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18 Best Cloud Orchestration Platforms In 2023

The Best Cloud Orchestration Tools Shortlist

Here are the top 10 cloud orchestration platforms I’d like to highlight out of the 18 I cover in this article:

  1. 1. New Relic — Best for optimizing cloud-based application performance
  2. 2. Cyclr — Creating powerful integration workflows with minimum effort and low engineering overhead
  3. 3. Cloudify — Interoperability fostered through a single pane of glass consolidated view of cloud infrastructure
  4. 4. IBM Cloud Orchestrator — Enhanced data management and governance capabilities
  5. 5. AWS CloudFormation — Easy setup, deployment, and management of AWS resources in a repeatable manner
  6. 6. Cloudbolt — Unifying islands of disparate automation into a straight-forward cloud strategy
  7. 7. ActiveBatch — Provides a layered, architectural approach to workload automation
  8. 8. CloudHealth — Simplifies cloud operations with transparency that enhances compliance, governance, and financial accountability
  9. 9. Red Hat Ansible — Enterprise framework for building, deploying, and managing automation at scale
  10. 10. Puppet Bolt — Agentless task runner and automation tool that also handles multi-platform server configuration

Cloud orchestration platforms use automation to facilitate, manage, and coordinate IT operations in the cloud so organizations can create a cohesive workflow to achieve their business goals. 

The best cloud orchestration platforms enable cloud integrations across hybrid environments, achieving cost-effectiveness while simultaneously providing advanced functionality, optimum service delivery, and optimized productivity. 

Since cloud orchestration services have become an integral part of modern-day computing, I have taken the liberty to compile the 10 best cloud orchestration platforms. 

Comparison Criteria

Here's the summary of what I look for when evaluating the best cloud orchestration platforms:

  1. User Interface (UI):  A user and web interface that’s easy to understand and navigate. This is vital because cloud orchestration platforms are often multilayered ecosystems.
  2. Usability: Since cloud orchestrators are fairly complex systems, a user experience that enhances effectiveness and efficiency should be a highly sought objective of the platform.
  3. Integrations: The best platforms provide users with flexibility through both in-built and out-of-the-box integrations that supply functionality that isn’t native to the platform.
  4. Value for $: Even the most awesome features in a product need to be balanced against its cost-effectiveness. So, value for money reflects the utility of cost, quality, and ability to meet customer needs that the platform provides. 

Cloud Orchestration Platforms: Key Features

These are some of the key features a cloud orchestration platform needs to be productive, deliver value, and meet customer expectations.

  1. Infrastructure as code: This reflects the ability of the platform to allow provisioning and managing of its underlying infrastructure through machine-readable code rather than manual processes or physical hardware configuration.
  2. Container orchestration: Containerized applications have become the de facto standard for packaging and delivering software efficiently, especially on cloud platforms. As a result, a cloud orchestration platform should have an effective and efficient way of managing and deploying containers. 
  3. Multi-cloud support: Cloud computing is currently all the rage. Hence, a cloud orchestration platform must be adept at load balancing, scaling, and generally managing cloud workloads on the fly. It should be able to support private, public, and hybrid cloud models.
  4. API Automation: By necessity, cloud orchestration platforms need to juggle and coordinate complex, interconnected systems, tasks, and workflows. Hence, the need for well-rounded automation, typically administered through APIs, to configure and control a vast array of resources.

Overviews Of The 18 Best Cloud Orchestration Platforms

1

New Relic

Best for optimizing cloud-based application performance

New Relic is cloud-based orchestration software that helps you monitor and manage your software's performance.

The platform's real-time analytics give you a live look at how your software is performing so you can spot any issues before they become big problems. It also has a feature called APM (Application Performance Monitoring) that lets you see how each part of your software is doing. This is helpful for pinpointing where any issues might be coming from.

Key features include backend monitoring, Kubernetes monitoring, mobile monitoring, model performance monitoring, infrastructure monitoring, log management, error tracking, network monitoring, vulnerability management, and browser monitoring. 

Integrations include over 500 apps, like AWS, Google Cloud, and Microsoft Azure; CI/CD tools like Jenkins, CircleCI, and Travis CI; communication tools like Slack and PagerDuty; and other monitoring and analytics tools like Grafana, Datadog, and Splunk. It also has an API you can use to build custom integrations.

New Relic costs from $49/user/month and offers a free plan for 1 user and 100 GB/month of data ingest.

This is an aggregated rating for this tool including ratings from Crozdesk users and ratings from other sites.
4.3 411

Free version available

From $49/user/month

2

Cyclr

Creating powerful integration workflows with minimum effort and low engineering overhead

Cyclr is an embedded integration platform. It provides a scalable connection architecture that allows organizations to deliver native integration directly from their apps. This empowers SaaS applications with automation and powerful integration workflows.

Cyclr provides an orchestration layer to create connections with hundreds of third-party integrations. The software comes with a library of connectors that gives you a range of methods, actions, and events to activate when connecting to data sources.

Its low-code toolkit and drag-and-drop interface are suitable for those lacking much technical expertise who nonetheless want to build meaningful integrations and move data between applications with ease.

The monthly fees for its Startup and Growth product tiers are $899, and $1,799 respectively. Its Scale offering is listed as a customizable product, with pricing contingent upon selected features.

This is an aggregated rating for this tool including ratings from Crozdesk users and ratings from other sites.
4.8 32

The monthly fees for its Startup and Growth product tiers are $899, and $1,799 respectively

3

Cloudify

Interoperability fostered through a single pane of glass consolidated view of cloud infrastructure

Cloudify is an open-source DevOps automation solution that makes it easy to manage all your automation tools in one platform. This central point of management is built on automation portrayed as “Environment as a Service” that comprises built-in integrations and toolchains that allow it to manage heterogeneous environments.

In addition to providing multi-cloud and hybrid support, Cloudify is designed with an open architectural model that’s suitable for pluggability. Cloudify automates DevOp processes, allowing you to manage apps effectively, especially those with a high degree of complexity.

The platform is suited for those who desire to work on hybrid clouds and stacks without having to change their existing codebase, workflow, or processes. Cloudify brings together the best practices of automation and orchestration throughout the process of continuous transformation.

Cloudify’s Terraform Only plan, which targets Terraform teams, is free. Its All Technologies plan is free for 30 days. Its Starter and Pro plans are priced at $1,000 / month and $4,750 / month respectively. Cloudify’s Enterprise plan’s pricing is available upon request.

This is an aggregated rating for this tool including ratings from Crozdesk users and ratings from other sites.
4.1 18

30 Days Free Trial

$1,000 / month and $4,750 / month respectively.

4

IBM Cloud Orchestrator

Enhanced data management and governance capabilities

IBM Cloud Orchestrator is a user-friendly, highly customizable, and configurable cloud management platform. It provides automation tools to help DevOps to manage and oversee resources along the spectrum of private, public, and hybrid clouds.

The platform offers integrated IT workflow capabilities that include resource management, cost management, process automation, and IT governance.

IBM Cloud Orchestrator is equipped with toolkits that give users the building blocks to create a robust cloud infrastructure. It provides easy deployment, with simplified management and improved service delivery times. IBM presents you with a choice of either IBM Cloud Orchestrator or IBM Cloud Orchestrator Enterprise Edition.

IBM Cloud Orchestrator range of governance automation capabilities streamlines processes to stay in regulatory compliance.

IBM Cloud Orchestrator doesn’t offer any free trials. Pricing is available upon request.

5

AWS CloudFormation

Easy setup, deployment, and management of AWS resources in a repeatable manner

AWS CloudFormation is an infrastructure automation platform. It is used on the popular Amazon Web Services cloud platform as an infrastructure of code tool.

CloudFormation’s software-defined infrastructure lets organizations to provision, model, and manage both their AWS and third-party resources efficiently and effectively. It offers the choice of either YAML or JSON to automate resource management and even model your entire cloud environment.

Using built-in templates, administrators can provision, scale, manage, and deploy cloud infrastructure in multiple environments. As a managed AWS service, CloudFormation provides immense advantages with its interoperability and integration with other AWS solutions like AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM), and AWS Service Catalog, among others.

The platform is designed for those on AWS who want to reduce errors and inconsistencies of manual configuration.

AWS CloudFormation utilizes usage-based pricing and provides price estimates via its AWS Price Calculator.

6

Cloudbolt

Unifying islands of disparate automation into a straight-forward cloud strategy

While the cloud provides variety, the proliferation of tools has become a burdensome cognitive overload for IT operators. Cloudbolt seeks to cure this confusing patchwork by providing the means to interconnect it all.

Cloudbolt provides a secure and fast way to centralize IT orchestration for hybrid cloud resources in a cost-effective manner. The platform is designed to bring cohesion to an increasing multi-tool world, with its ability to bridge these tools across the organization to accelerate cloud transformation.

Cloudbolt enables enterprises to support a variety of technologies, including on-premise virtualization. Others range from private clouds to public and hybrid configurations.

Cloudbolt is ideal for enterprises that need the flexibility to optimize resources continuously in multi-cloud, multi-tool environments.

Cloudbolt provides pricing upon request.

7

ActiveBatch

Provides a layered, architectural approach to workload automation

ActiveBatch provides organizations with a single point of control to coordinate existing application automation tools and consolidate end-to-end workload automation. It provides organizations with dynamic, enterprise-wide task orchestration and visibility.ActiveBatch is a cross-platform solution that enables business critical systems like project management, work order management, ERP, CRMs, ETL tools operate seamlessly with little or no human intervention.ActiveBatch is equipped with robust monitoring and comes with a predefined library of automation tasks. Its low-code approach means it provides users with out-of-the-box ability to orchestrate their entire tech-stack with use cases such as enterprise batch scheduling, business process automation, big data automation, and much more.You can use almost limitless endpoints to achieve native integrations with ActiveBatch’s low-code REST API adapter and connect to servers, services, applications, and APIs.ActiveBatch pricing is available upon request.

8

CloudHealth

Simplifies cloud operations with transparency that enhances compliance, governance, and financial accountability

CloudHealth simplifies cloud operations by providing a single solution to undertake multi-cloud management systems. It is designed to help you manage resources while providing transparency across private and public cloud infrastructure.

CloudHealth’s real-time visibility, combined with its automatic data gathering capabilities, facilitates continuous cloud monitoring and performance analysis. The in-depth insights garnered enables businesses to optimize resources more effectively.

Also, its granular visibility into cloud operations enables businesses to adhere to compliance and governance policies. Moreover, CloudHealth allows you to report expenditure by cost center, which enhances financial accountability.

Due to its operational visibility, CloudHealth is ideal for cost-sensitive customers who need to stay on budget. CloudHealth integrates seamlessly with public cloud platforms and technologies like Ansible, Amazon, Google Cloud Platform, and Jira Cloud, among others.

CloudHealth provides a free trial for an unspecified period. Pricing is provided upon request.

9

Red Hat Ansible

Enterprise framework for building, deploying, and managing automation at scale

If you need to rapidly scale your enterprise automation activities (whether to create, share, or manage automation workflows), then Red Hat Ansible is your answer. Red Hat Ansible is powered by Red Hat Ansible Engine and Red Hat Ansible Tower. The former is an execution engine that contains hundreds of automation modules while the latter is a management interface for service integration.Red Hat Ansible can be used to automate various IT infrastructure components, like application deployment, security, cloud instances, networks, and configuration management with little or no scripting. It therefore allows users to leverage YAML to create Ansible Playbooks, which provide IT components with a list of user-defined tasks and to-do lists to execute in the particular sequence desired by the individual.Red Hat Ansible provides an automation mesh with enhanced security to create fault-tolerant and resilient architectures with flexible designs.Ansible Automation is simple and easy to use.This is because organizations can use the existing knowledge and expertise on their teams. It doesn’t require installing agents on servers or standard builds, and neither does it require you to change your existing infrastructure.Red Hat Ansible pricing is provided upon request and they offer a free trial.

Free Trial

Pricing is provided upon request

10

Puppet Bolt

Agentless task runner and automation tool that also handles multi-platform server configuration

Puppet Bolt is an open-source orchestration and server configuration tool. Bolt is simplified so you don’t need to learn as much before grasping its primary elements and commands. Bolt allows you to run simple plans instead of trying to orchestra complex workflows.

Part of the way Bolt does this is by enabling IT operators to manage configuration by code instead of manually. IT operators and DevOps engineers can write code in either YAML files or Bolt’s orchestration language known as “Plans”. This ultimately makes application and server management and deployment more efficient.

Bolt can be used to execute various services, including troubleshooting, deploying, patching, and updating systems. It’s equipped with a command-line tool that can be used as a robust remoting system.

Bolt is agentless, so it doesn’t require users to install on servers. Moreover, it supports multiple OSs and platforms such as Windows, Linux, and macOS.

Bolt is beneficial when you need a tool with a light footprint that can be managed remotely and configured by code.

No pricing is listed for Bolt although pricing is provided for Puppet upon request.

The Best Cloud Orchestration Platforms Summary

Tool Free Option Price
1
New Relic

Best for optimizing cloud-based application performance

Free version available

From $49/user/month Visit Website
2
Cyclr

Creating powerful integration workflows with minimum effort and low engineering overhead

Not available

The monthly fees for its Startup and Growth product tiers are $899, and $1,799 respectively Visit Website
3
Cloudify

Interoperability fostered through a single pane of glass consolidated view of cloud infrastructure

30 Days Free Trial

$1,000 / month and $4,750 / month respectively. Visit Website
4
IBM Cloud Orchestrator

Enhanced data management and governance capabilities

Free Trial

Visit Website
5
AWS CloudFormation

Easy setup, deployment, and management of AWS resources in a repeatable manner

Not available

Visit Website
6
Cloudbolt

Unifying islands of disparate automation into a straight-forward cloud strategy

Not available

Visit Website
7
ActiveBatch

Provides a layered, architectural approach to workload automation

Not available

Visit Website
8
CloudHealth

Simplifies cloud operations with transparency that enhances compliance, governance, and financial accountability

Free Trial

Visit Website
9
Red Hat Ansible

Enterprise framework for building, deploying, and managing automation at scale

Free Trial

Pricing is provided upon request Visit Website
10
Puppet Bolt

Agentless task runner and automation tool that also handles multi-platform server configuration

Not available

Visit Website

Other Options

Here are a few other honorable mentions that didn’t make the top list.

  1. Microsoft Azure Automation

    Cloud process automation and management solution across Azure and non-Azure ecosystems

  2. BMC Multi-Cloud Management

    Creating a seamless experience across multi-cloud environments

  3. Kubernetes

    De facto standard for enterprise container orchestration

  4. Chef

    Versatile configuration automation tool for heterogeneous and large-scale infrastructure.

  5. OpenStack

    One of the most widely adopted cloud platforms built on open standards

  6. vRealize Suite

    A cloud management solution that integrates VMware vRealize’s cloud management suite of products.

  7. Morpheus

    Self-service automation delivery and cloud orchestration with control over VM and container-based systems.

  8. Terraform

    Allows DevOps to describe their infrastructure as a code, then build, manage, and reuse resources across providers.

  9. Embotics

    A hybrid cloud management platform deep in IT Asset Management expertise.

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The Importance of Cloud Orchestration Platforms

The cloud optimizes the utilization of resources through on-demand delivery of IT resources. Cloud adoption and the rising complexity of today's IT environments have created the need for cloud orchestration platforms. Since its inception a couple of years ago, cloud adoption is steadily rising across industries. 

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By Eze Onukwube

Eze has a master's degree in communications with over 10 years of experience as a software engineer. His playground is at the intersection of technology, process improvement, and simplifying IT concepts.

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