What is Cloud Management? Definition + Use Cases

Imagine a big, virtual warehouse where your business stores all its software tools, apps, and data. Just like any well-functioning warehouse, it needs to be organized, secure, and efficient.

For example, you’d need to categorize your resources and set up access control so the right people can access the right tools. You’d also need to keep an eye on inventory and warehouse conditions, i.e. track performance and usage metrics. That’s exactly what cloud management is.

Proper cloud management helps you avoid wasting resources you don’t need. It minimizes the risk of downtime, prevents overspending, and gives you 24/7 access to your data.

Let’s take a closer look at how you can optimize costs and make the most of your cloud environment. 

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What is cloud management?

Cloud management is the process of keeping your cloud-based storage and services organized, safe, and running smoothly. This ensures all your important files, apps, and data stored on the internet are easy to find, secure from threats, and always available when you need them.

Cloud management tools are critical here. They let you oversee cloud-based assets and applications and set up automation workflows for greater efficiency. You can also monitor performance and security levels, and scale by adding more storage or cloud computing power.

What is cloud management used for?

With the right cloud management platform, you can automate backups of critical business data. In fact, the cloud is the critical tech environment that’s part of most disaster recovery plans. In case there’s a system failure, your data gets restored, which isn't always the case with on-premise solutions. 

Let’s take a look at other cloud management use cases.

Allocate and control cloud resources

Let’s say you’re launching a new product and you worked hard on your marketing campaign. You expect the web traffic to increase during the launch period.

The best cloud management tools monitor and adjust cloud server capacity during high-traffic events, ensuring websites and apps remain high-performing, fast, and reliable. You can scale resources based on demand and evenly distribute workload. This is how you’ll prevent over-provisioning or under-provisioning.

Protect sensitive data and important systems

Every business deals with sensitive data. Think financial records and confidential contracts. This data needs to be encrypted and stored properly to stay safe. You also need to make sure only authorized people can access it.

Cloud management allows you to set up robust security to safeguard your data. It monitors levels of security, maps out potential threats, and protects important systems against breaches. This is one of the main reasons why SaaS companies opt for cloud migration.

Integrate for multi-cloud environments

Let’s say you’re using different cloud applications. You might use AWS for your database needs, Microsoft Azure for virtual machines, and Google Cloud Platform for machine learning tasks.

Cloud management tools can unify these services by providing a single dashboard to monitor and orchestrate resources across all three cloud providers. This is how you can leverage the strengths of each cloud provider without dealing with compatibility issues.

Facilitate cloud governance

Your company might decide to set up a governance policy that defines spending limits and lists names of authorized employees who can create new cloud resources. Cloud management tools help monitor compliance with these policies by tracking resource creation, usage, and costs.

For example, if a department tries to provision an expensive cloud service, the system might flag it for approval. It can also automatically prevent payment attempts if it exceeds the set budget. 

What are the SaaS benefits of cloud management?

Cloud-based data centers offer more scalability, flexibility, and cost-efficiency compared to on-premise infrastructure. But how do you make the most of your cloud environment?

The key is to effectively manage your cloud at every stage—from provisioning and automating cloud consumption to lifecycle resource management and cost optimization. This will determine how much you’ll benefit from it.

Optimize costs and ensure high performance

If you run a SaaS business, cloud management will help you run your apps smoothly and keep end users happy. It automatically adjusts resources based on demand, which keeps app performance high and costs under control.

For example, cloud management tools can identify and shut down unused or underused resources, such as inactive development environments. This helps you lower monthly cloud bills.

Take care of user data and security

Every SaaS business should carefully store and manage user data, which can be rather stressful. Data breaches can cause huge repercussions and damage your company’s reputation. Thanks to great cloud security, you can ensure all customer data stored in a SaaS application is encrypted and only accessible by authorized users.

Integrate cloud with other tools while staying compliant 

If you run multiple SaaS apps, you can integrate cloud services with various tools using APIs. This makes the operational aspect much easier. For example, you can unify user management and authentication across different SaaS platforms, and streamline the login process for users.

Lastly, compliance monitoring is a lot easier with cloud management. You can enforce data retention policies and export reports to showcase compliance with the GDPR, CCPA, or other regulations.

How Vendr supports cloud management for SaaS success

At Vendr, we believe in buying all SaaS products at a low price. This includes cloud management solutions. With over $4 billion in SaaS purchases across 10,000+ suppliers, we help companies like yours get the lowest price. 

Get the best terms on cloud contracts

As a company owner, you’re mindful of where each penny goes, and you certainly don’t want to overpay for cloud services. In a nutshell, Vendr ensures you get a low deal by analyzing a variety of factors like market trends, supplier performance, contract terms, and negotiation leverage. 

For example, we might combine purchasing power across multiple clients and gather intel to define the lowest contract price possible. We consider your future growth needs, as well as multi-year and time-sensitive offers that get you a lower price.

Whether you’re looking into public cloud, hybrid cloud, or private cloud solutions, we can help you skip the negotiation and get low prices on cloud software.

Gain visibility into pricing for better cloud cost management

Vendr allows you to use price benchmarking data when sourcing a new supplier or renewing a contract. This tells you what others pay for the same tool, not the headline price.

If you’re a large company that’s likely going to get locked in a custom contract, this is incredibly important. For example, LocalizeOS, an AI pioneer of residential brokerage technology, was looking for cloud services to optimize its operations.

They were struggling with a lack of transparency during supplier renewals, and negotiations were very resource-intensive for their team. See how Vendr helped them save $141M in software and create room for their finance team to focus on strategic efforts.

Access expertise in managing cloud costs

Sales teams working for different cloud service providers have the goal of increasing revenue, which is perfectly normal. That’s their job. However, this means you might get offered custom pricing depending on your needs. More often than not, you can get a better deal and increase overall cost-effectiveness. 

Vendr experts help you manage cloud costs and take control of shadow spend. Additionally, we help you skip the redundant sales presentations and focus on what matters. Decrease time-to-value and start seeing benefits from your cloud management software, fast. 

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Cloud management FAQs

What are the responsibilities of a cloud services manager?

A Cloud Services Manager oversees cloud infrastructure and services and makes sure they meet the company's needs. They manage cloud deployments, monitor performance, and optimize costs. If there are any technical issues, they are responsible for recommending the best path forward. They are also accountable for integrating different cloud solutions and developing disaster recovery plans.

How does cloud management improve IT efficiency?

Cloud management improves IT efficiency by automating tasks like scaling and provisioning. This reduces manual workload and speeds up deployment. It also enables you to quickly respond to issues, which leads to better resource orchestration.

What are common cloud management challenges?

Cloud management challenges include controlling costs, ensuring security and compliance, and maintaining performance. Efficiently allocating and scaling resources can be complex, especially in multi-cloud or hybrid-cloud environments. Integration with existing systems and apps adds to the difficulty.

What are common cloud management tools?

Common cloud management tools include AWS Management Console for AWS resources, Azure Portal for Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud Console for Google Cloud. There’s also VMware vRealize (handles multi-cloud management), CloudBolt (focuses on cost management and optimization), and Terraform (used for infrastructure as code).

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