The best cloud management software solutions help IT organizations effectively manage hybrid cloud environments and deploy internal and external clouds with a single, unified platform. In addition, the best cloud management software solutions help users manage and provision resources on demand while administrators set provisioning conditions that limit user access to only the resources needed for their jobs.

Finding the best cloud management software can be a challenge without knowing how to evaluate the traits that are useful for enterprise-wide hybrid cloud management. Each solution can have different attributes, features, and benefits that make it hard for IT staff to compare one to the other. As a result, it is important for IT leaders to uncover the needs of their developers and users before making a decision.

Below is an overview of three key features that the best cloud management software solutions include:

AUTOMATION

The best cloud management software solutions leverage hybrid clouds to enable enterprise IT departments to use automation to build, deploy, and manage private and public clouds quickly and efficiently. They focus on reducing the painstaking process of deploying IT resources by using automation and consider compliance via built-in, automated features that are available out-of-the-box, rather than using a manual process.

The best cloud management software solutions also help developers manage complex stacks of software by architecting solutions in a repeatable, compliant manner through the automation of provisioning storage, network, and compute resources across multiple servers and clouds. This provides the end users a friendly, easy to use, and consistent experience.

FLEXIBILITY

Organizations have software and complex applications that need to be deployed, without time to waste. The best cloud management software solutions remove the need for developers to grapple and decipher the entire service lifecycle. Developers must depend on an accurate build that meets compliance requirements – and the flexibility of an effective cloud management software solution achieves those goals. The best cloud management software solutions, for example, provide user-friendly portals to hide the complexities of  hybrid cloud configuration, giving end-users the ability to manage and provision resources on demand, while administrators set provisioning conditions for governance.

CONTROL

The best cloud management software solutions give end users the ability to architect solutions using a consistent method. For example, the best cloud management solutions use “blueprints” to support IT in creating repeatable processes for delivering servers and services. All processes for deployment can be encapsulated into a blueprint, allowing users to order multiple services using one method. IT can make blueprints available to users via a catalog, enabling them to instantiate their own resources.

The best cloud management software solutions make “anything-as-a-service (XaaS)” deliverable via cataloging capabilities. This adds a layer of control that maintains the governance and management required to avoid over provisioning, while supporting multiple cloud environment across the enterprise.

Finally, the best cloud management software solutions align IT spend with business need. They consolidate both internal and external clouds into a single user-facing application that allows users to easily manage and provision resources on demand. Once installed, they gives administrators the power to set provisioning conditions and empower end users to access the environments needed to do their jobs.

Download the CloudBolt Snapshot that provides a cloud management software comparison or check out our videos or request a demo to see Cloudbolt in action.