How are systems management practices evolving to address cloud computing?

Cloud based practices are like food delivery services. We cannot make all meals in traditional practices like our kitchen. If so, then our kitchen is cloud-like practice, fog enabled practices.

Traditional systems management practices need an overhaul for the cloud-based world. Here's how the field is adapting: --> Cloud-Specific Management --> Holistic View --> Automation is Key --> Hybrid and Multi-Cloud Management --> AI and Machine Learning --> Focus on Self-Service

Systems management practices are evolving in response to the adoption of cloud computing by incorporating automation, scalability, and flexibility. Traditional approaches to system management are being replaced by cloud-native tools and methodologies that emphasize agility and efficiency. This includes the use of Infrastructure as Code (IaC) to automate provisioning and configuration, DevOps practices to streamline development and deployment pipelines, and centralized monitoring and logging solutions for improved visibility and control over distributed cloud environments. Additionally, there is a shift towards containerization and serverless computing models, enabling greater resource utilization .

Systems management practices are evolving to address cloud computing by embracing automation, scalability, and flexibility. Traditional system management approaches are being adapted to cater to the dynamic nature of cloud environments, where resources are provisioned on-demand and workloads are distributed across diverse infrastructure. Cloud-native management tools and platforms are being developed to provide centralized control and visibility over cloud resources, enabling organizations to efficiently monitor, orchestrate, and optimize their cloud deployments. Additionally, there is a shift towards DevOps and SRE methodologies, emphasizing collaboration between development and operations teams to streamline deployment pipeli

Everything is easier with Cloud Systems according to management but there are also negatives that come with this. Vulnerability, not knowing where your data is, troubleshoot scenarios etc., we can increase these management challenges. It is up to us to decide for any project to whether go for traditional or cloud based practices. So, one cannot replace the other, but they are beautiful together.

As for cloud management tips, I can say that biggest challenges are reliability, security and cost. Stay away from untrusted clouds even if they are cheap. But expensive one may not be the best one always. Also, note that data and other things gets bigger and bigger. So the invoice you will pay will be bigger than previous month; or at least the same.

Lookin at this topic from a Managed Service Provider Engineer perspective, Managing the environment is no different than that of an on-premise. What tends to be or feel complicated is the delivery of such environment and achieving that delivery with a security first approach and have seamless integration to a business wanting to move to cloud from an on prem environment. If the cloud feels complex then chances are there's room to improve on how your leveraging the cloud or looking to improve your use of the cloud.