Many organizations assume that once they move their IT workloads to the public cloud, the burden of management simply disappears. The underlying idea is that cloud providers take care of everything — infrastructure, uptime, performance, and even security. However, this perception doesn’t hold up in reality. In fact, as organizations migrate to public cloud and SaaS platforms, the complexity of management often increases.
The shifting nature of management
In the on-premises world, IT management was tangible: maintaining servers, updating firmware, configuring firewalls. In the cloud, the focus shifts. You're now responsible for a much broader and more strategic set of activities:
- Managing centralized identity and access management
- Optimizing operational costs and managing variable spending models
- Proactively maintaining regulatory compliance
- Orchestrating cross-platform service integration
This new form of management requires not only technical expertise but also a governance framework and strategic foresight.
Why cloud doesn’t eliminate responsibility
In public cloud environments, the cloud provider takes responsibility for the underlying infrastructure, including hardware, software, networking, and physical facilities. However, everything above the infrastructure layer remains the customer’s responsibility. The shared responsibility model clearly outlines that organizations must secure their data and applications within the cloud. This involves tasks such as configuring access controls, managing identities, encrypting data both in transit and at rest, applying security patches, and maintaining compliance with regulations. Without strong governance and operational oversight, cloud environments can rapidly become fragmented, insecure, and costly to manage.
The VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) alternative
VCF 9 helps organizations bring the advantages of the public cloud into their own environment, without losing control. It offers:
- Modern software defined infrastructure delivering cloud consumption experience on-premises
- Automated self-service infrastructure platform to deploy VMs/containers for developer agility
Hardened platform offering built in resilience, threat prevention, and fast recovery from disasters
Management hasn’t become irrelevant in the cloud era — it has become more essential than ever. Organizations that want to remain agile, compliant, and cost-effective need to prioritize strategic IT governance. With VMware Cloud Foundation, you gain full control over your private cloud without compromising on modern cloud benefits.
Learn how VCF can help you regain control in the cloud era. Visit our VMware Cloud Foundation page.
