Cloud Management in Cloud Computing

Cloud computing management is maintaining and controlling the cloud services and
resources be it public, private or hybrid. Some of its aspects include load balancing,
performance, storage, backups, capacity, deployment etc. To do so a cloud managing personnel
needs full access to all the functionality of resources in the cloud. Different software products
and technologies are combined to provide a cohesive cloud management strategy and process.
As we know Private cloud infrastructure is operated only for a single organization, so that can
be managed by the organization or by a third party. Public cloud services are delivered over a
network that is open and available for public use. In this model, the IT infrastructure is owned
by a private company and members of the public can purchase or lease data storage or
computing capacity as needed. Hybrid cloud environments are a combination of public and
private cloud services from different providers. Most organizations store data on private cloud
servers for privacy concerns, while leveraging public cloud applications at a lower price point
for less sensitive information. The combination of both the public and private cloud are known
as Hybrid cloud servers.
Need of Cloud Management :
Cloud is nowadays preferred by huge organizations as their primary data storage. A small
downtime or an error can cause a great deal of loss and inconvenience for the organizations. So
as to design, handle and maintain a cloud computing service specific members are responsible
who make sure things work out as supposed and all arising issues are addressed.
Cloud Management Platform :
A cloud management platform is a software solution that has a robust and extensive set of APIs
that allow it to pull data from every corner of the IT infrastructure. A CMP allows an IT
organization to establish a structured approach to security and IT governance that can be
implemented across the organization’s entire cloud environment.
Cloud Management Tasks :
The below figure represents different cloud management tasks :
Cloud Management Tasks

 Auditing System Backups –

It is required to audit the backups from time to time to ensure restoration of randomly
selected files of different users. This might be done by the organization or by the cloud
provider.
 Flow of data in the system –
 The managers are responsible for designing a data flow diagram that shows how the data is
supposed to flow throughout the organization.
 Vendor Lock-In –
The managers should know how to move their data from a server to another in case the
organization decides to switch providers.
 Knowing provider’s security procedures –
The managers should know the security plans of the provider, especially Multitenant use, E-
commerce processing, Employee screening and Encryption policy.
 Monitoring the Capacity, Planning and Scaling abilities –
The manager should know if their current cloud provider is going to meet their
organization’s demand in the future and also their scaling capabilities.
 Monitoring audit log –
In order to identify errors in the system, logs are audited by the managers on a regular basis.
 Solution Testing and Validation –
It is necessary to test the cloud services and verify the results and for error-free solutions.
What is Cloud Monitoring? How to Make Sure Cloud Services are Working Properly
Cloud monitoring is the process of evaluating, monitoring, and managing cloud-based services,
applications, and infrastructure. Companies utilize various application monitoring tools to
monitor cloud-based applications. Here’s a look at how it works and best practices for success.

Types of Cloud Services to Monitor

There are multiple types of cloud services to monitor. Cloud monitoring is not just about
monitoring servers hosted on AWS or Azure. For enterprises, they also put a lot of importance
into monitoring cloud-based services that they consume. Including things like Office 365 and
others.

 SaaS – Services like Office 365, Salesforce and others

 PaaS – Developer friendly services like SQL databases, caching, storage and more
 IaaS – Servers hosted by cloud providers like Azure, AWS, Digital Ocean, and others
 FaaS – New serverless applications like AWS Lambda and Azure Functions
 Application Hosting – Services like Azure App Services, Heroku, etc

Many of these can be monitored usually traditional application performance monitoring tools.
However, cloud monitoring has some unique requirements over basic server monitoring tools.
There are also companies like Exoprise who focus on monitoring Office 365, Salesforce and
other services.

How It Works

The term cloud refers to a set of web-hosted applications that store and allow access to data over
the Internet instead of on a computer’s hard drive.
 For consumers, simply using the internet to view web pages, access email accounts on
services such as Gmail, and store files in Dropbox are examples of cloud computing for
consumers.
 Businesses use it in many of the same ways. They also may use Software as a Service (SaaS)
options to subscribe to business applications or rent server space to host proprietary
applications to provide services to consumers.

Cloud monitoring works through a set of tools that supervise the servers, resources, and
applications running the applications. These tools generally come from two sources:

1. In-house tools from the cloud provider — This is a simple option because the tools are
part of the service. There is no installation, and integration is seamless.
2. Tools from independent SaaS provider — Although the SaaS provider may be different
from the cloud service provider, that doesn’t mean the two services don’t work seamlessly.
These providers also have expertise in managing performance and costs.

Cloud monitoring tools look for problems that can prevent or restrict businesses from delivering
service to their customers. Generally, these tools offer data on performance, security, and
customer behavior:

 Cybersecurity is a necessary part of keeping networks safe from cyber attacks. IT teams can
use it to detect breaches and vulnerabilities early and secure the network before the damage
gets out of hand.
 By testing at regular intervals, organizations can detect errors quickly and rectify them in
order to mitigate any damage to performance and functionality, which improves the
customer experience and, as a result, can boost sales and enhance customer retention.
 Speed — like functionality and user experience — is a primary driver of customer
satisfaction. Speed metrics can be monitored and generate data that helps organizations
optimize websites and applications.

If an organization monitors early and often, they can use the data to troubleshoot problems and
implement repairs in a timely — if not instantaneous — manner.

Benefits of Cloud Monitoring

The top benefits of leveraging cloud monitoring tools include:

 They already have infrastructure and configurations in place. Installation is quick and easy.
 Dedicated tools are maintained by the host. That includes hardware.
 These solutions are built for organizations of various sizes. So if cloud activity increases, the
right monitoring tool can scale seamlessly.
 Subscription-based solutions can keep costs low. They do not require startup or
infrastructure expenditures, and maintenance costs are spread among multiple users.
 Because the resources are not part of the organization’s servers and workstations, they don’t
suffer interruptions when local problems disrupt the organization.
 Many tools can be used on multiple types of devices — desktop computers, tablets, and
phones. This allows organizations to monitor apps and services from any location with
Internet access.

Stages of a Cloud Journey

A cloud journey is not just a technical change. It involves changes to the entire IT framework,
multiple business departments, and critical business processes. Translating business goals into
a migration plan is time consuming, but advanced planning is key to a successful migration.
The following steps present a framework for planning and executing your cloud vision.

Step One: Making the Business Case

A cloud journey is a business decision. A company should start by evaluating the business
implications of adopting a cloud infrastructure.
Decision-makers must understand how the cloud differs from a traditional IT setup. They
must be able to assess the benefits, risks, compliance, security, and data control implications
on the organization as a whole and its IT activities in particular.
Determine what systems and apps should be first to migrate, and what are the costs and total
cost of ownership (TCO) of the expected cloud deployment.

Step Two: Identify the Right Applications

Each application has its own unique design, which may or may not fit a cloud environment. If
the application is suitable for the cloud, you can just “lift” and “shift” it to the cloud.
Otherwise, you might need to make some changes.
The easiest migrations are often those that require no code modification—a lift and shift
migration. In other cases, the application may only need a little tweaking before migrating to
the cloud. Worst case scenario occurs when the entire application needs to be completely
rewritten.
To ensure efficiency and cost-effectiveness, you should thoroughly assess your architecture,
its complexity, and determine whether you can completely shift to the cloud or whether it
makes more sense to move only several applications to the cloud while keeping the rest on-
premises.
Step Three: Select a Cloud Service Provider

After you have analyzed and inventoried your environment, it is time to choose a cloud
environment. There is a wide range of cloud service providers, each offering a distinct
architecture that can with a unique set of capabilities, licensing, and support.
Here are several questions to ask when assessing a cloud provider:
 Does the architecture of the cloud suit the design of your workloads? Since
application modifications may lead to overhead, it might make more sense to choose a
cloud environment that requires fewer code changes.
 What kind of cloud implementation is supported by the provider? The majority of
cloud vendors provide public and private cloud offerings. If you plan to implement a
multi-cloud or hybrid cloud architecture, you should check if the vendor offers
capabilities for complex cloud environments.
 Can you bring your own existing licensing to the cloud? Licensing can be a
complex and expensive procedure. Make sure that you can use your existing license
and if not, determine (in advance) what licensing you need and what are the costs.
 What type of support do you need before, during, and after the migration
process? Some cloud providers offer tools but not much in terms of support, while
other providers offer to help you migrate from beginning to end.
There are many more aspects to consider when migrating to the cloud—including security,
compliance, and service level agreements (SLAs). However, the above questions should help
you get started.

Step Four: Initial Adoption

Software as a service (SaaS) is usually the first and simplest solution adopted by companies
migrating to the cloud. Applications include the less business-critical ones, such as customer
relations management (CRM), office productivity (Office 365 and G-Suite), accounting,
human resources, and collaborative tools like Slack, Asana, or Trello.
Business-critical solutions, such as warehousing, production, and enterprise resource planning
(ERP) are typically tightly integrated with core business systems. This requires going deeper
and adopting platform as a service (PaaS) solutions, which let you move an entire
infrastructure to the cloud provider. This requires pilots and proofs of concept, and will often
mean transitioning operations to a new, cloud-based solution, a strategy known as
“repurchasing”.
At the early stages, infrastructure as a service (IaaS) can be used for non-critical applications,
such as test and development environments, batch processing, and data archival.
As your organization adopts cloud solutions, you should in parallel develop a cloud
governance strategy. Determine which business tasks are performed where, define access
policies, and implement monitoring and security tools that span both on-premises and cloud
environments.

Step Five: Full Migration

By now you should have all the information needed to migrate your workloads to the cloud.
However, note that a huge part of the execution phase is testing. If you have not run a pilot
yet, this is the time. This is especially important for mission-critical applications that cannot
sustain a long period of downtime. Test your plan, and then start executing it. Create a backup
and recovery strategy, and use it if or when issues occur.

Step Six: Post-Migration

You have completed your migration, but not your journey. Now is the time to begin
comparing pre- and post-migration performance. Monitor cloud performance in accordance
with your provider’s service level agreements (SLAs) and your own performance goals. Be on
the lookout for customer-facing issues that arise from the new cloud environment, detect
unexpected changes and fine tune applications and infrastructure.

Cloud Migration Challenges

Here are some of the common challenges you will need to overcome in your cloud migration
project, and how to address them:
 Interoperability—existing applications may require adjustment, or even complete
refactoring, to interact with a cloud environment. You need to consider whether to
 move an application’s dependencies, such as databases, to the cloud as-is, or transition
to equivalent cloud-based services.
 Availability—the migration process may require business systems to be temporarily
offline. Migrations can also result in unplanned downtime. Develop a cloud-
compatible disaster recovery plan, to avoid downtime that can impact business
operations and customers.
 Data security and integrity—cloud migrations can result in data loss or corruption,
and may also open the door to attackers. Identify security and compliance issues that
may arise during the migration process, and in your target cloud environment, and
adapt your security strategy to the cloud.
 Cloud expertise—traditional IT teams may not be familiar with cloud environments.
Knowledge of on-premises data centers and management of physical servers does not
translate directly to the public cloud. You can tackle these issues by training teams,
providing sandboxes for experimentation, and recruiting or consulting with cloud
experts.