Configuration management as a multi-cloud enabler

The deployment of applications in hybrid and multi-cloud environments avoids vendor lock-in and reliance on a single cloud provider. The virtual compute infrastructures of IaaS provides enables enterprises to build large scale, geo-graphically distributed applications. Each IaaS provider offers virtual machines that can communicate with each other over a virtual network. However, each IaaS provider exposes subtle differences in the support for virtual machines, storage, networking, routing, etc. In this position paper we argue that configuration management is an enabler for multi-cloud environments by making abstraction of the above mentioned differences in the IaaS platforms, through configuration management. We illustrate this claim by using configuration management to address the challenges associated with multi-cloud environments.