Amazon Web Services (AWS) pricing can get a bit complicated. Thankfully, you can understand it better by learning more about the specific elements that can drive up AWS costs, and how to optimize those area for cost-efficiency.

One area to be acutely aware of is Amazon Elastic Block Storage (EBS). It’s easy to use and will work with your Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) instances at any necessary scale. Volumes are actively attached to an instance, similar to a physical hard drive.

If your enterprise is looking for a balance for price and performance, different EBS volume types are available. From a storage standpoint, it can be more cost-effective to go this route. Without disrupting applications, volume types can be changed and volume size can be dynamically increased among other options.

EBS volumes can be used to store data that requires frequent updates, such as system drives or storage for database applications. It also can be used for throughput-intensive applications that perform continuous disk scans.

Multiple EBS volumes can be attached to a single instance if all resources are in the same Availability Zone. You can also use Multi-Attach to mount a volume to multiple instances at the same time. An AWS account has a limit on the number of EBS volumes that can be used and the total storage available.

To learn more about EBS, its benefits, and the steps you need to take to master EBS pricing and reduce your bill, check out this article as part of our Guide to AWS Cost Optimization.

See our AWS cost optimization tools in action. Request a demo today.

Welcome to this week’s edition of CloudBolt’s Weekly CloudNews!

Here are the blogs we’ve posted recently:

With that, onto this week’s news:

Research: Multicloud deployment increases among enterprises

Melanie Wolkoff Wachsman, ZDNet, December 1, 2020

“Implementing a multicloud strategy remains popular among enterprises, as the majority of survey respondents (81%) currently use or plan to use services from multiple cloud providers within the next 12 months. This number rose from a similar survey conducted last year, in which more than two-thirds of survey respondents (69%) were or planned to deploy multicloud. The COVID-19 pandemic has also accelerated plans that were already in place or expanded cloud services for 40% of respondents and has caused 9% to create a cloud policy. 

Survey respondents who actively use multiple cloud providers cited many benefits. Avoiding vendor lock-in was the most popular advantage for 74% and 73% of respondents in 2020 and 2019, respectively. Competitive pricing as a benefit dropped slightly from 65% in 2019 to 58% this year. Ease of scaling workloads (51%) and resistance to outages (49%) held favor for about half of this year’s respondents, at a slight increase from last year. Regulatory compliance also saw a small uptick in popularity as a benefit this year.” 

The Evolution of Cloud Security Posture Management

Eric Kedrosky, Security Boulevard, Nov. 24, 2020

“According to Gartner, nearly all successful attacks on cloud services are the result of customer misconfiguration, mismanagement, and mistakes. In fact, 99 percent of cloud security issues will be the customer’s fault through 2025, according to the research firm. 

Gartner defines CSPM as a continuous process of cloud security and improvement and adaptation, which reduces the likelihood of successful attacks.”

Skills gap halts cloud plans

Nick Farrell, Channel Eye, Nov. 24, 2020

“Despite there being a clear desire to migrate, around 35 percent of respondents in Ensono’s study say that SAP skills would present barriers for their organisations when migrating their SAP portfolio from on-premise. Around 35 percent say that public cloud skills would present the same barrier. Conversely, 29 percent report a skills shortage on legacy technology, providing a real conundrum and startling issue for the future of IT.

More than 80 percent  stated they have either postponed or cancelled their migration plans, and nine per cent have avoided making plans, due to the SAP skills shortage Another 74 percent have either postponed or cancelled their migration plans, and 23 percent have avoided making them, due to the public cloud skills shortage.”

Experience the leading hybrid cloud management and orchestration solution. Request a CloudBolt demo today.

Organizations using AWS (Amazon Web Services) should consider using an Amazon cloud management platform. Why? A cloud management platform (CMP) can help your organization manage and optimize AWS environments while monitoring opportunities to improve efficiency.

AWS allows modern-day enterprises to hire powerful computers on the cheap. Essentially, AWS enables your organization to handle traffic, power databases, and host videos without investing in expensive infrastructure. Using AWS is a no-brainer for the forward-thinking organization.

Why You Need an Amazon Cloud Management Platform

Making a move to AWS is not always easy. Often, it’s not possible to sign up and reap the rewards of AWS immediately. You need to take a careful approach to leverage the full power of the cloud provider. In this regard, you must be sure you’re making the right deployment and migration decisions. This is where a CMP comes in.

A CMP allows your organization to manage even the largest deployment on AWS seamlessly. The governance tools and configuration automation the CMP brings to the table helps business leaders chart the way forward.

Choosing the Right Amazon Cloud Management Platform

Before you go all-in with a CMP, you need to map out your organization’s requirements carefully. In short, you should be able to answer the following questions:

Other than that, you need to identify the key features of a good Amazon cloud management platform. Here’s what to look for:

1) Centralized Management and Reporting

Complex cloud environments usually present IT with one major problem – a lack of visibility. The right CMP should deliver comprehensive management capabilities that allow for centralized management from a single user interface.

You should be able to visualize consumption patterns and identify underutilized resources, among other functions. The interface should communicate seamlessly with disparate technologies across your organization’s AWS deployments and other environments.

2) Empowers Users Through Self-Service

The ideal CMP should give your users the power to procure the resources they need without seeking IT approval. In short, end-users can access resources on-demand through a self-service model. This way, they’ll be able to get their jobs done without unnecessary bureaucratic friction.

3) Controls Costs

Cloud costs can spiral if organizations don’t manage them well. A CMP gives you cost visibility across your AWS deployments. Consequently, you can keep track of cloud spend and optimize cloud operations.

A solid CMP, such as CloudBolt, comes with cost management and reporting features. These features help predict cloud spend and identify problem areas.

4) Works with Disparate Technologies

You might want to work with AWS and other clouds in a hybrid setup. For this, you need a CMP that supports disparate technologies. Such a tool gives you access to vendor-specific features of each cloud using a single user interface. Most importantly, it helps organizations to avoid vendor lock-in.

CloudBolt has a blueprinted engine. This engine allows you to deploy a blueprint independent of the cloud technology you choose. For instance, an IT admin can set up a blueprint for a Jenkins server. Then IT can deploy it to AWS, an internal data center, or any other public cloud without changing the blueprint.

5) Future-Proof Integration

AWS is continuously churning out new services and products. An Amazon cloud management platform allows you to take advantage of AWS innovations. At the same time, you should still be able to tap into your in-house legacy systems and other cloud deployments.

See an Amazon cloud management platform in action. Request a CloudBolt demo today.

Welcome to this week’s edition of CloudBolt’s Weekly CloudNews!

Here are the blogs we’ve posted this week:

With that, onto this week’s news:

IT teams are conflicted about priorities for 2021

Sead Fadilpašić, IT Pro Portal, Nov. 16, 2020

“Based on a poll of 1,000 IT leaders and 3,000 workers in the UK, US, Germany and Australia, the report states that the biggest priorities for IT teams this year were adopting new technologies, reducing security risks, and reducing IT spend. At the same time, the challenges most frequently cited were managing security threats, implementing new technologies and supporting remote work.

The report further argues that “mature technology intelligence” – the ability to understand and manage all technology resources – equals resilience and growth. The majority of organizations with mature technology intelligence were confident they could survive in the current challenging climate and remain strategically focused on innovation.”

IT leaders choose hybrid cloud as top transformation action

Kate Malone, CIO Dive, Nov. 16, 2020

“Cost savings no longer drive the decision to move to a hybrid cloud model as only 27% of respondents cited it as a reason for switching IT operating models — perhaps because leadership already anticipates an uptick in cloud costs this year. 

Companies expect to grow cloud spend 47% on average, according to the Flexera 2020 State of Cloud Report released earlier this year. At the time of the report, 23% of the 750 respondents were already over their 2020 cloud budget.”

How Cloud Governance Will Deliver 2021’s ‘Clean And Secure Cloud’

Emil Sayegh, Forbes, Nov. 17, 2020

“Among planning for 2021, through budget and overall security and strategy planning, there is nothing more important as the increased need and focus on cloud governance. Many organizations are significantly behind on planning towards governance; especially for those that can’t seem to shake legacy operational practices. The issues at hand carry real consequences – from cybersecurity to a mobile workforce creating uncertainty and unchecked threats.

Globally, the landscape of security, certification, and compliance standards is broad and incorporates measures over data, cybersecurity, financial, and contractual components. Yet despite this complicated and perilous reality, reports indicate that companies are not properly harnessing the flexible technologies that can easily operate throughout multiple clouds and hybrid cloud situations.”

Experience the leading hybrid cloud management and orchestration solution. Request a CloudBolt demo today.

Check out this replay of our most recent lunch and learn and discover how to optimize your multi-cloud environment with the Kumolus Cloud Assessment.

Join CloudBolt’s Nilesh Deo and Kumolus’ Michael Salleo to see exactly how you can curb cloud cost and improve compliance no matter where your cloud journey takes you.

See how CloudBolt can help you get the most out of your cloud.

Cloud computing visibility needs are a core part of the success in the cloud. Making a move to the cloud can help enterprises accelerate IT delivery and increase business agility. But the cloud is a double-edged sword and can open up the business to gaping security threats. So, how can organizations protect themselves from a cyber-attack? The answer is increasing visibility.

Traditional security tools, such as intrusion detection systems and firewalls, usually work well within an organization. However, these tools are not as effective in the cloud. The cloud is dynamic and elastic, which makes it difficult for IT to see what’s happening in real-time. Without visibility, organizations can’t secure their cloud infrastructures.

Do Cloud Service Providers Help with Cloud Security?

Cloud providers only take responsibility for security up to the hypervisor layer. Anything beyond that is the responsibility of the organization. The cloud has a shared responsibility security model. In short, security in the cloud is largely the customer’s responsibility.

Organizations can deploy whatever tools and measures they deem fit to protect their data, applications, networks, and systems from attacks. This is no different from what they would have to do for their on-premises deployments.

The Case for Visibility – Cloud Security Improved

How can organizations achieve visibility in the cloud and ensure resources are secure? Here are the five best practices:

Continuous Visibility

Organizations should know exactly what’s going on with their data, infrastructures, and users at any one time. Achieving this level of visibility in the cloud can be challenging because of its elasticity, automation, and on-demand mode of operation.

Cloud management tools, such as CloudBolt, can help organizations gain visibility into their cloud deployments. By knowing what’s going on at all times, organizations can mitigate the risk and limit the attack surface.

Exposure Management

Organizations need to add some context to their cloud visibility. Once they gain transparency and visibility, they can successfully eliminate known vulnerabilities, such as mobile devices and out-of-date workstations.

Access Control

Weak access control is one of the biggest causes of cloud security breaches. Organizations need to make sure they’ve put in place stringent access management and privilege monitoring. IT should constantly monitor user activity to make sure there are no deviations from the laid down policies.

Data Protection

Organizations need to put in place measures to protect data, both at rest and in motion. Technologies, such as DLP (Data Loss Prevention), ensure organizations cannot send out their networks’ data even when there’s a compromise.

Compromise Management

Try as they might, organizations cannot prevent all breaches. What is important is to have a plan for dealing with the breach.

IT should put in place technologies and processes that enable the organization to respond quickly to security breaches before they get out of hand.

As more organizations move their workloads to the cloud, the need for visibility into data traffic and applications is becoming a priority. Organizations can meet this need by investing in the right tools and personnel. CloudBolt is one such tool.

Get the cloud visibility you need. Sign up for a CloudBolt demo today.

An Azure governance platform can help organizations ensure consistency in their environments.

Microsoft Azure Cloud platform allows IT departments to be agile by easing the creation, reading, updating, and deleting of resources. But giving unrestricted access to individuals can lead to unintended cost consequences.

Organizations can solve this problem with resource access governance. Resource access governance is the process of managing, monitoring, and auditing the consumption of Azure resources to meet an organization’s needs and goals.

The Need for an Azure Governance Platform

Self-Service Management

Most governance platforms support self-service resource management. Therefore, organizations can provision resources for their Azure environments themselves rather than having a preset amount of resources delivered.

A governance platform can help organizations determine whether they are using the optimal amount of resources for their business. IT can use this information to determine the right amount of Azure resources to request in the future.

Cloud Cost Management

A big reason organizations want to use a governance platform is to manage resource usage in the cloud to reduce costs. Any resources that are not in use are often a drain on an organization’s finances. By putting in place the right tools to manage their Azure cloud operations, organizations ensure they use resources optimally. This helps to reduce wasted spend and enhances cloud costs.

Automated Management Policies

A governance platform delivers automated cloud management policies and tasks to help organizations with cloud resource utility and management.

Automatic orchestration is the basis of any governance platform. It automates the process of finding spare resources on Azure cloud deployments. This means that the tool can find and fix resource usage problems without intervention from IT.

Choosing the Right Azure Governance Platform

Choosing the right Azure governance platform involves many considerations and questions. Let us look at some of the considerations organizations need to make.

Business Requirements

Organizations need to understand who the governance platform is serving and what the needs are. With this information, organizations can then determine how well the governance platform will serve them.

IT also needs to figure out how much additional work is necessary to install and configure the governance platform. Integration challenges be a deal-breaker. Integration challenges could be in the form of missing features or incompatibility with existing systems.

In this regard, organizations must quickly determine how soon they can install and run the governance platform after making the purchase.

Product Requirements

Organizations need to determine whether the governance platform enables the right compute, network, and storage capabilities. Does the platform have specific hardware requirements? Is it possible to choose hardware from any vendor?

Ideally, organizations should go for a platform that can leverage existing hardware investments. It is important to find out how extensible the product is and whether it supports federation with other providers. The organizations might want to expand their cloud deployments into a multi-cloud or hybrid cloud set up in the future.

Support Requirements

Finally, organizations must establish what it’ll take in terms of resources and expertise to deploy, customize, and operate the Azure governance platform. Will the organization need external help to deploy and troubleshoot the tool?

Organizations also need to establish whether the platform receives regular updates and how difficult it is to install new updates. A platform that will disrupt operations whenever an organization must make an update is undesirable.

Experience the leading hybrid cloud management and orchestration solution. Request a CloudBolt demo today.

Welcome to this week’s edition of CloudBolt’s Weekly CloudNews!

Here are the blogs we’ve posted this week:

With that, onto this week’s news:

10 ways the pandemic affected cloud investment

N.F. Mendoza, Tech Republic, Nov. 9, 2020

“The report cites 10 key findings, which include a reveal of the biggest barrier to effective cloud security: The organization’s budget. But in the next 12 months, 41% of IT decision-makers said they plan to increase security budgets.

The engagement with the cloud had been enthusiastic, but COVID-19 sent the innovations into fast forward, which meant that the enterprise was able to assess use quicker, but since it was a digital transformation that evolved from urgent need rather than careful observation and experience, it’s now time to make the cloud more efficient.”

Five Ways Cloud Platforms Need To Be More Secure In 2021

Louis Columbus, Forbes, Nov. 8, 2020

“Cyberattacks are going through a digital transformation of their own this year, with their targets more frequently being cloud services and the workloads running on them. McAfee Labs Covid-19 Threats Report from July found a 630% increase in cloud services cyberattacks between January and April of this year alone.

The cyberattacks look to capitalize on opportunistic gaps in cloud platforms’ security structures. The 2020 Oracle KPMG Cloud Threat Report provides insights into much faster cloud migration is outpacing security readiness. 92% of security leaders admitted that their organization has a gap between current and planned cloud usage and their program’s maturity. Of the 92%, 48% say they have a moderate public cloud security readiness gap and 44% say the gap is wider than average. The research team looked at the overlap of which organizations believe they can secure their use of public cloud services and found 44% do today across both categories.”  

What will cloud security look like in 3 years?

David Linthicum, InfoWorld, Nov. 6, 2020

“Automate everything. Some security systems automate existing processes today, but in five years this will be taken to the next level. We’ll have uber-dynamic interactions with potential threats, backed up by a machine learning system, using intercloud and intracloud orchestration of many different resources to find and stop attacks.

Focus on intercloud security. As we move to a multicloud world, we’re finding that using native security systems for each public cloud is way too laborious and causes complexity and confusion that can lead to breaches.”

Experience the leading hybrid cloud management and orchestration solution. Request a CloudBolt demo today.

Cloud governance has become a critical part of many organizations’ operations now that cloud computing has gone mainstream. Cloud computing has had an immense impact on internal processes, responsibilities, and roles. To fully embrace cloud computing benefits, organizations must evolve their processes and realign responsibilities and roles.

Redefining governance processes and policies helps organizations manage cloud infrastructure, operations, applications, and security more efficiently. Lack of governance policies and limited clarity can lead to noncompliant processes, budget overruns, and project delays.

Six Elements of Cloud Governance Framework

Financial Governance

Financial governance is a critical component of any digital transformation program in an organization. It combines KPIs (key performance indicators) of the enterprise and inputs of the entire solution. This allows for a matrix approach to evaluate and review the economic benefits of the program.

The financial governance model helps to define the controls for account management. It focuses on the current addressable spend, affected budget areas, ROI (return on investment), and TCO (total cost of ownership). Organizations should also handle licensing agreements under financial governance.

Service Governance

Cloud service governance refers to applying specific policies and principles to cloud computing services. The goal here is to secure data and applications located remotely.

In essence, service governance is an extension of SOA (Service Oriented Architecture) governance. But the unique characteristics of the public cloud, such as multitenancy, present organizations with different concerns. Ideally, organizations integrate cloud service governance into the existing cloud governance processes. It might also complement them. It is an ongoing process, not a product.

Data Governance

Organizations need to develop and refine their management strategies for cloud data. What if an organization relies heavily on the cloud? The data strategy outlines its approach toward the management, grouping, storage, security, and accessibility of data in the cloud.

Data governance involves defining how organizations capture metadata, track lineage, and ensure compliance. It also establishes the cloud foundation for data. This deals with storage requirements and data resiliency concerns., It also defines the futuristic capabilities to build a data lake. This data lake is critical for business insights, artificial intelligence, and machine learning for digital transformation.

Security Governance

The cloud comes with shared security responsibilities between the organization and the cloud service provider. Cybersecurity is constantly changing, with new vulnerabilities and threats emerging every day. Therefore, organizations need to come up with cloud governance processes to protect against data breaches.

These security governance processes should also support regulatory compliance, protect customer privacy, and set authentication rules for users. Organizations can configure cloud security to support the specific needs of the business and reduce overhead administration costs.

Architecture Governance

Organizations must enact cloud architecture governance to align with Enterprise Architecture (EA) governance and implement best practices. In addition, organizations should focus more on whitelisting Cloud Service Provider services. They can use these services in applications and identify regions or zones to host applications based on preset compliance guidelines.

Change Management Governance

When organizations move to the cloud, there is usually a change in delivery, development, and operational processes. The traditional development process changes into DevSecOps. The delivery model changes from a monolithic one to one that is service/product-based. The application architecture pattern goes from vertical scaling to horizontal.

All these changes bring about cohesive responsibility and often lead to increased automation and overlapping roles. The governance framework helps define processes for sharing responsibilities, automation for configuration changes, testing, deployment, and rollback to prevent failure.

Organizations should start with a simple cloud governance framework and grow as their cloud needs expand. They should capture and reuse communication mechanisms, processes, and best practices within and with cloud service providers.

The governance framework allows organizations to implement actionable policies to run applications across cloud providers hassle-free.

Experience the leading cloud governance and management solution. Request a CloudBolt demo today.