Cloud Management: Tutorial and Course

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Cloud Management Tutorial and Cloud Management Course


Cloud Management: Overview


Cloud Management Tutorial and Course - Cloud Management tutorial and Cloud Management course, the ultimate guide to Cloud Management, including facts and information about Cloud Management. Cloud Management Tutorial and Course is one of the ultimate created by to help you learn and understand Cloud Management and the related cloud computing technologies, as well as facts and information about Cloud Management.



Cloud Management: Tutorial and Course - Cloud Management Tutorial and Cloud Management Course by , The Ultimate Guide to Cloud Management.



Cloud Management: Tutorial and Course


The cloud management system is one of the most important components to consider when planning, deploying, and operating (or consuming) a cloud service. In a public cloud environment, the customer might only utilize a fraction of the overall cloud management platform - usually just the ordering and self-service portal hosted by the public cloud. In an enterprise private cloud, the management system makes it possible for organizations to provision, track billing and utilization, and manage the entire cloud infrastructure. Lessons learned from the first generation of cloud providers and private cloud deployment has clearly shown an under-appreciation of the importance of the cloud management platform. The cloud management platform is the true core for automation, orchestration, workflow, resource tracking, billing, and operations.



One of the most important components of cloud computing is a robust cloud management system. Many organizations have learned the hard way that building or buying a cloud management platform must be done early and with careful evaluation and planning. Delaying the automation and orchestration of cloud ordering, billing, provisioning, and operational tools has proven to be extremely difficult to add later - the cloud management platform is actually one of the first things that you need to determine because it provides the foundation and sometimes the architecture of the cloud environment. In this this "Cloud Management: Tutorial and Course", we provide more experience-based education, example software architectures, evaluation criteria, and best practices in selecting or building your own cloud management platform.



In an enterprise private cloud deployment, cloud management tools are the most underestimated or overlooked component. Using just a hypervisor platform for server virtualization is not the same as a full cloud management system that provides multitenant online ordering, approval workflows, customized automated provisioning, resource utilization and financial tracking, self-service application administration, and reporting.



Throughout this "Cloud Management: Tutorial and Course", we have stressed the importance of cloud characteristics. To achieve on-demand ordering, automated provisioning, and pay-as-you-use billing, a cloud management system is an absolute necessity. Anyone can build a server farm, install some virtualization software, and then declare he has a cloud; however, without a system to manage it there is no multitenant customer interface, no automated provisioning, and no metering of resources for billing. And you can forget about saving money on personnel: you'll have to manually configure networks, servers, virtual machine templates, applications—everything. This would drive your costs too high to be competitive in the industry (public cloud) or control your operational costs in a private cloud.



Cloud Management: Cloud Management System Architecture

Cloud management systems vary greatly in their features, ease of use, flexibility, and cost. A cloud provider (or private cloud operator) can develop its own cloud management system or purchase an existing system from cloud software management vendors.



A well-designed, modular cloud management system provides a cloud portal, orchestration, workflow, automated provisioning, and integrated billing/resource metering capabilities.



The above Figure shows a vendor-agnostic example of the primary functions of a cloud management system. These functions are presented in three functional layers. Each layer integrates with the layer directly above and below it. For the purposes of illustration, the top layer represents the client-facing web portal on which consumers can place orders, manage, and track their cloud service subscriptions. The middle layer represents the automation, orchestration, workflow, and resource management functions. The bottom layer is the network management layer. This is where systems monitoring, security, and capacity management functions monitor the cloud infrastructure and integrate with existing datacenter operational management tools.



It is very important to note one function that is not included in the cloud management system: the hypervisor. There can be several of these including those hosted at other cloud providers.



The following Figure depicts a detailed functional architecture of an ideal cloud management system. There are dozens of ways to show a detailed functional architecture and they will vary depending on cloud management software vendor - none are right or wrong, but pay attention to the individual elements shown in this figure that represent functionality any cloud management system should have.



the function architecture presented in the following Figure does not include the hypervisors or actual cloud service provider(s) - this is just the command and control functions for all the cloud ecosystem.



Cloud Management: Tutorial and Course - Cloud Management Tutorial and Cloud Management Course by , The Ultimate Guide to Cloud Management.



In this example, the orchestration levels are both above and below the automation system. This is an attempt to show that orchestration activities occur both pre- and post-initial provisioning. This could also be represented as a circle surrounding the boxes in the middle of the architecture diagram. The orchestration system makes the connections, integration, and data interchange between other layers of the architecture, which allows software from various companies to be integrated when necessary. Workflow and business process logic is normally part of the orchestration layer. There can be multiple instances of the provisioning systems shown in those same middle boxes. As new cloud providers or technologies are added, these additional provisioning systems would integrate with the orchestration system, facilitating modular additional functionality to your cloud without changing the other layers that have been integrated and are in production operations for your business.



The network management layer at the bottom represents the operations, security, asset, configuration, and software licensing functions that the cloud provider uses to manage the entire infrastructure, including all legacy IT systems, private cloud, and any hybrid integration to third-party cloud services.



Cloud Management: Best Practices

Based on lessons learned and experience from across the cloud industry, you should consider the following best practices for your organization's planning.



All cloud providers and operators of a private cloud utilize a cloud management system that provides a customer ordering portal, subscription management, automation provisioning, billing and resource utilization tracking, and management of the cloud. Here's some recommendations for you:





Cloud Management: Further Reading