With a combined 40+ years of building and running large-scale cloud services, the CloudTruth team has talked with hundreds of technology professionals ranging from C-level executives in IT, security, and R&D to DevOps, SecOps, and QA leaders in every industry. From these conversations and our own personal experience, we’ve seen time and time again that the modern tech stack needs modern tools, and many companies’ existing infrastructure just doesn’t cut it. Without proper oversight, companies will face a number of pitfalls as they build new cloud services into their business and operations.
First, today’s multi-cloud environments are ballooning in complexity. Systems that used to be composed of one or two independent tools have exploded into a convoluted web of interconnected third-party services. Moreover, with each new system that’s added into your stack, you’re adding not just the incremental complexity associated with that specific tool, but also the exponential complexity associated with integrating that system into all of your existing infrastructure.
According to a recent report from Deloitte, almost 50% of medium to large-sized companies say that their cloud-based infrastructure is more complex than they expected. It’s easy to get caught off guard since these tools and services are meant to improve efficiency — but thanks to all that additional complexity, a lack of proper configuration and monitoring can make it difficult or even impossible to reap the benefits.
The situation is further exacerbated by the proliferation of customization and IaC (Infrastructure as Code) options in the cloud space. At a high level, IaC refers to any process in which you manage your data through machine-readable files, as opposed to using on-prem hardware or other configuration tools. Practically speaking, this refers to modern systems that are governed via configuration files, instead of requiring manual monitoring and updating. As IaC and customized cloud solutions become the norm, companies must work twice as hard to ensure that they are set up to make the most of these new capabilities. As with many new technologies, adopting an IaC approach can be extremely beneficial, but if it’s implemented without effective management tools in place, it can create all sorts of unexpected complexity.
Faced with all the challenges and complexities associated with adopting a customized, cloud-based tech stack, some companies have attempted to make do with bespoke or DIY tools. For example, some tech companies might elect to build their own configuration management system in order to meet their specific, immediate needs. While there is a time and a place for DIY, these efforts often come up short in practice, as many teams lack the resources to keep their tools up to date in a dynamic environment. These homemade solutions can be effective in the short term, but many companies whose primary business isn’t related to the cloud lack both the expertise and the time to effectively build their own configuration management systems from the ground up.
That’s where CloudTruth comes in. Instead of haphazardly developing your own management system, or even worse, failing to invest in configuration oversight at all, CloudTruth gives you the tools you need to stay on top of your entire stack at the click of a button. Our easy-to-use platform puts all the information you need at your fingertips, giving you a single, visible, and actionable record of configuration changes. Armed with this visibility, all relevant stakeholders are able to monitor key config files, detect anomalies, and troubleshoot and resolve problems — before any damage is done.
In a world of mounting complexity, the modern cloud customer must make visibility the number one priority. To stay competitive, you can’t afford to spend valuable time and resources managing all of your disparate tools and services, and you definitely can’t afford to grow your infrastructure without maintaining oversight into all of these essential systems. That’s why forward-thinking cloud customers are turning to CloudTruth: with our industry-leading platform, you can ensure that everyone on your team has easy access to the information they need when they need it.
To learn more about how CloudTruth can enable new levels of visibility into your cloud infrastructure, take a look at our recent white paper, Configuration Management for Today’s Cloud or sign up to join the exclusive CloudTruth Early Access Program.