Virtualization has made conducting business easier than ever. Quickly adopted by businesses from the outset, cloud technologies made it possible to share vast quantities of information with clients, customers, and employees located throughout the world.
What started out as a simple idea grew as rapidly as the suburbs of major metropolitan areas.
Cloud Sprawl
Cloud sprawl has created a host of issues that administrators must contend with even as their companies seek to expand their existing cloud presence. Fortunately, it is easier to gain control over the cloud environment than it is desktops or virtual machines.
Of course, the sooner that administrators tackle the sprawling networks they are responsible for, the easier it will be to tie everything together and ensure that data is flowing in an efficient and secure manner.
Seizing Control of Sprawl
Administrators need to gain control over both the public and private environments within the cloud presence. While there will be multiple virtual instances and workloads operating, keeping an eye on these is essential to making sure that they're being controlled properly.
One way to do this is to ensure that the right management tools have been set up. Whether it is native or third-party, the right agnostic tools allow administrators to maintain a constant presence within the environment and to take care of potential problems as they arise.
Training Staff
A crucial element that threatens to be overlooked is the proper training and certification of staff. This is essential to ensure that administrators have the skills and knowledge required to maintain the clouds for which they are responsible.
Not all clouds are created the same, and it's imperative that administrators know the intricate details of the clouds with which they work.
Change Management Platform
Another crucial element towards reducing cloud sprawl is to have a change management platform in place. This change management platform should provide the capability to change the firewall, storage, and switch, and it should allow admins to make modifications to the end-point. By coupling these capabilities with tracking logs, administrators can discern whether storm clouds are looming on the horizon.
Data Management
Finally, it is important to focus on an organization's data management objectives before any cloud solution is secured. Doing so ensures that once deployed, the servers and systems are aligned to operate within the desired cloud model.
It also ensures that the desired structure is fluid and flexible and that it can be adapted to suit the organization's needs as those needs change. In the fast moving world of cloud computing, thorough planning is an invaluable step that is well worth taking the time to complete.
The Outlook
Ultimately, new tools will continue to become available that make the management of multiple cloud environments easier. Many of these are open source solutions that make connecting heterogeneous platforms simple.
The end result is that the tools are available to connect the technology; it's just a matter of making sure that a business's administrators know how, when, and where to implement them. That's the key to ensuring that their businesses are positioned to take advantage of the ever-increasing capabilities that are available within the cloud.