Cloud-based monitoring company Datadog on Thursday announced that it acquired Cloudcraft, a visualization service for cloud and systems architects that lets them create real-time diagrams of their cloud infrastructures.
Modeling cloud environments helps organizations more effectively design their cloud infrastructures. However, traditional modeling and design tools are static, so they are often outdated as soon as the documentation gets published.
Cloudcraft addresses this issue by delivering real-time visualization of cloud infrastructures. The platform analyzes service relationships within customers' AWS environments, reverse engineers a system architecture diagram, and then automatically updates that diagram in line with infrastructure changes.
"Our goal is to help organizations make better cloud architecture decisions by creating real-time visualizations built on data and metrics," said Tomas Junnonen, founder and CEO of Cloudcraft. "The acquisition by Datadog will enable us to further this mission through richer models, actionable insights and multi-cloud support."
Stephen Elliot, group vice president, I&O, Cloud Operations, and DevOps at IDC, said while meshing/aligning cloud topology/architecture information with observability data is an interesting concept, it remains to be seen if Cloudcraft users can make the jump from thinking about architecture creation to thinking about observability data and requirements.
“For highly modern, cloud-native IT shops, it’s a much closer reality than the majority of the marketplace today — regardless of company size,” Elliot said. “The deal does get Datadog another community of developers and architects that are driving modern cloud architectures in their organizations. On the customer journey/persona front, this should add more potential on-ramps for deals and attach opportunities, as Datadog continues to expand brand awareness. It’s a clever tactic.”
John Yun, vice president, product strategy at ColorTokens, that an important benefit of the cloud is its dynamic and ephemeral nature. While it offers many benefits to the organization, Yun said it’s also proving challenging for cloud and security architects to keep track.
“As quickly as new resources are spun up and torn down, so are related cyberattacks,” Yun said. “The focus toward real-time visualization of the cloud environment, as well as equally dynamic security and vulnerability assessment are critical and a must-have for modern organizations as they expand their hybrid and cloud footprint.”
