Managing organization’s IT infrastructure can be costly, both money and resource-wise. IT operations require application experts, IT resources and continuous commitment from the team which drives them away from focusing on core business growth and innovation. Organizations can partner with Managed IT Services Providers (MSPs) and transfer the onus on them, thereby, simplifying and streamlining processes and freeing up resources.
The pandemic has accelerated digital and cloud adoption that has resulted in substantial growth of hybrid cloud solutions. Managing multiple cloud environments has the same impact as managing the IT infrastructure, and hence has given rise to Cloud Managed Services Providers.
Understanding Cloud Managed Services Providers (CMSPs)
Cloud Managed Services Providers (CMSPs) help organizations to manage the allocation, deployment, and operation of applications across multiple cloud service infrastructures, including both on-premises cloud infrastructure and public cloud infrastructure.
The need for CMSPs and Cloud Management Platform
According to Worldwide Hybrid Cloud Computing Market Study, hybrid cloud environments are expected to grow at a CAGR of 34.3% from 2016-2022 to reach an aggregate of $241.13 billion by 2022. Hybrid cloud adoption has extended the portfolio of IT operations’ teams to create capabilities and tools to support the complexity of hybrid cloud deployments and management. The opportunity and demand for hybrid cloud is on the rise year-on-year which will surge the demand for CMSP players in the market.
Leveraging Cloud Managed Services to Focus on Core Business
Every CMSP has their own Cloud Management Platform to help the customer to manage multiple cloud environments. Cloud Management Platforms are capable of managing, allocating, monitoring, orchestrating, and governing resources, and workloads across multiple cloud setups for a customer. Cloud Management Platforms (CMP) estimate cloud usage based on customer’s usage patterns and create reports. This allows the customer to have a comprehensive view on the overall IT CAPEX so that they can improve control of cloud resources.
The common offerings that Cloud Management Platform provides vary from region to region and is also based on customer’s financial appetite. Some of the CMP offerings are as follows:
- Allocation, deployment, and automation of hybrid cloud apps and infrastructure based on customer needs
- Discovery, management, and monitoring of resources across cloud environments
- Migration and shifting of workloads between private, public and hybrid cloud systems
- Security management with role-based access control, user authentication, and authorization, and encryption management
Benefits of Cloud Management Platforms
CMP helps customers to accelerate and automate operations across single, multi, or hybrid cloud environments. Leveraging optimized and tailor-made solutions that deliver scalability, agility, and rapid deployment capabilities, organizations can capture the transformative value of cloud and realize new possibilities with the help of CMPs.
With CMP, organizations could reap benefits such as:
- Rapid cloud deployments configured and managed to their needs
- Next-gen security and compliance capabilities
- Reduced costs, with ‘pay-as-you-go’ models to enable scalability
- Enhanced performance and efficiency with freed-up resources focused on value-added activities
While choosing a CMSP and their respective cloud management platform, organizations can follow a 4-step approach:
- Identify capabilities and expertise of multiple CMSPs
- Set reasonable expectations from internal leaders
- Identify risks to existing environments
- Prepare your environments, applications, and teams for the transition
Conclusion
An experienced CMSP will ensure that customer’s cloud workloads are managed basis their priorities and their internal resources are used for further innovations — thus preparing the organization for growth. Millions of businesses have gone digital and have leapfrogged their competitors. CMSPs will set the stage for many more businesses to drive innovation, growth, and eventually become cloud-ready enterprises.
The above article is authored by Shrikant Navelkar, Director, Clover Infotech
