My main use case for CloudBolt includes having a centralized self-service provisioning and orchestration, allowing me to manage hybrid and multi-cloud provisioning across AWS, Azure, GCP, VMware, and other cloud providers. I also leverage the platform for policy-driven cloud governance to enforce cost and compliance guardrails to our end customers, cost and usage visibility through chargebacks and showbacks reports, and infrastructure automation where CloudBolt integrates with various infrastructure as a code platforms, ITSM platforms, and workflows.

One specific example of how my team uses CloudBolt for self-service provisioning is that we have customers with footprints spread across public and private cloud environments, and we provide a centralized self-service platform where predefined blueprints or templates are available for them to provision resources. They can select the target cloud environment and provision resources using these templates. Another real-world example includes chargeback or showback, where we create different groups in the organization and use the platform to provide reports based on their resource consumption.

My main use cases for CloudBolt are self-service provisioning, governance and cloud guardrails, cost and usage visibility, and infrastructure automation.

The best features CloudBolt offers include governance and policy control, allowing security teams to set up their specific guardrails with governance at scale. Multi or hybrid cloud abstraction provides a single pane of glass for different types of environments, and self-service catalogs enable technical or business users to request services without multiple tickets. CloudBolt also offers strong integration capabilities that work well with existing tools without disrupting the current environment.

From an integration standpoint, CloudBolt works well with various public and private cloud providers, including AWS, Azure, GCP, VMware, and Nutanix, as well as different virtualization software, infrastructure as code templates such as Ansible and Terraform, ITSM tools such as ServiceNow, and CMDB platforms.

CloudBolt has positively impacted my organization by managing multiple cloud environments for thousands of users with a complex enterprise workflow that has helped reduce man-hours required for provisioning resources. We have achieved faster delivery through standardized operating procedures and reduced reworks due to automation. The chargeback and showback mechanisms allow us to charge different business units according to their consumption, providing better governance, lower risk, and lower cost, resulting in a good return on investment.

Since using CloudBolt, I have seen a 25 to 30 percent reduction in service delivery time and an improvement in efficiency of almost 20 to 25 percent within a timeframe of approximately 8 to 10 months.

To improve CloudBolt, I believe the user experience needs enhancement as some users find it somewhat dated compared to newer cloud management platforms. From a telemetry and analytics perspective, while cost insights are good, they are not as advanced as those in a pure cost optimization or FinOps platform. Additionally, marketplace integrations are not as extensive as standalone automation or cost platforms.

I have been using CloudBolt since approximately 2018 or 2019, so I would say, give or take six years.

For others looking into using CloudBolt, I advise defining governance policies early, focusing on building modular automation, and planning integrations in advance, such as IAM, CMDB, or security aspects. It is critical to not overlook the cost models associated with deploying workloads in public cloud and to ensure governance and guardrails are in place when leveraging the platform. Establishing strong policies around resource provisioning and implementing tags when different teams are deploying resources is essential to track costs effectively.

CloudBolt is a truly good platform with strong capabilities, especially considering recent acquisitions such as StormForge for Kubernetes optimization and Kumulus and SovLabs in the past, positioning it well for the future as a single pane of glass for managing different public and private cloud providers. I would rate this platform an 8 out of 10.