focus on more innovative areas.
• Centralized cloud management – Successful Cloud FinOps implementation relies on centralized governance overseeing cross-functional and collaborative foundations. Cloud management delivers this unified approach, providing greater clarity regarding guidance and best practices.
• Greater control – Cloud management software affords organizations better control over their cloud environments, especially for hybrid or multi-cloud deployments. This allows for granular and targeted management processes for everything from access controls and compliance to integrations.
• Better productivity and profitability – Enhanced cost optimization, workflow management, and resource allocation naturally lead to greater organizational productivity and profitability.  Cloud management can also help proactive scaling, alerting businesses to opportunities for increased cloud usage and subsequent output.
• Strengthened security posture – Cloud management software can significantly enhance overall security posture — a particularly pertinent benefit for organizations operating in sensitive industries.

The challenges of cloud management

Capitalizing on the cloud management benefits above isn’t easy, requiring sustained focus to overcome the following challenges:

• Cloud environment complexity – Modern enterprise cloud environments can be extremely complex, leveraging multi-cloud and hybrid cloud deployments alongside legacy infrastructure. These disparate sources create various challenges, with effective management requiring streamlined orchestration and complete visibility.  
• Cloud cost intricacies – Cloud provider pricing models are often intricate and obscure, with various options for services, instance types, and reserved instances. Organizations must also consider how pay-as-you-go pricing models can increase costs without the right management practices.  
• Legacy infrastructure integration – Cloud computing is still a relatively new phenomenon, so many older organizations will be running hybrid cloud deployments requiring integration with legacy infrastructure. This requires careful planning, configurations, and disaster recovery to ensure seamless data flow, application interoperability, and data safety.
• Shadow IT discovery – Identifying shadow IT is a key cloud management component, but doing so can be challenging in such complex environments. Cloud management services offer features to uncover unauthorized services, enabling organizations to integrate them securely or eliminate potential risks.
• Cloud sprawl control – Managing cloud sprawl is increasingly difficult due to the number of services and SaaS applications available. This is particularly pertinent for larger enterprises, with cloud management practices like defined procurement cycles and regular redundancy elimination being vital.
• Security vulnerability and compliance – Even simple public cloud deployments have more complex security challenges than traditional on-premise infrastructure. Organizations must ensure robust access controls, encryption, and threat detection measures are in place. Cloud management also involves managing compliance, an especially challenging process in highly regulated industries.

Six steps to improve your organization’s cloud management

The steps below can help optimize cloud management and feel the benefits outlined above:  

1. Define a cloud management blueprint – Start by establishing a clear cloud management strategy aligned with overall business goals. This includes setting KPIs for cost optimization, evaluating your cloud deployment model, and creating an implementation roadmap.
2. Select the right cloud management tools – Use the initial blueprint to help you procure the optimal cloud management tools. Select cloud management software for task automation, resource allocation, cost optimization, security management, provisioning, and more.
3. Standardize and centralize cloud governance – Establish centralized cloud management and governance for a consistent approach. This will help with promoting clarity on best practices, reacting to optimization suggestions, and achieving bird’s eye visibility.    
4. Optimize resource allocation and increase visibility – Use cloud management services to provide real-time resource usage data and automate processes accordingly to enhance allocation and spend. This can include right-sizing, auto-scaling, and reserved instance management.
5. Define a regular cloud security and compliance lifecycle – Achieving robust cloud security isn’t a one-time effort. Define a proactive and iterative lifecycle to ensure complete attention to data encryption, access controls, vulnerability management, regulatory compliance, and more.
6. Encourage collaboration and business integration – Cloud management is at its best when everyone is on the same page. Despite being governed by a centralized team, organizations should encourage collaboration and a cross-functional approach to cloud management solutions. Integrating the strategy with wider business goals can drive efficiency, productivity, and overall profitability.

How Vertice’s cloud management software changes the game

The Vertice Cloud Cost Optimization platform can reduce costs by up to 25% with targeted capabilities to streamline your cloud environment. Our cloud management software optimizes spend with cost-effective solutions.

For example, organizations can automate savings, get granular cloud visibility insights, and leverage data-driven actionable suggestions all packaged with intuitive and easily digestible dashboards.  

Vertice’s cloud management service focuses on cloud cost management, but the offshoot is greater visibility and overall profitability. Start leveraging the management software today – cost savings could be within easy reach with our advanced tools – and get in touch for more information.

Cloud management glossary

Here are some essential cloud management terms to consider: 

• Cloud management – The backbone to an optimized, efficient and scalable cloud ecosystem. Cloud management involves everything from provisioning enough compute resources or virtual machines to monitoring subscriptions, resource usage, and security posture. We explore the various complexities associated with the term throughout this page. 
• Cloud management solutions – Individual software tools simplifying cloud management tasks. These tools can range from basic monitoring dashboards to self-service provisioning solutions, offering focused functionality to address specific needs within a broader cloud management strategy.  
• Cloud management platform – More advanced and multifaceted than simpler cloud management solutions. A cloud management platform offers a centralized view for managing and orchestrating resources across various cloud providers (multi-cloud) or even hybrid environments (combining on-premise and cloud infrastructure). Cloud managers can leverage unified dashboards with real-time data-driven insights tracking spend, resource usage, security posture and more.
  Application Programming Interface (API) – APIs stitch cloud environments together, enabling applications to communicate and seamlessly share data. With most organizations leveraging at least 100 SaaS applications on increasingly complex cloud landscapes, developing an interconnected ecosystem is crucial. APIs bridge this gap, acting as an invisible nervous system ensuring smooth data exchange and functionality. For example, an e-commerce platform might leverage APIs to connect with a payment gateway for secure transactions and a shipping carrier for efficient order fulfillment.  
• Cloud bursting – Cloud bursting helps organizations react to sudden upticks in resource usage, ensuring cloud infrastructure can handle workload spikes without compromising performance — a cost-effective strategy for scaling resources on-demand. Retail companies coping with web traffic surges over the holiday season could leverage cloud bursting to cope with the additional demand for processing power and bandwidth. 
• Cloud data governance – A collection of rules and best practices for managing cloud data securely and efficiently while maintaining regulatory compliance to frameworks like GDPR and HIPAA. This can include anything from data access controls and encryption to retention policies and data lineage tracking.  
• Cloud monitoring – A continuous process organizations must undergo to ensure complete cloud visibility and the most efficient work processes. Cloud monitoring involves keeping tabs on security posture, application performance, cloud resource usage and cost optimization. Real-time and unified dashboards can visualize these processes — the Vertice SaaS Purchasing Platform is one example, helping organizations keep on top of this requirement.  
• Cloud sprawl – Organizations can encounter cloud sprawl without targeted cloud management. The uncontrolled proliferation of cloud resources causes wastage, workflow confusion and security risks, so avoiding this sprawl is crucial. For example, a marketing team might purchase additional resources for a short-lived campaign without considering pre-existing options, leading to a sprawling environment. 
• Cloud native applications – Software built specifically for cloud networks, helping organizations leverage key benefits like scalability and elasticity. Cloud native applications can scale during hectic periods much easier than legacy apps. This is a gamechanger for every industry —  from live sports broadcasts to retail stores during busy times like the festive period. 
• Cloud deployment – A process for deploying cloud-based applications on cloud architecture. This can include Software as a Service (SaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), or Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS). For example, an organization could deploy a SaaS application for marketing and a PaaS approach for developing the underlying software for selling. 
• Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM) – The continuous management of cloud security posture. Cloud management solutions help organizations ensure robust CSPM with tools for identifying and addressing security vulnerabilities. This can include automated role-based access control for user permissions and configuration identification. 
• Cloud workloads – A term given to the applications, services, and data deployed on a cloud platform. These workloads can range from simple web applications to complex data analytics pipelines. Cloud management solutions help organizations gain complete visibility and optimize processes accordingly. 
• Cloud migration – The process behind relocating an organization's data, applications and IT infrastructure. Cloud migration generally involves moving from on-premise infrastructure to cloud-based landscapes, although it can also relate to migrating from different cloud providers, or even from the cloud back to on-premise. 
• Load balancing – A technique for distributing incoming traffic across multiple servers or applications to ensure smooth performance and minimize server overloading. For example, e-commerce websites leverage load balancing during sales to cope with increased customer requests. 
• Compliance – Maintaining compliance refers to the rules and regulations imposed on organizations by government agencies, regulatory bodies, and internal regulators. These generally revolve around data governance. GDPR is one example.  
• Service catalog – A service catalog helps organizations understand the solutions available within their cloud environment. This can range from targeted cloud management solutions like orchestration software to pre-configured cloud services offered by providers. 
• Provisioning – The act of acquiring and configuring cloud resources like virtual machines, storage and databases. Cloud management solutions can help automate and streamline this cloud management pillar. For example, an organization must provision enough build servers and sandbox environments for DevOps teams building new mobile applications. 
• Self-service provisioning – Empowers employees to provision cloud resources themselves with user-friendly service management interfaces. This can streamline the process, reducing IT workloads and promoting user autonomy. As an example, a marketing team could self-provision more resources for a campaign without having to go through the IT department.   
• Shadow IT – Self provisioning can be more efficient, but it can also result in shadow IT if users don’t follow the right processes and keep records of their activity. Shadow IT refers to unauthorized software procured without adherence to organization-wide guidelines, often for time-sensitive use cases. A cloud management platform can help address shadow IT by visualizing all cloud resources. 
• Virtual Machines (VMs) – Software like VMware emulating a physical computer system within the cloud. Cloud management platforms offer tools for deploying, managing and scaling VMs efficiently. These have various use cases, from running legacy applications not designed for the cloud to hosting web servers, leveraging disaster recovery strategies, and creating testing environments. 
• Infrastructure management –  Minimizing disruptions and ensuring optimal performance for underlying hardware, software, and network resources powering cloud environments. For example, a streaming platform like Netflix must manage and maintain its underlying infrastructure, including content delivery networks (CDN) and essential servers. 
• Cloud observability – Successful cloud management requires complete cloud observability, a term referring to the ability to monitor and visualize a cloud environment with data analysis and reporting. Organizations must analyze data logs, metrics and traces to understand overall health, performance, user optimization, and security across the cloud. These dashboards help cloud management teams proactively identify issues, optimize application performance, and ensure top-spec safety.  
• Open source – Many cloud management solutions are open source, meaning their source code is publicly available. This is particularly appealing for organizations with advanced DevOps capabilities comfortable with coding. It can be far more cost-effective, but can also create potential security issues. 
• Hybrid cloud environments – Cloud landscapes combining cloud infrastructure with on-premise IT. For example, a bank could leverage a public cloud provider like AWS for less sensitive customer data analytics, while keeping core banking applications and highly confidential custom information on-premise for better security. Cloud management solutions are important here to fuse on-prem and cloud data in a tangible form. 
• End users – The individuals, usually employees or customers, directly interacting with cloud applications. A central cloud management aspect is ensuring the user experience is as smooth, intuitive and streamlined as possible.
• Disaster recovery – An essential cloud management characteristic relating to the protocols for preparing for and recovering from potential disruptions in your cloud environment. This involves strategies like backups, failover to secondary environments, and predetermined data recovery processes.  
• Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) – A security cloud management solution helping organizations quickly define user permissions based on their role. For example, a developer might have access to development environments, while a marketing team might only have access to analytics dashboards. 
• Service Level Agreement (SLA) – An SLA outlines the service expectations — such as uptime guarantees, performance metrics, and support response times — an organization expects from a cloud provider. Cloud management solutions can help monitor adherence to these SLAs, an important part of a wider management strategy. 
• Reserved Instances – Organizations can leverage reserved instances to optimize their cloud management blueprints. This involves strategically pre-allocating resources for predictable workloads, thereby achieving discounts and better cloud optimization via provider deals. 
• ‍Cloud FinOps – A core cloud management component, Cloud FinOps relates to the financial processes and strategies for successful cloud cost optimization. Some key aspects to consider are centralized cost visibility, optimizing resource allocation, and aligning costs with business value.