CloudBolt 9.4.1 is now generally available!

This release has been focused on couple of key asks from our customers and prospective customers. The goal is to provide a level of deeper self-service IT using VMware NSX-T and Microsoft Azure Shared Image Gallery (SIG), thus, resulting in your users not spending days or even hours on integrations and instead focus on more strategic outcomes.

Simplify Networking with VMware NSX-T support

NSX-T brings the magic of virtualization to the networking resources in your data center environment. It allows users to be more agile and abstract networking resources for ease of virtualized provisioning.

Our NSX-T integration enables self-service IT for the entire application stack for vCenter based environments: network, servers, software. This creates flexibility without users being experts in network, cloud, or application administration. Multi-tier blueprints from CloudBolt give users the power to provision, manage day-two activities, or shut down resources easily. The snapshots below show our NSX-T blueprint that can help you deliver resources faster.

This NSX-T integration helps you automate deployment of your entire vCenter-based application stack with complete security and control. It makes you more proactive and avoid any costly mistakes while improving productivity.

Leverage Microsoft Azure Shared Image Gallery with Confidence

Microsoft Shared Image Galleries help customers manage, share, and distribute VM images within and across multiple Azure regions​. If you are an Azure customer, you will realize this is a powerful way to distribute the same VM images across various regions.

In our 9.3 version, we helped customers to import images from Shared Image Gallery. Plus, while ordering a server, customers could add accelerated networking and enterprise-level environments using a blueprint. Now in 9.4.1, we are helping users automatically import the image from all the regions and then replicate it across regions with just a few clicks.

This update helps our customers leverage the complete functionality of Shared Image Gallery. It helps you get more efficient in managing Azure environments while being error free. This avoids a lot of rework while keeping up with the business demands. In summary, CloudBolt 9.4.1 is a big step in helping you deliver self-service IT in your enterprise. Provisioning virtualized networking with NSX-T and more automation in Azure based environments makes your IT more flexible in these challenging Covid-19 times. Don’t let it slow you down.

Schedule a quick demo with our product experts to see all this in action.

Is your organization dipping its toes into the cloud for the first time, or is it fully immersed? Whatever the case, you’ve probably encountered the words “cloud governance.” But what do they mean, and why should they even matter? Today we’re going to discuss why a cloud governance solution is not a “good-to-have” but a “must-have” feature.

Cloud governance refers to the implementation and development of controls meant to manage compliance, security, budget, and access in the cloud. Sound familiar? At first glance, cloud governance may sound a lot like IT governance, just cloud-based. It’s not, however.

You see, traditional IT governance has a lot of bottlenecks for users. Sometimes, a simple request has to pass through several levels of approvals by admins and managers. This isn’t the case with the cloud. The cloud is decentralized, and it’s all about speed, agility, and cost savings.

Automation is the key difference between IT governance and cloud governance. In the cloud, users have streamlined access to resources with approval workflows built in. And there are established rules for verifying, establishing, and enforcing policy and budget compliance.

Sounds complicated? It isn’t. Here are some reasons why you need cloud governance today.

Reasons for Implementing a Cloud Governance Solution

Helps Curb Shadow IT

Cloud spend and risk increase a great deal when you don’t know what systems are in use and where your data resides. Often, employees turn to shadow IT when they feel stymied whenever they try to access resources to do their jobs. However, 33% of security attacks will be on shadow IT resources by 2020.

With cloud governance, you set up the required framework for team members to access cloud resources within budgetary and compliance constraints. This helps to reduce employee frustration and the possibility of team members using their cloud accounts to do their jobs. Organizations can also setup approval workflows in place to put a curb on it.

Cloud Resource Management Becomes Easier

Cloud providers, such as Amazon Web Services (AWS), are at the forefront of the drive to encourage customers to move their multiple tenant workloads. These workloads often reside in a single cloud account and should have their own distinct account. The use of multiple accounts to manage distinct workloads is best-practiced if you want to:

Putting in place a robust cloud governance strategy can help your organization to manage the volume of accounts it needs. It will also give IT visibility into key cloud trends and activities.

Reduction of Risk

There are risks associated with operating in the cloud. They include noncompliance with regulations and policies, exposed data, and cost overruns. When you put a solution for cloud governance in place, your organization can:

Reduction of Labor

Having your team use spreadsheets and other manual processes to keep track of costs, compliance, and accounts can be labor-intensive. With a cloud governance solution, you can set guardrails to control budget, access, and policy for each project. Also, you get enforcement actions, so you don’t have to do unnecessary follow-up actions after receiving an alert.

Experience the leading hybrid cloud management and orchestration solution. Request a CloudBolt demo today.

Cloud monitoring tools have helped make the multi-cloud a more appealing prospect for many organizations. Consequently, organizations are leveraging public cloud providers, such as Google Cloud Platform and Amazon Web Services. While many IT admins view security as the reason to keep the operations in-house, performance monitoring is another compelling reason.

Often, organizations struggle to gain visibility into their cloud operations because of variety of reporting tools they need to learn from scratch. But cloud performance monitoring tools can help organizations to overcome the challenges of the public cloud.

Cloud monitoring involves a complex web of interactions that many times are difficult to gauge. In most data centers, many products, such as network routers, operating systems, storage systems, and servers, collect performance information. This information tells IT staff how elements, such as the servers, are functioning. But the goal is to determine how well end-to-end connections function.

Understanding Public Cloud Performance Monitoring Challenges

So why are these monitoring tools for the cloud even necessary? Let’s go over some of the challenges many organizations face in the cloud.

Multiple Cloud Providers

Many businesses choose the multi-cloud approach because of its flexibility and scalability. But here’s the thing — the biggest draw toward a move to the cloud is also one of its most significant shortcomings. Keeping tabs on multiple cloud providers is often challenging. So, the multi-cloud has essentially introduced new challenges for IT admins. And with increasing complexity, monitoring events in diverse cloud environments becomes an almost impossible task.

Hybrid Infrastructure

Gartner had predicted that cloud spend would match the spend on hosting and infrastructure by the end of 2020. And it makes sense. After all, enterprises want the flexibility and agility afforded by the cloud without the trouble and expense of setting up on-premises data centers. Hybrid infrastructure is a combination of private clouds, public clouds, and on-premises data centers.

In hybrid infrastructure, a business deploys systems and applications in any one environment depending on its needs. Most organizations using the hybrid cloud want to monitor all these deployments from the same platform. This is one of the challenges of modern cloud monitoring tools.

Skills Gap

Today, more than 40 percent of IT enterprises consider themselves multi-cloud users. This is according to a survey by Kentik. Each enterprise has two or more cloud service providers and at least one traditional on-premises deployment.

Interestingly, the closing of the skills gap has not met the growth in cloud adoption. As firms hunt for more specialized skills in cloud monitoring for the hybrid and multi-cloud, it’s becoming harder to find the right skills.

These are some of the primary reasons why you need cloud monitoring tools. However, what kind of benefits can they provide? Let’s take a look.

The Benefits of Cloud Monitoring Tools

There are innumerable benefits monitoring tools provide to businesses. Some of them include:

Conclusion

The importance of monitoring your apps and servers in the cloud is clear. But you cannot let monitoring take precedence over your business operations. This is why you need a good cloud monitoring tool that does all the heavy lifting.

Experience the leading hybrid cloud management and orchestration solution. Request a CloudBolt demo today.

It’s time to invest in a cloud management suite!

Often, moving to a multi-cloud deployment is a step in the right direction. After all, multi-cloud deployments come with the same benefits as a single cloud. The difference is they don’t have some of the risks, such as service interruptions and vendor lock-in. It’s a smart investment for most mid-market and enterprise-level organizations.

Additionally, with multi-cloud you can pick and choose capabilities of one cloud over the other which can provide a necessary differentiator.

But here’s the thing — it’s not all a bed of roses. You see, it’s possible to lose control of your cloud deployments if you don’t have the right tools in place. The complexity of the multi-cloud can bring about a lack of visibility as your operations grow. As a result, monitoring can become a nightmare. Hence, the benefits accrued from the move to the multi-cloud may become elusive. This is where a cloud management suite, also referred to as a cloud management platform (CMP), comes in.

The tipping point varies from one organization to another. And here’s why: it depends on the complexity, size, and governance and security requirements of the deployment. So, how do you know when it’s time to invest in a third-party cloud management platform? We’ve hashed out what you need to look for below.

You Might Need A Third-Party Cloud Management Suite If: 

Developers Are Disgruntled

Are your team’s developers frustrated with resource management and provisioning? That’s your sign. The first people to feel the impact of an overly complex cloud environment are developers. Why? The time it takes to allocate resources to apps frustrates them.

Now you’re wondering, “How can I tell when developers are frustrated?”

The answer is simple: Pay attention to the number of e-mails you get from your developers requesting access to resources, such as computing and storage. Are there too many? Do you still use the native cloud management tools from your cloud provider? Then you might have a problem. Typically, you’ll have to line them up and assign them to staff members who specialize in the target cloud platform. Ultimately, this can turn into a massive bottleneck in the overall productivity of your organization.

With a third-party CMP in place, it’s possible to avoid this situation. You see, you can empower developers by giving them the right to access and allocate resources directly without a need to learn native cloud provisioning and management tools. As a result, you’ll save tons of time because developers no longer have to seek and wait for approvals.

There’s an Increase in Performance Complaints

Have you received several performance-related complaints from cloud end-users? Consider implementing a cloud management suite. Usually, these complaints are because applications aren’t receiving the right amount of cloud resources. So, they can’t execute tasks effectively.

Additionally, a cloud management platform can help you understand the bottlenecks and if your users are leveraging the right resources for the right workloads. This can help you balance your cost vs. performance benefit as well.

There’s Increased Risk

If you’re struggling to manage all your resources in a multi-cloud architecture, you risk falling victim to a security breach. Accountability is usually the first to go out the window when you lose control of your cloud assets. After all, you can’t tell who is responsible for what resource and what he or she is doing with it.

A third-party cloud management platform can help you regain control. You can track users and the resources they’re provisioning at any one time. You’ll also be able to see what steps the user has taken to secure these resources. Also, you can schedule periodic health checks to help identify resources that are more risk-prone.

Too Many Mistakes are Being Made

Is your IT team making too many rookie mistakes after deploying your IT system to the multi-cloud? You might want to look into using a CMP. The abstraction and automation it brings, frees IT from dealing with manual, tedious tasks. Consequently, there’ll be fewer mistakes and you can set the right parameters in place to avoid repeating the same mistakes.

You’re Experiencing Cost Allocation Problems

As your multi-cloud deployment grows, it’ll be harder to identify who’s responsible for your monthly cloud bill’s costs. This can account to thousands or tens of thousands of dollars being wasted without the right reports in place. A cloud management suite gives you cost visibility across all cloud providers. This way, you can track who uses what services and how much it’s costing the organization. You can also set relevant cost metrics to pin-point resources that need your immediate attention. Plus, you can reel in the underutilized resources using these metrics and reports.

CloudBolt platform has helped hundreds of customers streamline their cloud environments. One customer has said, “CloudBolt is highly customizable and the reports look amazing which are very easy to understand. It is very fast and efficient and very easy to use. We have saved a ton of time after using this platform a huge thumb up.”

Schedule a quick demo of the CloudBolt platform and see how it can help you manage your cloud environment more efficiently.

Container orchestration tools can help users manage containerized apps and resources they need during development, testing, and deployment. These tools orchestrate the complete app life cycle based on given specifications. There is a variety of container orchestration tools available to your organization. Today, we’ll look at some of the best orchestration tools for 2020.

Kubernetes (K8s)

Google developed Kubernetes in 2014 as an open-source container orchestration system. Since then, Cloud Native Computing Foundation has adopted it as a flagship. Kubernetes is a portable, cluster-managed tool backed by Google. It allows containerized applications to run multiple clusters for better organization and accessibility. It has become the leading de-facto standard of container orchestrator. It has been widely adopted by all managed container solutions as it is easy to use, works across infrastructures, and empowers developers more.

Reasons for Choosing Kubernetes

Download The Only Kubernetes Starter Guide You’ll Ever Need today.

Google Kubernetes Engine

This cloud orchestration tool comes with the Google Cloud Platform. It has all the functionality of Kubernetes, including scaling, deployment, and management of containerized apps. However, it’s faster and more efficient.

Reasons for Choosing Google Kubernetes Engine

Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Service (EKS)

This Kubernetes service manages, secures, and scales containerized applications in the Amazon Web Services (AWS). It eliminates the need for the Kubernetes control panel. EKS clusters run in AWS Fargate across multiple locations. If you have Kubernetes-based applications, you can move them to Amazon EKS without having to change any code. EKS works seamlessly with many Kubernetes tools.

Reasons for Choosing Amazon EKS

Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS)

Azure Kubernetes Service is an open-source container orchestration tool that brings Kubernetes to Microsoft Azure. You can use it to deploy, manage, and scale Docker containers and other container-based apps in a cluster environment.

AKS offers provisioning, scaling, and upgrades of cloud resources as needed without downtime in the cluster. And the best part is you don’t need any specialized knowledge in container orchestration to manage AKS.

Reasons for Choosing AKS

Amazon Elastic Container Service (ECS)

ECS runs apps in a managed cluster of EC2 instances on Amazon Web Services (AWS). ECS powers services, such as AWS Batch, Amazon.com’s recommendation engine, and Amazon SageMaker. It guarantees availability, reliability, and security.

Reasons for Choosing ECS

It is important to understand your technology needs, preferences, and capabilities before you choose from these available options. If you want to control every part of this ecosystem you can start with Kubernetes as an open source product. However, if you prefer to let someone else manage the environment you can lean more towards a managed solution. Choose smart, start small, and iterate as needed!  

Experience the leading hybrid cloud management and orchestration solution. Request a CloudBolt demo today.

Security is critical for a successful IT environment. How important? An insecure environment can lead to a complete loss of data, customer abandonment, or brand erosion. Alternatively, if you have a more secure environment your organization doesn’t show up in a news article. According to Gartner, data and cyber-related risks remain top worries for executives.   

At CloudBolt, we understand this and work stringently to ensure our platform is a security enabler and our customers have secure hybrid cloud environments. This goal has led us to offer role-based access control and granular reporting among other things.

Now with the CloudBolt v9.3 release, we make it easy for our customers to use single sign-on (SSO) and Security Assertion Mark-up Language (SAML2) vendors of choice. Assuming that hybrid cloud IT will stay secure and is someone else’s headache is dangerous. Be bold and make the right choice for your environment. 

Enabling SAML2 Using CloudBolt 9.3 

Our 9.3 release makes it easy for you to use a SAML2-compliant identity provider you trust. SAML is a standard that covers federation, identity management, and SSO. It helps you centralize management of users and give them access to various solutions they plan to use. It does this through authentication, authorizations, and maintaining user logs. Now you can enable SAML2 from CloudBolt very easily.  

Additionally, you can configure SSO through a guided experience using CloudBolt. This detailed step-by-step configuration helps you avoid any manual errors or find certain important information missing. You can also use the SSO vendor of your choice, including service providers such as Okta, OneLogin, Google Authentication, etc. You can consistently roll out SSO for your entire environment i.e. on-prem and public clouds. Thus, when your users are using a self-service catalog you can rest assured that they are making safe choices. Plus, you can keep bad players at bay. 

CloudBolt Makes SSO Easy for Secure Environments 

CloudBolt simplifies SSO and SAML2 service consumption from the cloud management platform. This ensures you are securing your hybrid cloud environment in less time and without manual errors. As a result, you can spend more time innovating and consuming hybrid IT with more control.  

I am thrilled to announce the general availability of CloudBolt 9.3 that will help enterprises consume IT services seamlessly. We define our roadmap and strategy working closely with our customers and understanding what is important to them. It is our customer-first attitude that helps distinguish us from our competitors. I want to thank our customers for all their input towards 9.3. Let’s jump right into what’s new in the CloudBolt platform.

Improved Navigation For A Better User Experience

We have enhanced CloudBolt’s user navigation to make the platform more intuitive, help onboard new users quickly, and to drive business value faster. All updates are made at the top-level navigation for better interaction and learn quickly about various sections of the platform. 

Derive More Value From Your Microsoft Azure Environment

Microsoft’s Shared Image Gallery (SIG), helps customers easily manage, share, and distribute VM images within and across multiple Azure regions. Now users can consume SIGs directly through their CloudBolt platform to drive business efficiencies and focus more on strategic activities. They can manage these images globally by grouping and versioning them while sharing them across subscriptions and tenants using Azure Role-Based Access Control (RBAC). Additionally, accelerated networking and management of enterprise-level Azure environments are easy to consume from the CloudBolt platform. Thus, making CloudBolt your single portal for all things Azure. 

Stay Secure With Simplified SSO/ SAML2 Setup

With this new release, CloudBolt has simplified Single Sign-On (SSO) configuration for customers. This configuration provides a guided experience for easier setup. Also, CloudBolt integrates with any SAML2 compliant identity provider to support SSO. This release provides additional support for Okta and more choices to follow in subsequent releases.

Manage Veeam, SolarWinds IPAM, and Cisco UCS Environments From One Single Platform

Cloudbolt’s Veeam UI extension enables users to view a server’s backups stored in Veeam and restore them to AWS or Azure.  It allows users to access functionality provided by Veeam without having to learn how to use Veeam itself. This gives users complete assurance and peace of mind. 

CloudBolt now integrates with SolarWinds IPAM. This ensures that when a user provisions a server using CloudBolt, an IP address gets assigned to that server directly. Thus, eliminating any manual intervention needed and making the process more efficient. Additionally, deleting the server ensures the IP address is released back to be reused later. 

With the new CloudBolt blueprint self-service provisioning of Cisco UCS service profiles are just a few clicks away. Thus, CloudBolt becomes even more extensible and helps you save time. 

CloudBolt has invested in making the customer’s hybrid cloud journey simpler, cost-effective, and better governed. Learn more about these CloudBolt features here.

Schedule a quick demo with our solution experts to see CloudBolt platform in action.

As organizations grow, they develop a risk of losing control over what they have built so far. As a nimble growing organization with fewer employees, it is easier to set control guidelines that employees follow. However, as you grow and IT becomes more decentralized it is difficult to achieve the right level of control unless you enforce governance policies on employees. 

Setting up governance practices is an always-evolving process. It needs to be forward-looking yet help you manage your current environment. There are certain low-hanging mistakes that you can avoid easily as you plan for better governance. Let’s dive into those.

Shadow IT only happens to the company next door

It is a very common pitfall to assume this: “Shadow IT will never happen to us. It is a myth and my organization is safe and under control.” 

However, you should know that shadow IT does not happen only with public cloud resources. It can be a result of using SaaS offerings or any software that IT does not have a handle on. Research from McAfee highlights that shadow IT cloud usage is 10X the known cloud usage.

There is a practical way you can address this problem. With proper governance, you can provide agility without losing control of the environment. It is important that the IT teams coach their internal customers on how to stay vigilant and avoid shadow IT. This might sound easier said than done. However, with proper rigor in place, you can curb shadow IT easily over a period of time. 

Security is someone else’s headache

This is a common misconception that only IT is responsible for security. When business consumes any service they are an equal partner in security. IT will enforce security norms wherever it is possible. However, users need to be careful about the services that they are using. Phishing attacks, malware, and viruses can create easy entry gateways hackers can exploit as well. 

When in doubt, first reach out to your IT to confirm if you can use a particular service. Do not download any third-party software that is not approved by your IT team. Phishing attacks are getting more difficult to track. Train yourself and your teams to identify phishing attacks before they happen. Plus, make sure you use two-factor authentication where possible. This adds a second security layer on top of just using a password. Use phrases that are difficult to guess, alpha-numeric keys, and capitalized letters when creating passwords. These are simple yet powerful tips that can save a disaster. You do not want to land up on the front page of a magazine for wrong reasons. So, help your IT organization by embracing security best practices. 

Cost is not important for governance

Another key thing people forget is to include cost under the governance umbrella. However, governance is a process for safeguarding yourself. If you overlook cost, it can prove disastrous and might result in wasting your budget on unnecessary services. Also, not having an understanding of who is spending your money, and on what, can lead to an accountability issue. 

Having a good solution that gives you insight into your expenses is always a better idea. As your team’s IT usage grows it becomes difficult to track costs through a spreadsheet. Therefore implementing a proven cost solution is key. You need a solution that can help you with the cost of not just your data center but also your public cloud, SaaS, and other resources. Also, do not pay a premium for a cost-only solution. Leverage a solution that gives you additional features that your growing IT organization needs to drive agility and governance. 

Avoid sticker shock in the cloud era. Download our eBook to learn how.

Only IT is responsible for governance

Another misconception is that since IT is deploying governance practices, only IT is responsible for it. Governance is a collaborative effort and no one party is solely accountable for its success or failure. IT owns the implementation part, and is responsible for making it more seamless across services you are using. It is an enabler for you and your organization. However, it is still a joint initiative and remains everyone’s responsibility. 

Only new innovations are part of governance

This is another common mistake that occurs in organizations. They only include new services that they are consuming under governance. For some reason, it is assumed that old services are already well-governed or that they do not need any additional governance. This mistake can be detrimental for organization of any size. 

You need to use governance as an all-encompassing umbrella. One simple way to get this ingrained in your teams is to form a team responsible only for security and governance. This makes it easy for the team to account for everything and work with everyone towards a common goal. As you plan to become a software-driven organization, ensure you recognize the need for security and governance. It is not something that you can take lightly. 

In summary, governance is very important for every organization. It can help you avoid mishaps that are easy to spot and also address any future grave mistakes that you were not aware of. Plus, it needs to evolve with your organization and it only helps when it is a joint effort across teams. 
CloudBolt, a leading cloud management platform, has all these features and it can help you on the governance journey.

CloudBolt has helped hundreds of organizations to embrace governance while staying agile and focused.