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Spending on cloud services is expected to top $678.8 billion by 2024, up from $312 billion just three years prior. As businesses scramble to take advantage of the cloud's flexibility, security, and cost savings, a new priority has emerged: cloud management mastery.

Cloud management is the practice of controlling an organization's cloud computing resources and services. However, true mastery goes far beyond spinning up virtual machines. It's about ensuring apps perform on disparate cloud platforms and maintain data portability and business continuity. It's about demonstrating compliance and governing access. Most importantly, it's about maximizing the transformative potential that the cloud unlocks.

Cloud management is often necessary as companies increasingly rely on the cloud, because manually handling all the complexity can become impossible. The different environments, services, pricing models, and more may quickly spiral out of control. Robust cloud management allows organizations to centrally govern their entire cloud footprint for efficiency, security, cost optimization, and more.

However, that's often more easily said than done. The core challenge is that major cloud platforms like AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud aren't all cut from the same cloth. Each has proprietary services, pricing models, and APIs that must be tamed. Solutions that work brilliantly on one may fizzle on another. Teams find themselves having to become fluent multi-cloud systems or risk getting steamrolled.

That's where cloud management platforms (CMPs) come in. Adept at handling all cloud management issues, these platforms are polyglot interpreters of the cloud universe. They promise to provide a centralized hub for deploying resources, monitoring costs, enforcing policies, and managing access across any combination of public and private clouds. CMPs strive to help organize, govern, automate, and measure an enterprise's total cloud estates.

There are open-source options like Kubernetes cluster managers and cloud-native tooling from the Big 3 providers themselves. Cloud security platforms also play a crucial role.

While cloud management platforms help organize and optimize cloud operations, cloud security platforms aim to protect those cloud environments from threats. Vendors like Wiz, Lacework, and Palo Alto Networks provide comprehensive cloud security solutions covering areas like vulnerability management, compliance monitoring, network security, and incident response. As cloud footprints rapidly expand, these specialized security platforms are becoming essential in companies' cloud strategies alongside CMPs.

Choosing the right solution requires breaking through the market noise. The most capable CMPs and security providers facilitate self-service, automate tedious processes, and provide granular cost insights. They serve as command centers for disaster recovery, resource optimization, and centralized identity management.

Savvy organizations realize their cloud journey is a multi-year marathon, not a sprint. Stopping to catch their breath and get their cloud management strategies right is a worthy investment. Those who master this discipline will stay ahead in the never-ending arms race toward operational excellence.

See the original post:
Cloud Management In The Age Of Rapid Cloud Adoption - International Business Times