Multi-cloud is now mainstream. The next step is establishing how to bring together the disparate clouds. This is where cloud management platforms (CMPs) come in. There’s a misconception that a CMP is a portal that allows enterprises to use several cloud providers simultaneously. But it’s a lot more than that. When enterprises use CMPs effectively, they can help reduce costs and strengthen and automate management.
There is a myriad of CMP providers on the market today, and enterprises are spoiled for choice. So, how do CIOs choose a platform that’s right for them? Today, we’ll go over the cloud management platform vendor landscape to help you choose what works best for your organization.
CloudBolt
CloudBolt is a cloud management platform that facilitates the building, deployment, and management of multi-cloud and hybrid cloud environments. It unifies cloud management across locations and technologies to facilitate the best execution venue and optimize the placement of workloads. The unification of management, provisioning, and reporting makes it easier for IT admins to manage complex cloud deployments.
Training is available live online, in-person, and via documentation. Features include access control, billing and provisioning, cost management, capacity analytics, multi-cloud management, SLA management, performance analytics, and workflow approval. CloudBolt comes with both online and business hours support. You can get a free version and a free trial.
Embotics vCommander
Embiotics relies on a set of multi-hypervisor cloud management and virtualization capabilities. These capabilities give enterprises the power to build and deploy optimized hybrid clouds. The CMP supports multiple clouds and hypervisors. It’s a solid solution built with the direct input of customers.
Embotics vCommander is an easy-to-use and powerful cloud management platform that eliminates labor-intensive tasks and repetitive configuration and reduces costs. Users can export data, as well as automate searches and the generation of reports through scheduling. This gives them insights into the efficiency and value of their virtual assets.
Features include:
- Personalized self-service for IT and business users
- Multi-hypervisor and multi-cloud management
- Application deployment and provisioning automation
- Flexible workflows and life cycle management
- Intelligent resource optimization and capacity management
Flexera (RightScale)
Flexera is a comprehensive CMP that provides enterprises with a rich set of capabilities. This includes template-based provisioning, discovery, automation and orchestration, operational monitoring and management, cost optimization, and governance. It works across multiple private and public clouds and on-premises bare metal servers. Flexera is compatible with Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure, VMware vSphere, and many others. Flexera’s plug-in architectures enable users to use it on any API-enabled cloud service.
Morpheus Data
The cloud management platform vendor landscape wouldn’t be complete without mentioning Morpheus Data. This is a 100 percent agnostic CMP meant to unify the management of hybrid and multi-cloud deployments. The software empowers DevOps teams with the tools to provision virtual machines, bare metal, and container-based application services.
The tool comes with third-party integrations. These make it a good foundation to bridge the gap between tools, processes, and teams. This is independent of how and where the deployment of applications takes place. Morpheus unifies tools and standardizes processes across multi-clouds with complete application life cycle management. This includes backup, provisioning, monitoring, logging, access control, and reporting.
Scalr
The Scalr CMP takes a unique approach to cloud management. The tool applies policies at the organization level rather than at the application level. If an enterprise has lines of business or multiple departments, IT can establish levels of policy-based guardrails for each unit/department. Each unit can, then, operate with some level of autonomy, where it establishes unique policy requirements for team members.
ServiceNow
Founded in 2004, ServiceNow offers a single pane of glass for both hybrid and public clouds. The CMP is for medium to large enterprises. ServiceNow handles user activity via the Cloud User Portal. Here, users can access information on health, usage, quote, and cost of their resources. It’s also possible to order new services, monitor incidents, and send requests.
The ServiceNow CMP provides automated, on-demand access to resources in the multi-cloud. Every employee gets a personal dashboard depending on his or her user privileges. For example, this could be a cloud administrator, operator, or designer. The CMP encodes the governance policies of the organization. This ensures resource selection, resource placement, and naming conventions have the right levels of control.
VMware (CloudHealth)
CloudHealth by VMware is a CMP that gives enterprises the ability to visualize, automate, and optimize their cloud deployments. The tool integrates seamlessly with services across the cloud and data center. This gives enterprises access to a dashboard with robust data analytics. CloudHealth helps enterprises to save costs, enhance security, improve agility, and reduce complexity in their multi-cloud deployments.
Conclusion
Cloud management platforms provide enterprises with a great way to speed up the delivery of virtual infrastructure and reduce costs. To get the right solution for your organization, you must keep tabs on what’s going on in the market. After all, the cloud management platform vendor landscape is constantly evolving.