Cloud Management Platform: When Is It Needed and Why?

The continued ascent and evolution of cloud computing have paved the way for a handful of solutions. One of these solutions is the Cloud Management Platform or CMP.  

What is a Cloud Management Platform?

As the name suggests, CMP is a suite of integrated products that manages, monitors, and controls public, private, and hybrid cloud environmentsCMP includes products like provision system images, self-service interfaces, external enterprise management systems, metering, and billing services, and workload optimization services.

The features of CMP vary from vendor to vendor, but most vendors generally deliver it as software as a service model or as on-premises applications. The question here is, why exactly is it gaining popularity? 

How Cloud Management Platforms Work

The traditional IT architecture is extended by modern CMPs. This gives IT a “flexible compute approach” that greatly improves the flexibility and speed with which digital services are delivered. The aim would be to automate all operations in even the most difficult circumstances.

Characteristics of a Cloud Management Platform

The cloud management platform space is still evolving. But while it’s almost as if each CMP is designed to address a unique set of problems, they certainly have some common characteristics. Most CMPs allow you to manage at least one of these items in your cloud infrastructure: cost, security, and operations.

Cost

Cloud management platforms with cost management capabilities usually enable cloud admins to rightsize resource (CPU, storage, memory, I/O) consumptions with actual workloads, perform budgeting, deal with allocations and chargebacks, and set up monitors and alerts. These CMPs help organizations avoid wastages, streamline consumption, and optimize spending.

Security

CMPs with security capabilities, on the other hand, help admins identify and fix infrastructure vulnerabilities; meet compliance requirements; perform risk assessment and auditing; carry out threat protection, containment and remediation; and configure/generate reports and monitors. These types of platforms are often also used by security analysts.

Operations

Last but not the least, cloud management platforms with operations-focused capabilities usually enable admins to automate routinary tasks, set up automated actions that respond to certain triggers or events, set up performance/health checks, orchestrate the cloud infrastructure and services, carry out various analytics, create templates for provisioning and optimize workloads.

All of these platforms typically have a self-service portal where admins can log in and perform the various functions mentioned earlier from a single pane of glass. It’s also from this same interface where admins can view various metrics, visualizations, and reports in order to gain insight into the health, efficiency and security of the cloud infrastructure.

The Capabilities of a Cloud Management Platform

A cloud management platform, in general, contains five primary functions, as per the Cloud Standards Customer Council (CSCC), a cloud end-user advocacy group:

Financial Management

Provides the ability to track and distribute cloud computing spending to individual users or business units automatically. The ability to produce chargeback reports and anticipate future cloud expenses are also included in these financial management services.

Resource Management

With features like resource detection, tagging, provisioning, automation, and orchestration, it provides tools to monitor cloud computing resources such as virtual machines, storage, and networks. Furthermore, the cloud management platform could support resource migration across environments, like private and public clouds.

Service Management

Allows an IT team to keep track of cloud-based services in order to assist in capacity planning, workload deployment, and ensuring that all availability and performance criteria are satisfied.

Governance and Security

Allows an administrator to administer cloud resources using policies, and includes security features like encrypting and identity management.

General Services

To get insight into the enterprise’s cloud service usage patterns, it offers additional self-service capabilities but also reporting and analytics functionalities.

Evaluation Criteria for a Cloud Management Platform

Most CMPs are still evolving and performing the same core functions. However, they differ in design philosophies and the specific environments they operate. As such, you’re unlikely to find a “one-size-fits-all” cloud solution. For this reason, you should analyze your organization’s overall strategy and pursue a CMP that has a consistent approach as yours.

When evaluating CMPs, you should consider the following:

Technology and Architecture Requirements

Managing applications can be repetitive and tedious, especially in large and diverse cloud environments. Deploying a CMP with the appropriate technology and architecture can help you promote your bottom line. Your evaluation should incorporate the following:

Operation Requirements

When it comes to operations, you should consider the following:

What are the platform’s hosting environment requirements? Some providers offer CMPs for on-site cloud deployments while others may deploy them to the customers within a cloud service. The option you choose impacts network connectivity, skill requirements, and total cost of ownership (TCO).

Business Requirements

When mapping out business requirements, you should consider:

Why Do Businesses Need a Cloud Management Platform?

Among the benefits of having a CMP are:

Why a Cloud Management Platform is Suitable for Single and Multi-Cloud Infrastructures

A cloud management platform can also be used to manage a single cloud infrastructure. However, that’s not where you’ll get a good return on investment (ROI) from a CMP investment. For example, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud all have management consoles that can be used in conjunction with a CMP to improve VMs and resource management.

Cloud Management Platform Main Drivers: Hybrid and Multi-Cloud Infrastructures

Who else is still using just one cloud? According to the Flexera 2021 State of the Cloud Report, 87% of enterprises currently adopt a hybrid cloud strategyThe same report also indicates that organizations use an average of 2.2 public clouds and 2.2 private clouds. Hybrid cloud initiatives, which involve a mix of one or more public and private clouds, are replacing cloud strategies that rely on just a single CSP or datacenter—a trend that bodes well for CMPs.  

A CMP makes it easier for a cloud admin to manage different clouds in a hybrid cloud environment. Instead of having to shift from one console to the next, admins can just stick to one console and get all the information or perform all the tasks needed, such as:  

Parallels RAS Works as a Cloud Management Platform

When embarking on a hybrid cloud project, it is best to pick solutions that already support hybrid cloud deployments. Parallels® Remote Application Server (RAS) is an ideal fit for companies looking for a virtual application and desktop delivery solution.

Parallels RAS can be deployed on popular public clouds like Microsoft Azure and AWS, as well as on-premises or in a hybrid cloud deployment model.

Moreover, with Parallels RAS you can mix and match different workloads such as Remote Desktop Session Host (RDSH), virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI), hypervisors, hyperconverged infrastructures, and cloud providers.

Parallels RAS also integrates with Azure Virtual Desktop (formerly Windows Virtual Desktop) to manage and unify all virtual workloads from a centralized console, including Windows 10 Enterprise multi-session.

Download the Parallels RAS trial and experience the benefits of hybrid clouds through an affordable and easy-to-use solution. 

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