Private cloud management tools: Progress but insight needed

Private cloud management tools are coming into the vogue, a sure sign that there is indeed considerable interest in cloud computing (as our surveys have reported). The only concern we see for this market is a continued lack of insight into just what the concept of “cloud management” means.

In cloud computing, the critical element is the ability to use policies to assign applications to resources from the “cloud pool.” Once assigned, the applications must be monitored as though they were components of a network service, and new assets must be substituted where SLAs can’t be met. Thus, cloud management is a lifecycle process, and we’re not seeing that reflected in all of the offerings to date. We also don’t see any integration of cloud and network operations, which is critical for meaningful SLAs.