Many companies benefit from cloud. After a while, with more and more resources and means at your disposal, you may need professional tools and systems that will allow you to manage your infrastructure efficiently. A cloud management platform is just what a mature business with specific IT demands requires. What are your choices? 

Why Should You Choose Your CMP Wisely?

The public cloud has become extremely popular because it enables companies to reduce the costs of running a business, and ensures flexibility and scalability of business solutions. Those are just the most important benefits of using cloud computing but not the only ones. Migration to the cloud is not as big of a challenge as it was before it got so common, but managing it is not so easy. Fortunately, nowadays, you can use practical tools to handle this task.

Cloud management platforms are those tools. Thanks to them, you can optimize and manage your cloud infrastructure. This solution gathers all the processes in your company, the technologies you use and the tools you need to operate in one place. If you are considering improving your cloud management methods, you should consider using CloudStack.

What is CloudStack?

This platform is an open-source solution which has been available for businesses for many years. It has proved itself to be an excellent solution for many companies representing various industries - particularly educational institutions and private companies. CloudStack is a Java-based platform that allows users to run Infrastructure as a Service (Iaas) in the cloud smoothly. It is user-friendly - surely that is the reason why it is very popular among small businesses. It has a web-based interface - users can interact with resources and processes through a web browser - and has quite a simple application programming interface (API).

Doing research on the Internet you'll probably find a frequent comparison: cloudstack vs openstack. Well, CloudStack was released in 2012 - a bit later than OpenStack (which came out in 2010). The newest versions of Apache products are regularly updated. Both are open-source and free technologies, which makes them rivals in some way, but CloudStack is more intuitive.

Why use CloudStack for business purposes?

CloudStack is the first choice platform for small and medium companies because of its excellent user interface and the availability of multiple useful features. This CMP is very intuitive, so everyone can use it.

The Installation process is so easy that you can actually have a functional cloud in a day. CloudStack comes with monolithic architecture that consists of three main components:

• A management server

• storage

• compute nodes

CloudStack is often recommended for creating and managing small, private clouds. 

The benefits of using CloudStack

You certainly won't be disappointed if you decide to use CloudStack. Here are its main advantages:

• Reduced costs of cloud management - Some advanced cloud computing services may be quite expensive, especially for small companies, but this solution is completely free of charge. If you need an intuitive and functional cloud management platform that you can use on a tight budget, you should consider CloudStack.

• Connection with third-party services - This is possible thanks to the RESTful API features of this CMP.

• Security - Apache CloudStack gives the user strong control over all users and resources. You can assign tasks, authorize specific roles and grant permission to use particular resources.

Are they any drawbacks of using it? 

You may meet some challenges when using CloudStack open-source software. There can a few undocumented bugs once in a while, and you'll need to find the solution on your own. Remember though that using it still means saving money as it does not require a team of experienced developers (unlike OpenStack).

No solution is perfect, but CloudStack's advantages make it an easy to use, functional cloud management platform. It is often recommended for small and medium companies. If you are new in the cloud computing world, and you are looking for free of charge CMP for your business, you should definitely consider it.