Multi-cloud is becoming the new norm. According to Dimensional Research, 74% of organizations say they use multiple cloud providers, while 43% of them have applications that span multiple cloud instances. But that doesn’t mean on-premises environments are going away anytime soon…73% of organizations operate hybrid environments.

There are many good reasons for going multi-cloud, including:

  • leverage and avoid lock-in.
  • Price/Performance – Select the cloud provider that offers the best price or performance in a particular geography or for a particular set of capabilities.
  • Resiliency – You can run applications or store data on multiple clouds to ensure continuous availability in the event of a service outage.

A couple of things to keep in mind in a multi-cloud environment: First is that built-in cloud monitoring tools are vendor specific and won’t provide multi-cloud or even hybrid visibility you need. For example, you cannot use AWS CloudWatch to monitor Azure, nor will it provide visibility across your on-premises applications.

Secondly, because the built-in cloud monitoring tool resides within the IaaS infrastructure, if the service goes down, you lose visibility. You can no longer rely on this tool to do any sort of troubleshooting or security monitoring to ensure your data is safe from attack.

SteelCentral AppResponse Cloud: multi-cloud network and app visibility

The good news is that SteelCentral AppResponse Cloud provides multi-cloud visibility! In addition to monitoring AWS, now you can monitor and troubleshoot AWS GovCloud West, and Azure cloud applications and networks. AppResponse Cloud provides visibility into performance, cost, and security issues in the cloud.

SteelCentral AppResponse Cloud provides the same network and application visibility you are used to using in on-premises environments:

  • Auto-discovers 2,000+ applications. Identify worst performing apps, busiest apps by various metrics such as highest server turns, resets, bandwidth usage, etc.
  • Uses our famous response time composition charts to determine at a glance if slowdowns are caused by the network, cloud provider, or client.
  • Leverages TruePlot™ to isolate each unique transaction to quickly identify trends and patterns.
  • Stores up to 8TB of packets in the cloud so the details are there when you need them.
  • Provides built-in integrations with SteelCentral Packet Analyzer and Transaction Analyzer for packet and transaction analysis; with SteelCentral Portal, for dashboarding and central management; and with the REST API.
  • AppResponse Cloud becomes a source of rich flow data, called “SteelFlow Net,” that can be sent to SteelCentral NetProfiler for holistic cloud and hybrid cloud visibility.

Cloud telemetry

Below is a table that highlights the variety of telemetry options currently available for each AppResponse Cloud environment. Note that the Riverbed SteelCentral Agent is capable of both packet and flow output and that the Azure Virtual Network Tap (vTAP) is currently is preview or beta mode by Microsoft.

 

SteelCentral AppResponse Cloud telemetry options by cloud provider.

In a highly demanding digital world, where slow is the new off, IT organizations are expected to deliver consistently high levels of performance and end-user satisfaction for cloud apps. Dimensional Research finds that 80% of business users expect cloud environments to perform the same or better than on-premises environments, even though IT has less control over these environments. Without multi-cloud visibility, your ability to manage network, application and user expectations will be severely limited. What do you plan to do about it?

See a demo of SteelCentral AppResponse Cloud for Azure at Microsoft Ignite in Orlando, FL from November 4-8, at Riverbed booth 1635.

For more info on Riverbed’s cloud monitoring offerings: