How to simplify multi-Cloud management

In recent years, Cloud has become popular with organisations due to its simplicity, accessibility and relatively low-cost. Using Cloud, you can avoid many of the difficulties and expenditures that come with operating your own infrastructure, and - because it's easily accessible from anywhere - Cloud can give your users much more flexibility than on-prem legacy infrastructure.

Of course, Cloud comes with its own challenges - and with multi-Cloud those challenges multiply. In 2019, most organisations are using a multi-Cloud strategy (using two or more Cloud services from different providers) to meet their particular requirements - and while this has many obvious benefits from the point of view of freedom and flexibility, it also leaves them with multiple Clouds to monitor and manage.

While Cloud is often opted for as a cost-effective solution, keeping track of a multi-Cloud estate can be confusing, time-consuming and expensive. With a multi-Cloud estate, you've got a lot to think about:

• The difficulty of knowing what's going on at any given time, with productivity to analyse, usage to look at, and spend to consider
• The need to check each Cloud individually, through separate Cloud portal logins
• The difficulty of connecting public and private Clouds
• Having to keep track of multiple contracts
• Dealing with - and paying – providers separately

To make multi-Cloud cost-effective, the key is minimising this complexity, but how can this be done? The answer is by utilising a Cloud Management Platform (CMP).

A CMP is a suite of software tools that helps you monitor and control your entire Cloud estate through a single screen - even if your Cloud estate consists of private and public Cloud services.

One advantage of this is that you can easily analyse the productivity and usage of each of your Clouds, enabling better-informed strategic decisions. This single-screen visibility also rids you of the nuisance of having to login to all of your different Clouds, as you can access visibility to them through a CMP portal which only requires one login.

Some CMPs come with an integrated analytics and optimisation engine, to provide you with real-time guidance on cross-Cloud spend, tariff optimisation, and service level management.

CMPs also get rid of the stress of having multiple contracts to manage - and multiple bills to pay. They can simplify the complex billing process of your Cloud estate by allowing you to also keep track of all your contracts in one place, while centralising all of your bills into one simple, easy-to-pay bill.

A CMP can also ensure you are getting the best value for money by allowing you to compare the different Cloud storage options available and to take advantage of the available cost-savings. The most sophisticated CMPs have built-in, cross-platform migration and replication, allowing for seamless movement between Cloud services; if you discover there's a cheaper storage option, therefore, you can easily take advantage.

In conclusion, a good CMP is the ideal solution to take control of your Clouds, enabling simple and effective management of the most complex of public/private Cloud estates.

For more information about Exponential-e's CMP (which boasts all of the features outlined above, and more), click here.