Cloud Services Agents: What you need to know

Although cloud computing is still in its infancy, its many advantages inspire a great deal of interest and application. As new, more creative approaches emerge, it is clear that simple, straightforward cloud interoperability is often unrealistic and not a best practice.

Determining the most advantageous way to purchase, implement, and manage cloud technology can be a major problem for users. And this brings the rise of cloud services agents. Thanks to new cloud technologies and standards, as well as vendor neutrality, the third Fang service brokerage firm can provide users with expertise and provide a single point of contact when working with many vendors.

Cloud services in the real world

The cloud architecture leverages the benefits of web-based technology to allow scalable, virtualized IT resources to be widely used on the web as a service. For many, the concept of "cloud" means a public cloud solution: An enterprise accesses third party resources as needed without the need to invest in the internal infrastructure. However, cloud models can also be interpreted as existing legacy, as well as "proprietary" systems, or just "proprietary" systems, which can be defined as private clouds. A hybrid cloud, as its name suggests, is a combination of a public cloud and a private cloud. Most companies that want to fully explore the advantages of cloud technology are using the pattern quickly.

For example, an organization is likely to choose to store sensitive data in a private cloud while using a dynamic, cost-advantaged public cloud to perform other operations. In Figure 1, we can see the different classic scenarios gathered today: private, public, or even the cloud that gets the resources from the second cloud (in fact, the data center is hidden).

Figure 1

In this diversity, some users choose cloud services that allow them to manage and monitor their infrastructure as well as their own data centers, while others tend to have an environment where data can be managed at a specified SLA (Service level agreements) with minimal or no user involvement.

The advantages of cloud agents

At the bottom of Figure 1 is the cloud services agent, a third party that can get resources from multiple clouds, usually connected to multiple data centers. In general, agents have their own cloud, have their own resources, and in other cases, they play a role closer to "agent (or broker)", on behalf of an organization to coordinate the necessary relations and agreements.

Although each agent and its specific services and advantages will vary, but many agents provide the following services:

Help users determine the best framework based on individual needs and on a variety of factors. This includes providing assistance and budget guidance, while determining how to select and consolidate different services across multiple hybrid scenarios.

A streamlined interface with good interoperability-including single sign-on. These rule-based solutions simplify the management of cloud resources and hide the complexities associated with multi-vendor collaboration.

Cost-competitive resources and infrastructure advantages, the ability to communicate technology contracts in real time, and deliver the high level of flexibility required by today's business.

Enhanced security that allows organizations to develop customized solutions to balance cost benefits and core security issues.

Ensure that upgrades, repairs, and maintenance activities are performed in a non-disruptive manner.

Fear of losing control of data management is one reason to hesitate to use cloud services. But a good agent can help users determine their ideal level of management oversight, and work out the appropriate cloud services to meet these needs. Customers will still understand the behavior of their agents, and the administrator can also set corresponding policies to ease the user's concerns.