Hybrid cloud management is still more of an
art than a science, considering that we’ve not
been at it for very long.
agement, resource management, cloud management
platforms, performance management, DevOps man-
agement, security management, network manage-
ment, native platform management, etc. things into that category. For our purposes, we can
call a “hybrid cloud” any collection of systems where
you have at least one private cloud and one public
cloud working together to support systems for IT.
There can be as many as a dozen or so tools that you’ll
need if you’re going to manage a hybrid cloud effec-
tively. Picking tools is a matter of understanding what
we’ve defined above as the requirements patterns,
and then figuring out the solutions patterns that will
match. For instance, if your requirement is that you
encrypt all data at-rest or in-flight, and you need to
manage both the encryption and the performance,
then you would look for a tool or tools that provide
both types of solutions. However, managers also need to understand the
emerging notion of the “pragmatic hybrid cloud.”
This is a traditional set of systems, typically running
in a data center, paired with at least one public cloud.
This configuration is growing in popularity, as many
enterprises continue the migration to cloud, but they
do so without leveraging a private cloud. Instead,
they pair their traditional systems with public cloud-
based systems.
It’s then a matter of working through the require-
ments, defining the common patterns, and then
matching up the tools with the pattern. Sometimes
you won’t find all of the tools that you need for all of the
patterns. In those cases, you may consider custom
tools. Or, perhaps a hybrid cloud is not in the cards
after all, if management of those workloads on those
platforms can’t be done using automation through
management tools. In other words, in some cases, it’s
OK to leave a workload off a hybrid cloud if they can’t
be managed properly or at a reasonable cost.
Hybrid Cloud Growth and Adoption
Patterns
Markets and Markets reports, “The hybrid cloud
market is estimated to grow from USD $33.28 Billion
in 2016 to USD $91.74 Billion by 2021, at a Compound
Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 22.5% during the fore-
cast period.”
Of course, the issue with hybrid cloud is that the ana-
lysts and technology providers are tossing many
The emerging patterns are ones of increasing com-
plexity. The right way to manage these combinations
is not straightforward, because management needs
to deal with the increasing complexity as well. This
presents a new problem area, because one of the core
management reasons for hybrid cloud adoption is to
hide complexity behind an abstraction layer. In fact,
instead of avoiding the complexities associated with
hybrid cloud, managers need to better understand
the native features and capabilities of the public or
private clouds that make up the hybrid cloud.
Cloud Management: Still More
Art Than Science
Hybrid cloud management is still more of an art than
a science, considering that we’ve not been at it for
very long. The complexity will likely increase over
time, and that will mean that our approaches to
hybrid cloud management need to evolve as well.
For now, it’s a good time to understand just what
you’re dealing with in terms of technology. If you’re
charged with management of these platforms, you
have your work cut out.
SPRING 2017 | THE DOPPLER | 13