A cloud management strategy should exercise control over a company’s public, private, or hybrid cloud resources and services. Because of the time involved, many companies choose to delegate some or all of the responsibility of managing the cloud’s dynamic and scalable computing environments to an outside IT service provider.
Typically, cloud management helps organizations achieve three main goals:
- Cloud analysis – tracking of workloads and user experience
- Workflow automation – enabling operation teams to manage cloud instances without intervention
- Self-service – allowing IT professionals to access cloud resources and services, monitor use, and adjust resource allocations
When your company lacks access to IT professionals with experience managing cloud services, it may be difficult for your cloud management strategy for Microsoft and AWS to succeed.
Efficient cloud management relies on IT professionals with knowledge of the best tools, practices, and adequate experience to understand your company’s goals for cloud management.
Importance of Cloud Management
While there are many ways to implement a cloud management strategy, the best approach improves cloud computing performance, reliability, cost containment, and environmental sustainability.
Your company’s IT team must work together to adapt to a cloud culture, keeping the company’s professional goals in mind. They’ll need to test cloud application performance, make critical infrastructure decisions, identify security vulnerabilities, patch security, and monitor cloud computing metrics.
While cloud management solutions are determined by a company’s priorities and objectives, many goals commonly include cost monitoring and performance optimization, as well as using architectural strategies to lower energy consumption.
Companies that lack IT professionals with experience in cloud management may choose to outsource their management needs to third parties who have the ability to closely monitor and control cloud resources and costs.
Security Management
AWS, Microsoft, and Google do not take full responsibility for keeping cloud data protected. It’s ultimately up to a company’s IT professionals to stay vigilant in guarding against current security threats.
Cloud management strategies should work to protect a company’s data and include best practices such as automated security updates on SaaS, configuration management, and improved logging and access management.
The truth is that cloud security breaches and incidents occur as often as security technologies improve, which requires cloud administrators to test their environments frequently and ensure they have the latest security audits and reports.
Cost Management
Without an efficient cloud management strategy in place, cloud computing costs can spiral out of control from the start. Several cost-optimization strategies exist for configuring the cloud to stay within budget.
One of the biggest challenges to cloud management is cloud sprawl. This sprawl occurs when IT professionals lose track of cloud resources, which leads to unmonitored usage throughout an organization. Cloud sprawl is the main contributor to increased costs and often leads to security and management problems.
There are several short-term cost management tools available that can improve cost efficiency; however, long-term solutions are often needed to eliminate unnecessary cloud spending. The goal should always be to find the right balance between cost and a company’s needs.
Manage the Cloud With Logically
Microsoft Azure and Amazon CloudWatch are platforms developed by two of the biggest cloud providers today. While both Azure management and AWS management have the benefit of advanced technology and resources on their side, it’s often the case that companies require third-party IT Managed Services solutions like Logically.
If you’re just starting with the cloud or are already established with Microsoft and AWS, we can assist you in increasing the benefits they provide. When working with Logically, your cloud technology is hosted and managed by a team of cloud experts, immediately reducing the cost of software licensing, training, and additional architectural investment.
Logically is an AWS Advanced Consulting Partner and can help provide Cloud management solutions for Microsoft Azure and AWS, including:
- Cloud assessment
- Cloud hosting
- Cloud migration roadmaps
- Cloud system design — hybrid, public, private
- Cloud backup and disaster recovery
- Secure file sharing
- Encrypted email
Our team of expert technicians will work side-by-side with you to address your current requirements, develop and implement cloud solutions, and ensure maximum security and faster results. Contact us by calling 866.946.9638 or speak to an expert today!
