Rightscale launches analytics on top of multi-cloud management tool

RightScale today came out with new functionality for its cloud management portfolio that helps customers not only control resources from multiple public clouds but also provide analytical insight about how those resources are being used.

Last year RigthScale bought Planforcloud.com, a company that specializes in analytical reports of cloud usage. Today, the fruits of that acquisition have come to bear with the beta release of Cloud Analyics. Analysts who track the industry say the tool is one of the first to combine management of multi-cloud environments with insight into how the resources are being consumed and techniques on how to optimize the usage.

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RightScale's Cloud Management platform allows customers to deploy and manage virtual machines across a variety of public cloud providers including Amazon Web Services, Windows Azure, VMware, OpenStack, Rackspace, Google, SoftLayer, HP, CloudStack and Datapipe. It also will manage on-premises virtualized and bare metal resources.

With the addition of Cloud Analytics customers can now aggregate billing information from those public cloud providers and get visualizations of usage. Cloud Analytics will track which users are accessing what resources and for how long, for example.

Planforcloud.com also includes future cloud spending predictions, which Rightscale has rolled into Cloud Analytics. Customers can estimate what their cloud spending will be across multiple providers to help choose which platform is best for which needs. These tools can be helpful to staff who manage cloud usage for a company because they will tell users if resources are being left on but not being used, and which cloud resources are being used most.

"RightScale Cloud Analytics is an important first step in integrating cloud analytics with cloud management across public and private clouds," says Holger Mueller, vice president and principal analyst for cloud computing at Constellation Research.

Customers have a variety of choices for cloud management platforms. Companies like VMware, BMC, Dell, HP and others each have tools for managing both public and private clouds. Then there are a variety of cloud optimizations tools from companies with Cloud Cruiser, Cloudability and Cloudyn, for example all provide these services. RightScale has combined the two.

Customers can sign up for a free beta version of Cloud Analytics, or use the tool as a standalone without the RigthScale Cloud Management platform for free.

Senior Writer Brandon Butler covers cloud computing for Network World and NetworkWorld.com. He can be reached at BButler@nww.com and found on Twitter at @BButlerNWW. Read his Cloud Chronicles here.