Cloud management

Cloud management is the management of cloud computing products and services.

Public clouds are managed by public cloud service providers, which include the public cloud environment’s servers, storage, networking and data center operations. Users of public cloud services can generally select from three basic categories:

Managing a private cloud requires software tools to help create a virtualized pool of compute resources, provide a self-service portal for end users and handle security, resource allocation, tracking and billing. Management tools for private clouds tend to be service driven, as opposed to resource driven, because cloud environments are typically highly virtualized and organized in terms of portable workloads.

In hybrid cloud environments, compute, network and storage resources must be managed across multiple domains, so a good management strategy should start by defining what needs to be managed, and where and how to do it. Policies to help govern these domains should include configuration and installation of images, access control, and budgeting and reporting. Access control often includes the use of Single sign-on (SSO), in which a user logs in once and gains access to all systems without being prompted to log in again at each of them.

A cloud management system combines software and technologies in a design for managing cloud environments. Software developers have responded to the management challenges of cloud computing with cloud management systems.

At a minimum, a cloud-management system should have the ability to:

For composite applications, cloud management systems also encompass frameworks for workflow-mapping and -management.

Enterprises with large-scale cloud implementations may require more robust cloud management tools which include specific characteristics, such as the ability to manage multiple platforms from a single point of reference, or intelligent analytics to automate processes like application lifecycle management. High-end cloud management tools should also have the ability to handle system failures automatically with capabilities such as self-monitoring, an explicit notification mechanism, and include failover and self-healing capabilities. Cisco recently launched its InterCloud solution to provide flexibility to dynamically manage workloads across public and private cloud environments.

The concept of a Cloud Management Platform (CMP) has emerged.

Legacy management infrastructures, which are based on the concept of dedicated system relationships and architecture constructs, are not well suited to cloud environments where instances are continually launched and decommissioned. Instead, the dynamic nature of cloud computing requires monitoring and management tools that are adaptable, extensible and customizable.

...
Wikipedia