What is Cloud Infrastructure Management?

It was estimated that in 2023, 94% of organizations around the world used a form of cloud computing services and solutions. Cloud computing has been around for quite some time now, with new innovations coming out consistently. Despite the fast pace at which cloud computing is moving, an overlooked aspect of cloud computing is cloud infrastructure management.

Cloud infrastructure consists of the hardware and software components that make up a cloud. At its purest form, a typical cloud infrastructure would be composed of the following:

• Servers: The physical hardware that makes the foundation for all cloud infrastructure, responsible for data processing, storing, and more
• Software: Virtual cloud resources typically accessible through UI, with usage becoming more efficient through things like VMs and virtual networks
• Networking: Tech, such as load balancers, involved in facilitating communication between different cloud sources across different servers
• Storage: Storage hosted on physical infrastructure, offering different means of storing like block storage and object storage

Under this umbrella of four elements, handling cloud infrastructure becomes more effortless. Where cloud infrastructure management becomes integral is when dealing with underlying infrastructure becomes too complex even for developers. 

Cloud infrastructure management sees teams managing and maintaining the components of cloud computing infrastructure through various tools and processes. Not only does this significantly impact internal teams that use cloud resources, but also external teams like business partners and customers that might access those same resources through a custom portal. A prime example of cloud infrastructure management is UI that acts as a control panel for configuring a certain cloud resource.

With so many different cloud tools existing and so much responsibility placed upon cloud infrastructure, organizations that practice cloud infrastructure management are able to tailor their experience to best service their solutions. Fitting with most companies, cloud infrastructure management is a must for organizations looking to create the best cloud experience possible.

Must-Haves in Cloud Infrastructure Providers

The responsibilities of a cloud infrastructure revolve around delivering the capabilities of hardware and software components that are necessary to your cloud computing operations and apps over the internet. Managing this vital infrastructure can manifest itself in a variety of different forms, shifting its utility based on the current needs of your organization. Your app might require automation for maximum efficiency, other apps might prefer human interaction at every step of the development process- emphasizing why tailored cloud infrastructure management is so important.

With cloud infrastructure operations, the underlying cloud infrastructure provider will be the one providing the tools necessary to successfully manage your infrastructure. Here are some of the aspects you should consider when choosing your provider: 

Cloud Infrastructure Security

While some apps might not require automation, cloud infrastructure security is a must.

Cloud security can vary based on your needs, but for the most part these security initiatives include identity and access management, disaster recovery, data backups, security certifications, and so on.

Server Admin Tools

For system management achievable with command line interface (CLI) and terminal access, server admin tools can be great in managing your underlying infrastructure

Provisioning

Within a capable cloud infrastructure, you should be able to provision new infrastructure and environments on demand. Bypassing leagues of approval for quick environment spinning can speed up your deployments and consequently your time to market while encouraging streamlined testing for newer innovations.

To learn how we handle infrastructure provisioning, visit our product page. 

Visibility 

A variety of cloud infrastructure management tools have built-in visibility and analytics features, allowing you to get an in-depth look into your deployments and infrastructure. Monitoring features are typically added for better health checks as well.

Data visualization is also a vital tool for analytics, generating digestible insights on how your application interacts with the infrastructure. Data-driven decisions about your analytics are achievable through visualization.

On top of these features, a popular topic in the cloud infrastructure management discourse is cost optimization. Including critical features such as automation, resource allocations through load balancers, and so on, correctly managing your cloud infrastructure can generate strong ROI and have less of an impact on your IT spend. A properly managed cloud infrastructure can also positively impact the scalability and flexibility of your cloud applications.

Benefits of Cloud Infrastructure Management

A properly managed cloud infrastructure offers tons of benefits to your application and business. From bolstering your cloud security to lowering your costs, many companies have found that transitioning to a cloud infrastructure has drastically changed the way they develop and interact with the cloud.

Here are some of the standout benefits of properly managing your cloud infrastructure:

Efficient Scalability and Resource Consumption

Perhaps one of the most common benefits of integrating with cloud computing is an increase to how scalable your solutions are. And this sentiment still rings true with regards to your infrastructure.

Proper cloud infrastructure management makes scalability achievable through built in networking support within cloud infrastructure itself. Load balancers, monitoring tools, and virtual networks are just some of the tools within a successful cloud infrastructure that encourage scalability and lead to more efficient resource allocation and consumption and lower costs.

Increased Flexibility and Mobility

Cloud infrastructures typically come in four forms: public clouds, private clouds, hybrid clouds, and multi clouds. These different cloud environments offer different approaches to cloud computing; whether you want the privacy of a public cloud or the cost efficiencies of a public cloud, there is a cloud for everyone. 

With a majority of these cloud loadouts, proper management and upkeep encourages stronger flexibility and mobility, allowing you to bring your solutions across different environments and access data and apps anywhere. For example, hybrid cloud environments enable you to host your applications both in the cloud and on-premise, creating a new approach towards managing cloud computing services.

Depending on your cloud needs, having a multi cloud infrastructure can also help you avoid vendor lock-in costs, allowing you to create a custom cloud environment that works for you without breaking the bank.

Stronger Security and Reliability 

In the aforementioned section, we emphasized the importance for cloud providers to have strong security in their cloud management platform. Regardless of how properly managed your cloud infrastructure is, the security capabilities provided by the underlying cloud provider should be top-notch, often offering things like role-based access control, disaster recovery, automated data backups, and so on.

In this same vein, cloud security encourages higher uptime and reliability for the applications and services built on top of cloud infrastructure. Spend less time worrying about possible security leveraging and more time operating your cloud computing apps.

Cost Effectiveness

Perhaps the biggest point, cloud infrastructure is extremely cost effective for a variety of reasons. 

With optimized resource allocation, you only pay for what you use, and in most cases, what you use is exactly what your applications and services need to run optimally. Any computing resources needed by your cloud system that aren’t used will be saved and allocated once necessary.

Cost saving also manifests itself in the form of bypassing physical hardware costs. Using cloud infrastructure or Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) means that your infrastructure is hosted within the walls of the overarching cloud provider. No longer do you have to worry about the costs of hosting in data centers or having the hardware to support your innovations- leave that to the cloud providers.

Depending on your cloud infrastructure, you might also be able to unlock further savings by using different cloud services. A multi cloud or cloud agnostic approach encourages using multiple cloud services and choosing the ones that offer the most appropriate features for your solutions. This approach allows you to become vendor independent, letting you avoid cost hikes if cloud providers choose to do so, while enabling you to further drive costs down by only using what you need. Although this is great for tech discovery, extra features might not necessarily be needed, but will still incur extra costs if your solution is hosted within a certain cloud provider.

Cloud Infrastructure Management with Lyrid

The future of cloud is looking increasingly more multi and hybrid cloud. Oracle estimates that 98% of organizations using public cloud have shifted towards using multi cloud infrastructures. While a multi cloud approach can save your organization’s resources, the fact of the matter is that virtualized resources will always be consumed and maintaining allocation can become complicated.

To best manage these flows of resources, companies have placed stronger emphasis on the management of their cloud infrastructure and resources. Distributing resources across multiple pools and environments instead of a single pool is intense, even for development teams. Properly maintaining the infrastructure that automates these processes streamlines distribution, while reclaiming development time for your backend and infrastructure teams.

Access the power of a managed cloud infrastructure through the Lyrid platform! With Lyrid, you’re able to set up an infrastructure instantly, with the ability to provision environments right out of the box. You can manage all of your apps, systems, and deployments through a single interface, accessing all of the monitoring and analytics tools you need to best service your solutions within a single pane of glass.

To learn more about the Lyrid platform, book a demo with one of our product specialists!