The independent research firm Forrester Wave recently released the Hybrid Cloud Management report for second quarter 2018. Forrester researched and analyzed top vendors in hybrid cloud management (HCM) market to find how the vendors help infrastructure and operations (I&O) professionals globally.
The Forrester Wave: Hybrid Cloud Management
Hybrid cloud management helps organizations to control multi-cloud infrastructure deployments. Implemented by the third-party vendors, the HCM allows administrators to view and control the private and public cloud assets through a single pane of glass.
Hybrid cloud management vendors helps I&O professionals to solve several enterprise cloud management problems like cost monitoring, management, optimization and more.
Forrester Wave’s latest report about HCM will help I&O pros decide the best hybrid cloud management platform to eliminate the management siloes.
Key takeaways from Forrester’s Hybrid Cloud Management report:
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I&O folks asking for optimized solutions
According to Forrester, the infrastructure and operations pros are looking for tools which can optimize costs, govern cloud usage across multiple cloud platforms, and are easy to use.
The I&O folks seek solutions which can also guide them about best practices and can act like automated and optimized solutions.
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Role-based access, optimization, and automation are keys to become a successful HCM vendor
The HCM vendors who deliver role-based access, optimized solutions, automated operations and support for top public cloud platforms position themselves as successful hybrid cloud managers.
Forrester further highlighted that vendors that provide deep analytics and integration into continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI/CD) tools lead the HCM market.
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Future of HCM market is still uncertain
Despite the numerous benefits of hybrid cloud management solutions, the future of HCM market is still uncertain, highlights the report. Many development and operations (DevOps) teams are using development platforms like Pivotal and OpenShift as alternatives to HCM solutions. These solutions don’t provide governance, cost optimization, and multi-cloud support like HCM solutions, but come with just-enough management.
Another threat to HCM market is the expansion of bill granularity by several public cloud providers. Furthermore, the new tools that provide cloud cost monitoring and optimization for multiple clouds are progressing to help businesses lower their cloud bills. Such solutions are also threatening the HCM market because of their low costs.
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Hybrid cloud managers extending solutions beyond management
To gain more ground in the market and address the threats, the HCM vendors are extending their solutions beyond just management. The HCM solutions are now including several tools for developers like new templates and resources to access multiple clouds, integration with CI/CD tools and native cloud platform access.
Some vendors are providing abstraction from the underlying native cloud platforms, while others are building analytics engines that optimize the costs and performance to balance the economics.
The HCM vendors are also seeking to include automation in their solutions to automate operations and security practices. It can reduce human errors, improve efficiency, as well as automate the remediation.
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RightScale, Scalr, VMware and Embotics lead the pack
31 vendors participated for the evaluation, but the list was narrowed to 12 according to the criteria set by Forrester. The top 12 HCM vendors included BMC Software, Cisco, CloudHealth Technologies, Embotics, HyperGrid, Micro Focus, RackWare, Red Hat, RightScale, Scalr, Turbonomic, and VMware.
Forrester categorize the vendors in four parts like Gartner— Leaders, Strong Performers, Contenders, and Challengers.
RightScale, Scalr, VMware, and Embotics made it to the leaders’ category, while Turbonic, HyperGrid, CloudHealth Technologies, BMC Software, Micro Focus, Cisco and Red Hat were positioned as Strong Performers in HCM market.
RackWare lagged the leaders and strong performers, and was positioned as a contender.
RightScale is known for its Cloud Management Platform which comes with several capabilities like configuration tools, templates, and integration with third-party development tools. It also delivers governance policies, template designers, cost and performance monitoring, API documentation, etc.
For the early adapter organizations seeking just cost management capabilities, RightScale provides Optima platform, which helps organizations to spend only on what is needed.
Scalr delivers Scalr Enterprise platform which comes with actionable optimization powered with analytics and automation. It is a composable solution that allows enterprises to complete tasks and use third-party tools via its Cloud Service Gateway.
Whereas, VMware provides strong management capabilities through its vRealize Suite. The vRealize comes with customer numbers, templates and workflow designers, capacity monitoring, partnerships and pre-built integrations.
Suggested reading: The Forrester Waveᵀᴹ Cloud Cost Monitoring and Optimization Report, Q2 2018: Top ten takeaways
Embotics allows organizations to discover and launch new resources using its management platform called vCommander. It provides enhanced customer experience, compliance policy depth, directory integration, and flexible configuration management.
Download The Forrester Wave: Hybrid Cloud Management, Q2 2018 report here.
