Open-Source Tools You Should Be Aware of to Manage Your Cloud

A list of open-source tools to enhance the management of any cloud architecture. Sometime, relying on cloud services is not the best options.

Businesses of all sizes are shifting some or all of their data and applications to cloud computing environments to take advantage of all the benefits available to them: availability, flexibility, scalability, accessibility, etc… The migration and the tools used to do it have to be assessed correctly to be successful.

The purpose of this article is to list tools that everyone should be aware of when it is time to manage a cloud infrastructure. In the cloud, it is obviously better to rely on cloud services offered by the provider but sometimes it is better to use open-source projects to facilitate the management.

This article is not dedicated to only one cloud provider, the idea is to list tools that can be used on one or multiple clouds to help in the management of the resources and sometimes, optimize the infrastructure.

• Let’s Start With the Command Line
• Automation Is the Key
• Customize Your Base Image
• Manage the Cost
• Audit to Optimize Security Policies
• Improve Observability With a Central Logging Platform
• Control the Availability of the Resources
• Use Chaos Engineering to Break Things Productively
• Dynamically Provision the Infrastructure
• Did You Know That You Can Test Cloud Integration Offline?
• Learn, Test, and Share

#tools #cloud #management #open-source

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Multi-cloud Spending: 8 Tips To Lower Cost

A multi-cloud approach is nothing but leveraging two or more cloud platforms for meeting the various business requirements of an enterprise. The multi-cloud IT environment incorporates different clouds from multiple vendors and negates the dependence on a single public cloud service provider. Thus enterprises can choose specific services from multiple public clouds and reap the benefits of each.

Given its affordability and agility, most enterprises opt for a multi-cloud approach in cloud computing now. A 2018 survey on the public cloud services market points out that 81% of the respondents use services from two or more providers. Subsequently, the cloud computing services market has reported incredible growth in recent times. The worldwide public cloud services market is all set to reach $500 billion in the next four years, according to IDC.

By choosing multi-cloud solutions strategically, enterprises can optimize the benefits of cloud computing and aim for some key competitive advantages. They can avoid the lengthy and cumbersome processes involved in buying, installing and testing high-priced systems. The IaaS and PaaS solutions have become a windfall for the enterprise’s budget as it does not incur huge up-front capital expenditure.

However, cost optimization is still a challenge while facilitating a multi-cloud environment and a large number of enterprises end up overpaying with or without realizing it. The below-mentioned tips would help you ensure the money is spent wisely on cloud computing services.

• Deactivate underused or unattached resources

Most organizations tend to get wrong with simple things which turn out to be the root cause for needless spending and resource wastage. The first step to cost optimization in your cloud strategy is to identify underutilized resources that you have been paying for.

Enterprises often continue to pay for resources that have been purchased earlier but are no longer useful. Identifying such unused and unattached resources and deactivating it on a regular basis brings you one step closer to cost optimization. If needed, you can deploy automated cloud management tools that are largely helpful in providing the analytics needed to optimize the cloud spending and cut costs on an ongoing basis.

• Figure out idle instances

Another key cost optimization strategy is to identify the idle computing instances and consolidate them into fewer instances. An idle computing instance may require a CPU utilization level of 1-5%, but you may be billed by the service provider for 100% for the same instance.

Every enterprise will have such non-production instances that constitute unnecessary storage space and lead to overpaying. Re-evaluating your resource allocations regularly and removing unnecessary storage may help you save money significantly. Resource allocation is not only a matter of CPU and memory but also it is linked to the storage, network, and various other factors.

• Deploy monitoring mechanisms

The key to efficient cost reduction in cloud computing technology lies in proactive monitoring. A comprehensive view of the cloud usage helps enterprises to monitor and minimize unnecessary spending. You can make use of various mechanisms for monitoring computing demand.

For instance, you can use a heatmap to understand the highs and lows in computing visually. This heat map indicates the start and stop times which in turn lead to reduced costs. You can also deploy automated tools that help organizations to schedule instances to start and stop. By following a heatmap, you can understand whether it is safe to shut down servers on holidays or weekends.

#cloud computing services #all #hybrid cloud #cloud #multi-cloud strategy #cloud spend #multi-cloud spending #multi cloud adoption #why multi cloud #multi cloud trends #multi cloud companies #multi cloud research #multi cloud market

Open-Source Tools You Should Be Aware of to Manage Your Cloud

A list of open-source tools to enhance the management of any cloud architecture. Sometime, relying on cloud services is not the best options.

Businesses of all sizes are shifting some or all of their data and applications to cloud computing environments to take advantage of all the benefits available to them: availability, flexibility, scalability, accessibility, etc… The migration and the tools used to do it have to be assessed correctly to be successful.

The purpose of this article is to list tools that everyone should be aware of when it is time to manage a cloud infrastructure. In the cloud, it is obviously better to rely on cloud services offered by the provider but sometimes it is better to use open-source projects to facilitate the management.

This article is not dedicated to only one cloud provider, the idea is to list tools that can be used on one or multiple clouds to help in the management of the resources and sometimes, optimize the infrastructure.

• Let’s Start With the Command Line
• Automation Is the Key
• Customize Your Base Image
• Manage the Cost
• Audit to Optimize Security Policies
• Improve Observability With a Central Logging Platform
• Control the Availability of the Resources
• Use Chaos Engineering to Break Things Productively
• Dynamically Provision the Infrastructure
• Did You Know That You Can Test Cloud Integration Offline?
• Learn, Test, and Share

#tools #cloud #management #open-source

Did Google Open Sourcing Kubernetes Backfired?

Over the last few years, Kubernetes have become the de-facto standard for container orchestration and has also won the race against Docker for being the most loved platforms among developers. Released in 2014, Kubernetes has come a long way with currently being used across the entire cloudscape platforms. In fact, recent reports state that out of 109 tools to manage containers, 89% of them are leveraging Kubernetes versions.

Although inspired by Borg, Kubernetes, is an open-source project by Google, and has been donated to a vendor-neutral firm — The Cloud Native Computing Foundation. This could be attributed to Google’s vision of creating a platform that can be used by every firm of the world, including the large tech companies and can host multiple cloud platforms and data centres. The entire reason for handing over the control to CNCF is to develop the platform in the best interest of its users without vendor lock-in.

#opinions #google open source #google open source tools #google opening kubernetes #kubernetes #kubernetes platform #kubernetes tools #open source kubernetes backfired

What are the benefits of cloud migration? Reasons you should migrate

The moving of applications, databases and other business elements from the local server to the cloud server called cloud migration. This article will deal with migration techniques, requirement and the benefits of cloud migration.

In simple terms, moving from local to the public cloud server is called cloud migration. Gartner says 17.5% revenue growth as promised in cloud migration and also has a forecast for 2022 as shown in the following image.

#cloud computing services #cloud migration #all #cloud #cloud migration strategy #enterprise cloud migration strategy #business benefits of cloud migration #key benefits of cloud migration #benefits of cloud migration #types of cloud migration

An Open-Source Book About the Open Source World

Open source today is a word that often include a lot of things, such as open knowledge (Wikimedia projects), open hardware (Arduino, Raspberry Pi), open formats (ODT/ODS/ODP) and so on.

It is a world of opportunities that can be difficult for newcomers but also for intermediates. This article will help you discover how to approach specific roles, activities or projects/communities in the best way.

Everything Started with “Coaching for OpenSource Communities 2.0”

I decided to write a book in my personal style about my experience in the last 7 to 8 years in open source. I was surprised when I reached 100 pages about various different topics.

My idea was to write something that I would like to read, so nothing that is boring or complicated, but full of real facts.

The second goal was to include my experience but also my philosophy on contributing and how I contribute daily.

Thirdly, I wanted to give a lot of hints and resources and an overall view of this open source world.

Basically, I wanted to write something different from self-help or coaching books that includes just a list of suggestions and best practices. Instead, I take real examples from real life about the OSS world.

As a contributor and developer, I prefer to have real cases to study, because best practices are useful, but we need to learn from others and this world is full of good and bad cases to discover.

In 2019, I started writing a book after Fosdem 2019 and after 2 years inside the Mozilla Reps Council. In that Fosdem edition, I had a talk “Coaching for Open Source Communities 2.0” and after the feedback at the conference and my thoughts in various roles, activities, and projects, it was time to write something.

At the end it wasn’t a manual but a book that included my experience, learnings, best practices and so on in Localization, Development, Project Maintainer, Sysadmin, Community Management, Mentor, Speaker and so on. It contains the following sections:

• Biography - This choice isn’t for self promotion but just to understand my point of view and my story that can be inspiring for others
• Philosophy - Not the usual description of Open Source or the 4 freedoms, but just what Open Source means and how you can help
• How to live inside the Open Source - A discovery about communications and tools, understanding the various kind of people and the best way to talk with your community
• How to choose a project - Starting with some questions to yourself and how to involve more people in your project
• The activity - Open Source is based on tasks that can be divided in 2 levels: Support, Testing, Marketing, Development etc
• How to use your time - We are busy, we have a life, a job and a family but Open Source can be time-consuming
• Why document is important - How writing documentation can be healthy for your community and the project’s future and brand

There are also three appendices that are manuals which I wrote throughout the years and gathered and improved for this book. They are about: community management, public speaking, and mentoring.

The book ends with my point of view about the future and what we have to do to change opinions about those topics.

I wrote this book and published in October 2019, but it was only possible with the help of reviews and localizers that improved and contributed. Yes, because this book is open source and free for everyone.

I picked the GPL license because this license changed the world and my life in the best way. Using this license is just a tribute. This decision usually is not clear because after all this is a book and there are better licenses like Creative Commons.

#open-source #contributing-to-open-source #programming #software-development #development #coding #books #open-source-software