Cloud has become the backbone of businesses. Often, companies employ multicloud environments to combine unique features from different cloud providers to manage their growing businesses, but they can get lost in the clouds without the proper control and management. Cloud management platforms can help organizations take control and get the best out of dynamic cloud environments.

Multicloud strategy has taken off

More than 85% of companies use multiple clouds, according to IBM. Multicloud environments come in various forms, including a combination of private and public clouds and hybrid or multiple public clouds. 

Today, cloud vendors come with a wide range of capabilities and specialties, such as advanced capabilities in machine learning, low-cost cloud storage, low latency services due to the closer proximity of data centers, and powerful analytics capabilities. Multicloud strategies provide the flexibility to choose the best possible parts of various solutions that suit business needs at the lowest costs. So, companies go for a combination of multiple clouds to create a perfect cocktail of cloud services for their businesses. 

Managing multicloud environments is no mean task

While multicloud environments bring flexibility, they also lead to complexity. They provide visibility and insights into the business, but losing sight of all the company's cloud applications is easy as their number increases. Interoperability is also a huge challenge. Cloud interoperability is the ability of cloud systems to talk to each other. This means applications, containers, APIs, and processes on different clouds should be able to communicate seamlessly. But this is easier said than done. The sheer amount of APIs, processes, data, and interfaces without proper standards makes integrating applications across multiple cloud platforms difficult. 

Multiple clouds allow companies to pick the best of all options, but a lack of proper integration and oversight can lead to serious security issues. Cybersecurity attacks are at an all-time high. There has been a 50% increase in overall corporate attacks per week compared to 2020, according to Check Point Research (CPR). In 2021, Meta faced a major security issue when hundreds of millions of user records were exposed to the public on Amazon’s cloud servers. A multicloud environment further increases the attack surface and increases cyber security risk. 

While having multiple vendors can reduce costs, too many cloud solutions can lead to spiraling costs. Numerous cloud services that sprawl across the cloud landscape can be challenging to track. The unchecked proliferation of cloud instances, users, and services add to the cloud costs. Moreover, separate billing tools for each cloud service provider make billing management extremely complicated. 

The solution to the abovementioned problems can be cloud management platforms.

How do cloud management platforms provide visibility and control over the cloud environment labyrinth?

Multicloud platforms can be chaotic. With multiple vendors, thousands of upgrades and releases, new services launched often, and piles of invoices and renewals, companies can easily get lost in the myriad of tasks needed to manage multiple cloud environments. Cloud management platforms (CMPs) can bring order to this chaos.

Cloud management platforms help administrators manage their cloud resources through powerful dashboards. The tool provides them with information about how resources are being used, the number of resources going unused, and the number of resources they might require in the future. This helps the enterprise provision its resources instead of buying a fixed amount. 

CMPs also automate the workflows to manage cloud resources so that they can be optimally allocated based on the requirements automatically. This eliminates the need to wait for the IT team to identify and allocate resources. 

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 also designed to integrate with various infrastructure as a service (IaaS) tools. This integration helps in optimizing resources and thus reducing costs.

Keeping track of the cloud solutions used and their utilization also helps bring down unnecessary costs. CMPs also help manage billing and chargebacks for all cloud applications and infrastructure-related costs. CMP platforms provide metering tools to track the usage of software and infrastructure. Vendors have various options for metering the use of the solutions they provide to clients, including per-user metering, per-account metering, and per-transaction metering. CMPs keep track of costs irrespective of billing methods and keep track of contracts and renewals.

Cloud systems must meet the compliance standards set by the customers and the governments. This requires a lot of effort as businesses and IT systems are spread across countries, each with its own regulations. And then there is the matter of security, which can be difficult with different sorts of software communicating with each other. Cloud management platforms can help meet compliance requirements and security standards by providing a clear map of all software used, their integration, and their interaction. 

G2 data shows that cloud management platforms are rapidly gaining popularity

Cloud management platforms are becoming prevalent with growing cloud adoption. The CMP market, valued at $4.5 billion in 2021, is expected to reach $49.8 billion by 2030, growing at the rate of 30.6% CAGR, according to a report by Acumen Research and Consulting. 

A closer look at G2 data confirms this trend of an expanding CMP market. The number of CMP products on G2 has grown by 23% in the last year alone. We also see a growing interest from customers looking for CMP software. Monthly traffic to the Cloud Management category on G2 has increased by 438% in two years.

One of the most appreciated things about CMPs is the quick return on investment. 46% of the reviewers said that they were able to get a return on investment in less than six months and another 21.5% percent in 7 to 12 months. 

Looking ahead

With a recession looming large, companies are becoming cautious about their cloud spend and investments. Cloud management platforms will be more critical than ever for companies to control their cloud landscapes and derive the best benefits at the lowest costs. 

Cloud set-ups in organizations vary based on their functional requirements for business operations, security, APIs, etc. Companies must evaluate their cloud landscape to choose the most suitable cloud management software. They must first consider if their cloud environment is large enough to warrant the use of a CMP. When making purchase decisions, they need to gauge the extent of resources different CMPs cover, scalability, the scope of automation, and security capabilities. Other important points to consider are the total cost of ownership, the time needed for implementation, the learning curve for the platform, and if there are people skilled enough in-house to manage this platform.

Organizations need to fully recognize the role of a cloud management platform and their expectations from it. This can help them choose the most appropriate software to manage and improve their cloud at the lowest costs.

Edited by Shanti S Nair