
Table Of Contents
- What are Infrastructure Management Tools?
- What are the Benefits of Infrastructure Management Tools?
- Kubernetes / Rancher / OpenShift
- Simplyblock
- Terraform / OpenTofu
- Ansible
- Puppet
- Pulumi
- SaltStack
- OpenStack
- DataDog
- Progress Chef
- KubeVirt
- OpenNebula
- AppDynamics
- Foreman
- Prometheus
- Simplyblock and Infrastructure Management Tools?
Managing cloud and on-prem infrastructures is crucial for business operations. Hence, infrastructure management tools have become the norm to help operate on-premise and cloud environments. These tools provide a comprehensive suite of tools for provisioning, operating, managing, and monitoring infrastructure resources.
What are Infrastructure Management Tools?
Infrastructure management tools help businesses efficiently oversee their cloud and bare metal resources and services. These tools simplify tasks such as deploying applications, monitoring performance, optimizing resource usage, and ensuring security across cloud environments.
Managing cloud operations manually can be challenging with the increasing complexity of cloud infrastructures and the wide range of services providers offer. Infrastructure management tools automate processes, improve scalability, and provide valuable insights into resource utilization, helping organizations stay cost-efficient and agile.
These tools allow businesses to automate repetitive tasks, reduce operational costs, prevent downtime, and ensure their cloud environment aligns with their strategic goals. However, to fully leverage their capabilities, organizations need a skilled IT team to implement and maintain them effectively.

What are the Benefits of Infrastructure Management Tools?
Infrastructure management tools offer numerous benefits that help businesses optimize cloud operations and maintain a reliable, efficient IT environment. Some key advantages include:
- Automation and Efficiency: These tools automate routine tasks such as resource provisioning, monitoring, and scaling. They reduce the need for manual intervention and allow teams to focus on strategic initiatives.
- Cost Optimization: By tracking provisioned resources, they prevent dangling and forgotten ones, helping to prevent unexpected cost buildup.
- Improved Performance and Reliability: Continuous monitoring and real-time alerts help detect and resolve issues proactively. They ensure smooth operations and minimal downtime.
- Enhanced Security and Compliance: Infrastructure management tools provide security features such as access controls, encryption, and compliance monitoring. They help businesses meet industry standards and protect sensitive data.
- Scalability and Flexibility: As businesses need to evolve, these tools enable seamless scaling of resources to accommodate growth without significant disruptions. Organizations can leverage infrastructure management tools to enhance operational efficiency, control costs, and maintain a secure and resilient cloud environment.
Kubernetes / Rancher / OpenShift
Kubernetes is an open-source container orchestration platform that automates the deployment, scaling, and management of containerized applications across clusters of machines. It provides features such as automated load balancing, self-healing, rolling updates, and service discovery. Kubernetes is the de facto standard for container orchestration in cloud-native environments. Additionally, Kubernetes manages all necessary components and resources required for system operation, such as ingress services, container storage, IP addresses, and more. Kubernetes is the basis for many other platforms, such as SUSE Rancher and Red Hat OpenShift.
Simplyblock
Simplyblock is a high-performance, software-defined storage platform optimized for cloud-native environments, particularly Kubernetes. It intelligently manages data across multiple storage tiers, including high-performance NVMe disks, SSDs, HDDs, and object storage, ensuring optimal performance and cost-efficiency for various workloads. By leveraging NVMe over TCP, Simplyblock provides low-latency, high-throughput storage solutions suitable for I/O-intensive and latency-sensitive applications such as databases, AI/ML pipelines, and big data analytics. Its features include intelligent data tiering, thin provisioning, compression, encryption, and cross-region disaster recovery, making it a versatile and resilient choice for modern enterprises seeking scalable and efficient storage solutions.
Terraform / OpenTofu
Terraform is an open-source Infrastructure as Code (IaC) tool developed by HashiCorp that enables users to define, provision, and manage cloud and on-premises infrastructure using declarative configuration files. It supports multiple cloud providers, including AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud, allowing for infrastructure automation, scalability, and consistency across environments. Terraform uses a state management system to track resource changes and provides features like modularity and version control, making it a powerful tool for DevOps teams. In the recent past, concerns arose due to licensing changes from HashiCorp. Terraform was forked out into the OpenTofu project to provide an alternative. Simplyblock uses Terraform or OpenTofu for Linux deployments.
Ansible
Ansible is an open-source automation tool used for configuration management, application deployment, and infrastructure orchestration. It allows users to define system configurations using simple YAML-based files called playbooks, making automating repetitive tasks across cloud, on-premises, and hybrid environments easy. Ansible operates agentlessly, meaning it doesn’t require software installation on target machines, relying instead on SSH or WinRM for communication. With its declarative approach, idempotency, and extensive module ecosystem, Ansible helps streamline IT operations, improve consistency, and accelerate deployments in DevOps workflows.
Puppet
Perforce Puppet, commonly known as Puppet, is an open-source configuration management and automation tool that enables organizations to define infrastructure as code (IaC) and enforce system configurations across large-scale environments. It helps automate repetitive administrative tasks such as software installation, system configuration, and compliance enforcement by using declarative manifests written in Puppet’s domain-specific language (DSL). Puppet operates in agent-based and agentless modes, using a client-server architecture to ensure consistency across servers, workstations, and cloud instances. Acquired by Perforce in 2022, Puppet continues to be widely used in enterprises to improve operational efficiency, compliance, and infrastructure scalability.
Pulumi
Pulumi is an open-source Infrastructure as Code (IaC) platform that allows developers and DevOps teams to define, deploy, and manage cloud infrastructure using familiar programming languages such as Python, JavaScript, TypeScript, Go, and C#. Unlike traditional IaC tools that rely on domain-specific languages (DSLs), Pulumi leverages general-purpose programming languages to provide greater flexibility, code reuse, and integration with existing software development workflows. It supports multiple cloud providers, including AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, and Kubernetes, enabling infrastructure management across hybrid and multi-cloud environments. Pulumi offers features like state management, policy enforcement, and automation, making it a powerful solution for modern cloud-native infrastructure development.
SaltStack
SaltStack, commonly referred to as Salt, is an open-source automation and configuration management tool designed to manage and orchestrate infrastructure at scale. It enables system administrators and DevOps teams to automate provisioning, configuration enforcement, remote execution, and cloud management across large, complex environments. Salt uses a master-minion architecture, where the master node issues commands and configurations to minions (managed nodes) via an efficient, event-driven communication system. It also supports an agentless mode using SSH. SaltStack is known for its speed, scalability, and flexibility, making it ideal for dynamic environments requiring real-time infrastructure automation. Acquired by VMware in 2020, Salt continues to be widely used for IT automation, compliance enforcement, and security management.
OpenStack
OpenStack is a popular open-source cloud computing platform that provides software tools for building and managing public, private, and hybrid clouds. It enables organizations to virtualize and orchestrate pools of compute, storage, and networking resources through a unified dashboard or API. Designed for scalability and flexibility, OpenStack supports a wide range of hypervisors, storage backends, and network technologies, making it adaptable to diverse use cases. Its modular architecture consists of components like Nova (compute), Swift (object storage), Neutron (networking), and others, allowing users to customize their cloud environment. OpenStack is widely used in industries ranging from telecommunications to academia, offering a cost-effective alternative to proprietary cloud solutions.
DataDog
Datadog is a cloud-based monitoring and analytics platform that provides visibility into infrastructure performance, applications, and services. It integrates seamlessly with various technologies, including cloud providers, containers, databases, and more, to collect and analyze real-time metrics, logs, and traces. Datadog’s unified dashboard allows teams to monitor system health, identify performance bottlenecks, and troubleshoot issues efficiently. It also offers powerful alerting and automation capabilities to ensure timely anomaly responses. Designed for modern, dynamic environments, Datadog is widely used by DevOps, IT, and engineering teams to enhance operational efficiency and drive informed decision-making.
Progress Chef
Progress Chef (formerly Chef) is a powerful automation platform that enables organizations to manage and configure their IT infrastructure and applications efficiently. It uses a declarative, code-based approach to define system states, ensuring consistency and reliability across environments. Chef automates tasks such as provisioning servers, deploying applications, and applying security policies, reducing manual effort and minimizing errors. Focusing on DevOps practices, Chef integrates seamlessly with cloud providers, container platforms, and CI/CD pipelines, enabling teams to accelerate deployments and maintain compliance. Businesses widely use it to achieve infrastructure as code (IaC) and drive operational efficiency at scale.
KubeVirt
KubeVirt is an open-source extension to Kubernetes that enables users to run and manage virtual machines (VMs) alongside containerized workloads in a unified platform. By integrating VMs into Kubernetes, KubeVirt allows organizations to modernize their infrastructure by consolidating legacy applications and container-native services within a single orchestration framework. It provides features such as virtual machine lifecycle management, networking, and storage capabilities, leveraging Kubernetes-native concepts like pods, namespaces, and persistent volumes. This hybrid approach simplifies the transition to cloud-native architectures while supporting traditional workloads, making KubeVirt an ideal solution for organizations with diverse application needs.
OpenNebula
OpenNebula is an open-source cloud management platform designed to simplify private, public, and hybrid cloud deployment and operation. It provides a unified interface to orchestrate virtualized resources, including compute, storage, and networking, across various environments such as on-premises data centers, edge locations, and public cloud providers. OpenNebula supports a wide range of hypervisors and container technologies, offering flexibility for diverse workloads. Its lightweight architecture and user-friendly tools make it an efficient solution for small to medium-sized enterprises and edge computing use cases. With features like multi-tenancy, self-service portals, and automation, OpenNebula helps organizations achieve cost-effective and scalable cloud infrastructure.
AppDynamics
AppDynamics is a comprehensive application performance monitoring (APM) and management platform that helps businesses ensure the optimal performance of their applications and infrastructure. It provides deep insights into application behavior by monitoring metrics such as response times, resource utilization, and user interactions in real-time. By using advanced analytics and AI-driven anomaly detection, AppDynamics enables teams to quickly identify and resolve performance bottlenecks, preventing downtime and enhancing user experience. AppDynamics supports distributed applications, cloud environments, and microservices. It is a powerful tool for IT and DevOps teams to maintain application reliability and align performance with business goals.
Foreman
Foreman is an open-source lifecycle management tool that simplifies the provisioning, configuration, and monitoring of physical and virtual servers. Designed to integrate seamlessly with various virtualization platforms, cloud providers, and configuration management tools like Puppet, Ansible, and Chef, Foreman enables organizations to automate repetitive tasks and ensure consistency across their infrastructure. It provides bare-metal provisioning, host management, and detailed reporting through a user-friendly web interface and API. With its modular architecture and support for multi-tenant environments, Foreman is widely used by DevOps and IT teams to streamline server lifecycle management, improve operational efficiency, and maintain infrastructure compliance.
Prometheus
Prometheus is an open-source systems monitoring and alerting toolkit for reliability and scalability in dynamic environments. Originally developed at SoundCloud, Prometheus is now a part of the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF). It is widely adopted for monitoring cloud-native applications and collects metrics from configured targets. Prometheus stores these metrics in a time-series database and provides a powerful query language (PromQL) for analysis and visualization. With built-in alerting capabilities and seamless integration with tools like Grafana for dashboards, Prometheus monitors complex distributed systems. Its pull-based architecture, support for service discovery, and high modularity make it a popular choice for DevOps teams managing modern infrastructure.
Simplyblock and Infrastructure Management Tools?
Simplyblock is a cloud-native storage solution designed to enhance the performance and efficiency of IO-intensive, latency-sensitive workloads in Kubernetes environments. It complements infrastructure management tools like Kubernetes, OpenShift, Prometheus, OpenNebula, and CloudStack by providing high-performance, scalable block storage.
In Kubernetes deployments, Simplyblock integrates seamlessly as a StorageClass through the Container Storage Interface (CSI), enabling dynamic provisioning of storage resources for stateful applications. This integration ensures that applications requiring high throughput and low latency have access to optimized storage solutions.
When used alongside infrastructure-as-code tools like Terraform, simplyblock allows for the automated deployment and management of storage resources, ensuring consistency and repeatability across various environments. Furthermore, simplyblock uses Terraform or OpenTofu when deployed outside of Kubernetes. For Kubernetes-based deployment, simplyblock uses a helm chart.
For monitoring and observability, Simplyblock’s performance metrics can be integrated with tools like Prometheus or logging solutions such as GreyLog, providing the necessary storage capacity to store the metrics but also enabling real-time insights into storage performance and health. This visibility allows for proactive management and troubleshooting within the infrastructure.
Just as with Kubernetes, in virtualized environments managed by platforms like OpenNebula and KubeVirt, Simplyblock offers scalable and efficient storage solutions, ensuring that virtual machines and container workloads can access the necessary storage performance and capacity.
By incorporating Simplyblock into your infrastructure management stack, you can achieve enhanced storage performance, scalability, and cost-efficiency, ensuring your applications run smoothly and reliably across diverse environments. Get started now.