Cloud computing has changed the IT industry. It is very cheap, reliable, highly scalable and easy to use. Cloud computing is the most cost-effective method to upgrade your old IT infrastructure. So cloud infrastructure is perfect? Not quite. There are many drawbacks to using cloud technology. Cloud sprawl is one of the worst drawbacks of cloud computing.

The cloud technology provides a lot of freedom to employees. This freedom is hampering the security of the cloud. According to a report by RightScale, more than 30% of cloud spend is wasted. Cloud sprawl is the rapid growth of the usage of cloud computing resources. This happens when an enterprise moves all its resources to its cloud without monitoring them. Enterprises that don’t manage, monitor and control their cloud resources are mostly victims of cloud sprawl.

If all your resources are hosted on-premise, then you can easily monitor your resources. But, it is hard to monitor resources that are connected to the cloud. Cloud computing offers various benefits to enterprises. Thus, more and more enterprises are moving towards the cloud. But, the lack of proper control and visibility is the primary issue of cloud technology.

Even small-sized businesses can take advantage of cloud computing. They are hosting their data, infrastructure, and applications in the cloud. Due to this, more instances are created in the same cloud. This makes it very complex to monitor resources on the cloud.

When an enterprise creates multiple security policies, server types, operating system images, software platforms, and application requirements, then they need to adapt them correctly. Otherwise, it will lead to overlapping and confusion. This is one of the major reasons for cloud sprawl which could be deadly for small organizations. Thus, you should take proper action to avoid cloud sprawl. Some of them are:

Clearly Define your Cloud Strategy

Before addressing cloud sprawl, it is important to create a perfect implementation plan. You should communicate about the associated costs, details, stakeholders, and benefits to users. This means managing your use and managing policies. The chief information security officer or CISOs must explain the risks associated with cloud sprawl to business managers. They should explain to them how an enterprise should work.

The IT department and CFO must be always in touch about the security protocols. Lastly, both department heads and managers should create a cloud strategy. There must be clear communication between the IT department and other department heads. This is the most important step in avoiding cloud sprawl.

Check all your cloud services in regular interval

It is important to perform accounting and cloud health checkups at regular intervals. These internal audits will cover all the important services like cloud data, infrastructure, instances, applications, and more. Regular audits will provide transparency to your cloud-related systems and processes. You should check the following services during each cloud audit:

Cloud Applications
Compute
Cloud Storage
Cloud Security
VM instances

A cloud audit will help you in finding the potential risks. It will also help you in finding vulnerabilities and weaknesses in your IT infrastructure. You can create a perfect risk assessment plan to deal with all these different factors. This will ensure that your cloud changes are compatible with your business security policies, user needs, and compliance standards.

Single-pane control panel

You should have a single-pane control panel for controlling your enterprise. It will help your management and administrators in monitoring the actions that are happening across your cloud network. Developers can also this single-pane control panel to test their deployments and code in multiple environments. They can test their code before deploying them. If you have a single –pane control pane, then you can easily control all these things. There are several companies that offer these single-pane control panel solutions. You can use them to effectively manage your entire cloud network.

Develop Cloud Policies

In the cloud age, it is important to have cloud policies to control cloud sprawl. Your policy should include these things:

VPN policies for workers that are using SaaS solutions
Bring your own Device (BYOD) policies that will govern which devices should be connected with cloud network
Controls that will make sure that unnecessary Virtual Machines will automatically shutdown

It is very easy to access cloud services. Due to this, there is a rapid increase in shadow IT resources. According to a survey by iBOSS, more than 85% of employees are accessing enterprise applications without informing their IT department. The best solution to deal with this problem is by creating effective cloud policies.

Create a unified cloud platform

Most of the organizations and enterprises are using many different cloud platforms for serving their needs. This is the most common reason for cloud sprawl. Thus, to overcome cloud sprawl you must use a unified cloud-delivery platform. It will provide you a more organized and effective way to manage your cloud services. This will also ensure performance, flexibility, and simplicity across all your resources, devices and apps in your cloud infrastructure.

Conclusion

More and more companies are becoming aware of cloud sprawl. Still, most companies are opting for cloud services due to low price, flexibility, and ease of use. You can overcome this issue and its effects without sacrificing the cloud infrastructure. All you need to do is create an effective cloud strategy. Make sure that you are using a single-pane control panel to monitor all your cloud services. Your IT department must create an effective plan to organize, secure and manage all your cloud services. If you don’t have an IT department, then you can contact Bleuwire to design an effective cloud management plan.

Contact us today to learn about Bleuwire™ services and solutions in how we can help your business.