Cloud Management

A Cloud Manager, sometimes called a Cloud Admin, someone who oversees the management, deployment, and optimization of cloud computing resources within an organization. There are various cloud platforms which can be used in various ways. The biggest, and best known cloud platforms would be Amazon with AWS, Google, and Microsoft with Azure.

In the cloud, you are using someone else’s servers as your own. There are three major, and common ways the the cloud is used.

• They may provide applications through SaaS (Software as a Service) like GMail, Google Docs/Sheets/etc, Office365 (web version), Salesforce, Canvas, and many, many more.
• They may just provide storage and network access through a CDN, or Content Delivery Network, which sets up servers so content is closer to the end user and doesn’t rely on your Internet access, or
• They may provide servers for you to run your own applications on.

Interestingly enough, many SaaS providers, use cloud servers to run their apps and distribute their static content.

Here are some key responsibilities associated with a cloud manager role:

1. Cloud Infrastructure Management:
   • Architecture Design: Collaborate with architects to design and plan the organization’s cloud infrastructure based on requirements.
   • Resource Provisioning: Allocate and provision resources such as virtual machines, storage, and networking in the cloud environment.
2. Vendor Selection: Evaluate and choose the appropriate cloud services and providers based on organizational needs.
3. Cost Management:
   • Budgeting: Develop and manage budgets for cloud services, ensuring efficient use of resources to control costs.
   • Cost Optimization: Implement strategies to optimize cloud spending, such as rightsizing instances, utilizing reserved instances, and exploring pricing models. They may also be responsible for shutting down servers which are not being utilized.
4. Security Planning: Work with security teams to implement best practices for securing cloud resources.
5. Compliance: Ensure that the organization’s cloud infrastructure complies with industry regulations and internal policies. This will often be part of the vendor selection process, and may be tightly tied to the security planning, as most compliance regulations have security as part of it.
6. Automated Deployment: Implement automation for deploying and managing applications and services in the cloud.
7. Monitoring and Performance:
   • Monitoring Tools: Set up monitoring solutions to track the performance and health of cloud resources.
   • Incident Response: Develop and execute plans for responding to incidents and outages in the cloud environment.
8. Collaboration:
   • Cross-Team Collaboration: Collaborate with development, operations, and other teams to ensure that cloud resources meet the needs of various stakeholders.
   • Training and Knowledge Sharing: Provide training and guidance to teams on best practices for using cloud services.
9. Vendor Management: This includes managing relationships with cloud service providers, as well as staying informed about new features, changes, and pricing models.
10. Backup and Disaster Recovery: Implement and manage backup strategies to protect data and ensure business continuity. This sometimes means additional dedicated cloud servers, or data that might be downloaded to a local server. They will also have to develop and test disaster recovery plans to minimize downtime in case of a catastrophic event.
11. Scaling and Performance Optimization:
    • Scalability: Plan for and implement scalable solutions to handle growing workloads.
    • Performance Optimization: Identify and implement optimizations for improved efficiency and responsiveness.
12. Documentation: Maintain documentation for cloud configurations, processes, and procedures. Generate reports on resource usage and performance.
13. Continual Learning: While cloud computing has been out for a little while, there is still a lot we are learning about how to properly optimize it. Such as at what point does moving to, or away from, the cloud make financial sense. How to host information across multiple platforms, including hybrid platforms where some data is local, and others is remote, and finally learning about new platforms that coming online.

Cloud Management was originally found on Access 2 Learn