Cloud Systems Are Evolving. Here’s What You Need to Do to Keep Up.

While many of us think of cloud computing as a modern, cutting-edge technology, it in fact has its roots in systems built back in the 1950s. In the early years of computers, processing power was extremely expensive. Most people couldn’t afford their own machines, and so companies would purchase one or two of these room-sized computers, and have individual employees access the shared computing power remotely for one or two hours at a time. Today’s computers and cloud systems are orders of magnitude more powerful, but the fundamental benefits of cloud-based infrastructure remain the same.

Specifically, the draw of the cloud has always been the potential for significant increases in efficiency. Instead of investing in building out local systems — be they databases, applications, or other tools tangential to primary business operations — companies and individuals can essentially rent access to these resources on demand.This means that cloud service providers can focus their effort on optimizing their offerings, and cloud customers can focus on their primary businesses.

Of course, this increase in efficiency comes at a cost: systems which used to be just one or two simple, siloed tools have now ballooned into complex, interconnected operations. This has created a few different challenges for the modern cloud customer.

First, individual cloud tools have become more complex, with numerous customizable configurations and setup options. While many of these sorts of offerings used to be modular, plug-and-play solutions, today’s providers have shifted to a more custom approach. To get the full value of these systems, the customer needs to invest in determining the optimal configurations for their specific requirements, which can take a significant amount of time and resources. These customizations offer great value to the customer, but you can’t access that value without some upfront investment, and many companies simply don’t have the expertise and resources to spare.

In addition to the rising complexity of individual cloud systems, the number of available tools and services has also skyrocketed. Recent studies have shown that 93% of enterprises are pursuing a multi-cloud strategy, creating new levels of complexity throughout the business. With many different systems to support all sorts of different applications, cloud customers need to consider the network effects of complexity resulting from these integrated cloud tools. When any one system has the potential to interact with any other, the task of appropriately configuring everything (without breaking existing systems) becomes exponentially more challenging.

Nevertheless, despite these challenges, the cloud is inescapable. To stay competitive in the modern marketplace, businesses must invest in these tools — or risk becoming obsolete. But in order to reap the benefits and avoid drowning in all this new system complexity, modern businesses need management tools to help them stay on top of all these interlocking systems and interdependent configurations. That’s where CloudTruth comes in.

CloudTruth offers the next step in the evolution of cloud. Today’s cloud-based tech stack has become so complex that it is essentially impossible to manage without third-party support. CloudTruth offers an easy-to-use solution to help IT, security, and ops teams maintain visibility into their integrated cloud systems. This high-level oversight makes it possible to keep track of interlocking configurations and update settings without needing to access specific underlying tools, which are often challenging for non-experts to work with.

The concept of cloud has been around for decades — and it’s not going anywhere. While it can be tempting to try to invest in a single, static solution, the reality is that the industry continues to grow and change, and so successful companies have to grow and change along with it. But you don’t have to go it alone. As cloud-based systems become increasingly interconnected and complex, the modern cloud customer must look to the latest advances in cloud management technology to maximize the benefits of these tools and services.

To learn more about how CloudTruth can bring new levels of visibility and control to your cloud systems, take a look at our white paper (Configuration Management for Today’s Cloud), or visit our website at www.cloudtruth.com.