Cloud management

Cloud management products are tools or platforms that help organizations manage, monitor, and
optimize cloud infrastructure, services, and resources across public, private, or hybrid cloud
environments.

1. Provisioning and Automation

They allow IT teams to automatically deploy virtual machines, storage, and network resources.
This saves time and reduces errors compared to manual setups.

Example: Using Azure Resource Manager templates or AWS CloudFormation to automate

deployment.

2. Monitoring and Performance Tracking

These tools continuously monitor cloud services, helping teams track usage, identify performance
bottlenecks, and receive alerts when something goes wrong.

Example: AWS CloudWatch can monitor CPU usage of an EC2 instance and send alerts if it exceeds
a threshold.

3. Cost Management and Optimization

One major benefit of cloud tools is their ability to track and control spending. They provide cost
breakdowns, forecasts, and even recommendations to reduce unnecessary expenses.

Example: Azure Cost Management shows how much each service costs and suggests ways to
reduce waste.

4. Security and Compliance

Security tools within cloud platforms help detect threats, enforce policies, and ensure compliance
with industry regulations like GDPR or HIPAA.

Example: Google Cloud’s Security Command Center helps find misconfigured services or
vulnerabilities.

5. Multi-Cloud Management

Many businesses use services from more than one cloud provider. Cloud management tools can
bring these under a single dashboard for unified control and visibility.

Example: VMware vRealize or ServiceNow Cloud Management allows you to manage AWS, Azure,
and GCP from one place.

Examples of Popular Cloud Management Products

Microsoft Azure

 Azure Portal: Main dashboard for managing all Azure services.

 Azure Monitor: Helps track the health and performance of cloud applications.

 Azure Policy: Enforces security and compliance across resources.

 Azure Cost Management: Tracks cloud usage and cost efficiency.

Amazon Web Services (AWS)

 AWS Management Console: A web interface for managing services.

 AWS CloudWatch: Logs and monitors AWS applications.

 AWS Config: Audits configurations and tracks changes.

 AWS Budgets: Helps set custom cloud spending limits and alerts.

Google Cloud Platform (GCP)

 Google Cloud Console: Interface to deploy and manage services.

 Cloud Operations Suite (formerly Stackdriver): Combines monitoring, logging, and

diagnostics.

 Cloud Deployment Manager: Automates resource provisioning via configuration files🔹

 Third-Party Tools

 Terraform (HashiCorp): Allows infrastructure as code (IaC) to automate deployments across

AWS, Azure, and GCP.

 CloudHealth (by VMware): Provides detailed insights into cloud usage, performance, and
cost.

 ServiceNow Cloud Management: Simplifies request approvals and workflow automation in

multi-cloud environments.

Why Are Cloud Management Products Important?

In today’s digital era, companies rely on cloud services to run critical operations. But without
proper management:

 Costs can spiral out of control.

 Security risks increase.

 Systems may underperform or go down unexpectedly.

Cloud management tools reduce complexity, enhance visibility, and boost efficiency, enabling
businesses to get the most value from their cloud investments.
Security in cloud computing is a major concern. Proxy and brokerage services should be employed to
restrict a client from accessing the shared data directly. Data in the cloud should be stored in
encrypted form.

Security Planning

Before deploying a particular resource to the cloud, one should need to analyze several aspects of
the resource, such as:

o A select resource needs to move to the cloud and analyze its sensitivity to risk.

o Consider cloud service models such as IaaS, PaaS,and These models require the customer to
be responsible for Security at different service levels.

o Consider the cloud type, such as public, private, community, or

o Understand the cloud service provider's system regarding data storage and its transfer into
and out of the cloud.

o The risk in cloud deployment mainly depends upon the service models and cloud types.

The Cloud Security Alliance (CSA) stack model defines the boundaries between each service model
and shows how different functional units relate. A particular service model defines the boundary
between the service provider's responsibilities and the customer. The following diagram shows
the CSA stack model:

IaaS is the most basic level of service, with PaaS and SaaS next two above levels of services.

o Moving upwards, each service inherits the capabilities and security concerns of the model
beneath.
o IaaS provides the infrastructure, PaaS provides the platform development environment, and
SaaS provides the operating environment.

o IaaS has the lowest integrated functionality and security level, while SaaS has the highest.

o This model describes the security boundaries at which cloud service providers'
responsibilities end and customers' responsibilities begin.

o Any protection mechanism below the security limit must be built into the system and
maintained by the customer.

o Elements of cloud security architecture

o The best way to approach cloud security architecture is to start with a
description of the goals. The architecture has to address three things:
an attack surface represented by external access interfaces, a
protected asset set that represents the information being protected,
and vectors designed to perform indirect attacks anywhere, including
in the cloud and attacks the system.
o The goal of the cloud security architecture is accomplished through a
series of functional elements. These elements are often considered
separately rather than part of a coordinated architectural plan. It
includes access security or access control, network security,
application security, contractual Security, and monitoring, sometimes
called service security. Finally, there is data protection, which are
measures implemented at the protected-asset level.
o A complete cloud security architecture addresses the goals by unifying
the functional elements.
o Cloud security architecture and shared responsibility
model
o The security and security architectures for the cloud are not single-
player processes. Most enterprises will keep a large portion of their IT
workflow within their data centers, local networks, and VPNs. The cloud
adds additional players, so the cloud security architecture should be
part of a broader shared responsibility model.
o A shared responsibility model is an architecture diagram and a contract
form. It exists formally between a cloud user and each cloud provider
and network service provider if they are contracted separately.
o Each will divide the components of a cloud application into layers, with
the top layer being the responsibility of the customer and the lower
layer being the responsibility of the cloud provider. Each separate
function or component of the application is mapped to the appropriate
layer depending on who provides it. The contract form then describes
how each party responds.
o