Top Open-Source Multi-Cloud Management Platforms in 2025

As organizations increasingly adopt multiple cloud providers to avoid vendor lock-in and leverage best-of-breed services, managing these diverse environments has become a significant challenge. Multi-cloud management platforms have emerged as essential tools for organizations seeking to efficiently orchestrate resources across AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, and other providers. These platforms provide unified interfaces and automation capabilities that simplify complex cloud operations. In this article, we’ll explore the top open-source multi-cloud management platforms in 2025 that help organizations streamline their cloud infrastructure management without the burden of expensive licensing fees.

Why Multi-Cloud Management Matters

The multi-cloud approach has become the norm rather than the exception for modern enterprises. According to recent industry surveys, over 85% of organizations now use multiple cloud providers. This strategy offers numerous advantages, including improved resilience, cost optimization, and access to specialized services. However, it also introduces significant complexity in managing disparate environments with different interfaces, APIs, and service models.

Multi-cloud management platforms address these challenges by providing a unified layer for controlling resources across cloud providers. They enable organizations to implement consistent governance policies, automate deployments, optimize costs, and maintain security standards across their entire cloud estate. For organizations committed to open-source technologies, several robust platforms have emerged that offer enterprise-grade capabilities without vendor lock-in or expensive licensing costs.

Top Multi-Cloud Management Platforms in 2025

Here’s our ranked list of the most effective multi-cloud management platforms available today, including both open-source and commercial options:

Open-Source Solutions

1. Apache CloudStack

Apache CloudStack stands as one of the most mature open-source cloud management platforms in the ecosystem. Originally developed by Cloud.com and later acquired by Citrix before being donated to the Apache Software Foundation, CloudStack has evolved into a comprehensive solution for managing large-scale infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) environments across multiple cloud providers.

CloudStack provides a unified management interface for administrators to deploy and manage compute, storage, and network resources across different cloud environments. Its architecture includes a management server and various hypervisor hosts, supporting popular virtualization technologies like KVM, VMware, and XenServer. The platform offers robust API support, making it highly extensible and capable of integrating with various cloud services.

What makes CloudStack particularly valuable is its ability to abstract the underlying complexity of different cloud providers, presenting users with a consistent experience regardless of where their resources are deployed. Its mature feature set includes advanced networking capabilities, resource metering, and user management, making it suitable for enterprise deployments.

2. Kubernetes with Multi-Cloud Operators

Kubernetes has become the de facto standard for container orchestration, and with the addition of multi-cloud operators and management tools, it has evolved into a powerful platform for managing workloads across diverse cloud environments. While Kubernetes itself focuses on container orchestration rather than comprehensive cloud management, the ecosystem around it has expanded to address multi-cloud scenarios.

Projects like Crossplane extend Kubernetes with custom resource definitions (CRDs) that represent cloud provider resources, allowing users to provision and manage infrastructure across multiple clouds using Kubernetes-native workflows. Similarly, the Cluster API project enables consistent cluster provisioning and lifecycle management across different environments.

The Kubernetes approach to multi-cloud management is particularly appealing to organizations that have already standardized on containers and are looking to extend their existing Kubernetes expertise to manage their broader cloud infrastructure. By leveraging familiar tools and concepts, teams can reduce the learning curve associated with multi-cloud operations.

3. Terraform with Multi-Cloud Providers

HashiCorp’s Terraform has emerged as a leading infrastructure-as-code tool that supports multiple cloud providers through its provider ecosystem. While Terraform itself is open-source, its enterprise features require paid licenses. However, the core functionality provides robust capabilities for defining and deploying infrastructure across various cloud environments using a declarative approach.

Terraform’s provider model allows users to define resources for AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, and many other providers using a consistent syntax. This enables teams to standardize their infrastructure definitions and deployment processes across different cloud platforms. Terraform’s state management capabilities help track deployed resources and manage dependencies, making it easier to maintain complex multi-cloud environments.

When combined with other open-source tools like Terragrunt for configuration management and Atlantis for collaborative workflows, Terraform forms a powerful foundation for multi-cloud infrastructure management. Organizations can implement modular, reusable infrastructure definitions that encapsulate best practices and compliance requirements across their cloud estate.

4. ManageIQ

ManageIQ, the upstream project behind Red Hat CloudForms, offers comprehensive management capabilities for virtual, private, and hybrid cloud infrastructures. As an open-source platform, ManageIQ provides a unified interface for managing resources across multiple cloud providers, virtualization platforms, and container environments.

The platform excels in areas like compliance and governance, offering policy-based resource management that helps organizations maintain consistent standards across different environments. ManageIQ’s discovery and inventory capabilities provide visibility into cloud resources, while its automation features enable streamlined operations through customizable workflows.

One of ManageIQ’s strengths is its extensive integration ecosystem, supporting major cloud providers like AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud, as well as virtualization platforms like VMware and Red Hat Virtualization. This makes it particularly valuable for organizations with heterogeneous environments that need a unified management approach.

5. OpenStack

OpenStack continues to be a significant player in the open-source cloud management space, particularly for organizations looking to build private clouds while maintaining compatibility with public cloud environments. While traditionally focused on private cloud implementations, OpenStack has evolved to support hybrid and multi-cloud scenarios through projects like Heat (orchestration) and Horizon (dashboard).

The platform’s modular architecture allows organizations to select the components they need, from compute and storage services to networking and identity management. This flexibility makes OpenStack adaptable to various use cases and integration scenarios. Projects like StarlingX extend OpenStack’s capabilities to edge computing environments, further broadening its applicability.

For multi-cloud management, OpenStack’s standardized API approach provides a consistent interface that can be extended to interact with public cloud services. Organizations can leverage this consistency to implement hybrid workflows that span private OpenStack deployments and public cloud resources.

6. OpenTofu

OpenTofu is a community-governed fork of Terraform that maintains the familiar infrastructure-as-code workflow while restoring fully open-source licensing under the Linux Foundation. It aims to remain configuration-compatible with Terraform, supports the same provider ecosystem, and offers a straightforward migration path for teams standardizing multi-cloud provisioning through code.

OpenTofu was created in response to HashiCorp’s license change from MPL 2.0 to Business Source License. The project implements the provider registry protocol and works with the same provider and module model that powers multi-cloud coverage. It uses familiar commands like tofu plan to preview changes before applying them, helping keep changes predictable and safe.

For organizations committed to true open-source solutions, OpenTofu provides enterprise-grade capabilities without licensing concerns. The Linux Foundation governance ensures neutral, community-driven development while maintaining compatibility with existing Terraform configurations.

7. Cloudify

Cloudify is an open-source, model-driven orchestration platform used to standardize provisioning and day-2 operations across hybrid and multi-cloud estates. It models services with TOSCA-based blueprints, then automates lifecycle actions while plugging into tools such as Terraform, Ansible, Kubernetes, and cloud-native stacks.

Cloudify’s TOSCA blueprints describe applications and their relationships in YAML, enabling consistent orchestration across clouds and automation domains. Official plugins and blueprints work with Terraform, Kubernetes, Helm, and more to compose end-to-end workflows. The platform’s ServiceNow integration allows teams to expose Cloudify actions through a Service Catalog and embed orchestration in ITSM workflows.

The Environment-as-a-Service approach packages infrastructure, networking, and automation into reusable “environments” to speed delivery and enforce guardrails. In January 2023, Cloudify became part of Dell Technologies, though the project and documentation remain available publicly.

8. OpenNebula

OpenNebula is an open-source cloud and edge platform that lets you build private, hybrid, and edge IaaS with unified management across KVM, VMware, and container workloads. It is developed by the OpenNebula community and company, released under the Apache 2.0 license, with an Enterprise Edition packaged under commercial terms for subscribers.

OpenNebula provides a simple yet powerful approach to building and managing private clouds while maintaining compatibility with public cloud environments. Its architecture supports multiple hypervisors and provides a consistent interface for managing virtual machines, containers, and storage resources across different infrastructure types.

The platform’s edge computing capabilities make it particularly valuable for organizations deploying distributed infrastructure. OpenNebula’s lightweight footprint and flexible architecture allow it to run efficiently in edge locations while maintaining centralized management and control.

9. Cloud Foundry

Cloud Foundry is an open-source, multi-cloud platform as a service governed by the Cloud Foundry Foundation. Developers use the cf push workflow to deploy apps quickly, and the ecosystem now includes Kubernetes-native efforts such as cf-for-k8s and Korifi to bring the same developer experience to Kubernetes.

Cloud Foundry abstracts away infrastructure complexity, allowing developers to focus on application code rather than underlying infrastructure details. The platform handles application deployment, scaling, health management, and service binding automatically, providing a streamlined developer experience across different cloud environments.

For organizations looking to provide a consistent platform-as-a-service experience across multiple clouds, Cloud Foundry offers a mature, battle-tested solution. Its support for multiple languages and frameworks, combined with its extensible service broker architecture, makes it adaptable to diverse application requirements.

Commercial Solutions

1. Spacelift

Spacelift is an infrastructure-as-code (IaC) orchestration platform that centralizes provisioning, configuration, and governance across multiple clouds and IaC tools. It layers policy, workflow automation, auditing, and integrations on top of systems like Terraform/OpenTofu, Pulumi, CloudFormation, and Kubernetes, working with major clouds to provide a consistent, security-focused operating model for platform teams.

Spacelift supports multi-IaC, multi-cloud orchestration across Terraform, OpenTofu, Pulumi, CloudFormation, Kubernetes, Terragrunt, and more—letting teams standardize workflows across AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud. The platform’s policy-as-code capabilities using Open Policy Agent (OPA/Rego) enforce fine-grained guardrails on plans, applies, and workflows, with an official example library.

Key features include drift detection that continuously checks actual state versus desired state, GitOps integration with GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket, and Azure DevOps that triggers runs from code changes, and short-lived cloud credentials (OIDC) that exchange tokens to avoid long-lived static keys. For organizations seeking a modern, security-first approach to multi-cloud IaC management, Spacelift provides enterprise-grade capabilities with a free tier available.

2. VMware Aria

VMware Aria (formerly VMware vRealize) offers a comprehensive suite of multi-cloud management tools designed to provide consistent operations across private, hybrid, and public clouds. The platform excels at providing unified visibility, operations, automation, and governance across diverse cloud environments.

Aria’s strengths include its mature automation capabilities, deep integration with VMware’s virtualization stack, and extensive support for public cloud providers. For organizations with significant VMware investments, Aria provides a natural extension into multi-cloud management while leveraging existing skills and processes.

3. Morpheus Data

Morpheus Data provides a unified multi-cloud management platform that emphasizes self-service capabilities and automation. The platform supports over 20 cloud providers and virtualization platforms, making it one of the most versatile commercial solutions available.

What sets Morpheus apart is its focus on application-centric management rather than just infrastructure provisioning. The platform provides tools for managing the entire application lifecycle across different cloud environments, including provisioning, monitoring, logging, and backup/recovery functions.

4. CloudBolt

CloudBolt offers a flexible multi-cloud management solution that emphasizes ease of use and extensibility. The platform provides a self-service portal for resource provisioning, cost management tools, and automation capabilities that help organizations standardize their cloud operations.

One of CloudBolt’s strengths is its plugin architecture, which allows organizations to extend the platform’s capabilities and integrate with their existing tools and processes. This flexibility makes CloudBolt particularly valuable for organizations with complex, heterogeneous environments.

5. Scalr

Scalr provides a Terraform automation and collaboration platform that helps organizations implement infrastructure as code across multiple cloud providers. The platform offers centralized governance, cost management, and self-service capabilities that complement Terraform’s core functionality.

For organizations that have standardized on Terraform, Scalr provides valuable enterprise features without requiring a complete platform change. This focused approach makes Scalr an efficient choice for teams that want to enhance their existing Terraform workflows rather than adopting an entirely new management platform.

6. Nutanix Cloud Manager

Nutanix Cloud Manager (NCM) is Nutanix’s multi-cloud management suite that unifies day-0/1/2 operations, self-service automation, cost governance, and security/compliance across private datacenters and public clouds. It’s delivered both as software integrated with the Nutanix platform and as SaaS, giving platform teams a single control plane to provision, operate, secure, and optimize hybrid environments.

NCM’s intelligent operations (AIOps) provide capacity planning, anomaly detection, rightsizing, and low-code automation to keep infrastructure healthy and efficient. The self-service and orchestration capabilities (formerly Calm) offer a role-aware catalog, blueprint-driven provisioning, and lifecycle automation with a Python-based DSL for IaC-style app definitions.

The platform’s cost governance and FinOps features provide centralized cost visibility, policies, and optimization workflows to control spend across hybrid and multicloud estates. Security Central (SaaS) delivers continuous compliance and threat/vulnerability insights with automated incident response and microsegmentation planning.

7. Flexera One

Flexera One is a multi-cloud management and FinOps platform that focuses on cost visibility, governance, and automation across public clouds and hybrid estates. It evolved from Flexera’s 2018 acquisition of RightScale and now bundles cloud cost optimization with broader IT asset/technology intelligence, delivered primarily as SaaS.

Flexera One provides FinOps-grade cost optimization by consolidating cloud spend and usage, providing budgets/forecasts, and recommending savings (e.g., rightsizing, commitment planning) across major clouds. The platform uses policy-driven governance with rules/policies to automate guardrails for cost, security, and operations, preventing issues rather than just reporting them.

The cloud inventory and analytics capabilities normalize cost and resource data and expose it through dashboards and APIs for billing, budgets, and queries. Flexera One extends governance to SaaS applications and cloud software licensing to curb shadow IT and optimize subscriptions.

8. Platform9

Platform9 is a SaaS-based multi-cloud management platform centered on Kubernetes and OpenStack. It provides a hosted control plane that deploys, operates, and upgrades clusters across on-premises datacenters, public clouds, and edge sites, and it also targets Amazon EKS cost/efficiency via its Elastic Machine Pool offering.

Platform9 Managed Kubernetes (PMK) delivers centrally managed clusters with 24×7 support and SLA, spanning on-prem, public cloud, and edge. The platform also offers managed OpenStack private cloud with a cloud-hosted control plane that deploys and operates OpenStack on your infrastructure, handling monitoring and upgrades remotely.

The hybrid and edge coverage is designed to run consistently across private, public, and edge footprints, giving one place to manage clusters and apps across locations. Platform9 also offers private-cloud virtualization and container management options for enterprises consolidating VM and Kubernetes estates.

9. Densify

Densify is an AI-driven optimization platform used alongside multi-cloud management stacks to keep resources right-sized and applications performant across AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, and Kubernetes. It analyzes workload demand and platform constraints, then generates precise, actionable recommendations and can enforce guardrails.

Densify’s workload-precise rightsizing recommends the optimal instance/VM type and size per workload, factoring in technical and policy constraints to cut cost while meeting performance. For Kubernetes environments, it automates requests/limits and node sizing guidance to remove guesswork from container capacity and stability tuning.

The platform’s guardrails and policy enforcement standardize resource choices, while APIs and IaC/automation hooks connect into automation pipelines and IaC workflows so recommendations can be applied programmatically at scale.

10. CloudZero

CloudZero specializes in cloud cost intelligence across multi-cloud environments. While not a comprehensive management platform, CloudZero excels at providing granular visibility into cloud spending across AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, and platforms like Kubernetes, Snowflake, and Databricks.

CloudZero provides accurate multi-cloud cost allocation, allocating shared, untagged, and Kubernetes costs so teams see the true cost of what they run. The platform’s unit cost analytics track metrics such as cost per customer or cost per transaction to connect engineering decisions with business outcomes.

The AnyCost ingestion capability brings in spend from any cloud or SaaS source to get a single, consistent view of costs. Anomaly detection and investigation surface trends and unusual spend, allowing teams to drill into root causes to prevent surprises. The engineering-friendly workflows decentralize cost data to product and platform teams so they can act quickly and improve efficiency.

11. nOps

nOps is a FinOps platform that concentrates on automated cost optimization for AWS while expanding cost visibility across multi-cloud footprints. It manages commitments and compute on autopilot, provides granular allocation for AWS, Kubernetes, SaaS and GenAI spend, and gives partners built-in tooling for Well-Architected reviews.

nOps’ automated compute and commitment optimization orchestrates Savings Plans, Reserved Instances, and Spot with nOps Compute Copilot and Karpenter to keep performance steady while lowering cost. The platform provides full cost visibility and allocation, consolidating AWS, Kubernetes, GenAI and SaaS costs with business-level filters such as product, team, or customer.

Event-driven remediation uses nSwitch with Amazon EventBridge to pause, reconfigure, and right-size resources automatically. The platform speeds AWS Well-Architected reviews for partners and supports Azure Well-Architected workflows, with recent updates adding Azure Databricks cost data into nOps for consistent multi-cloud reporting.

12. Fortinet

Fortinet is a cloud security platform that provides automated security and compliance monitoring across multi-cloud environments. While primarily focused on security rather than general management, Fortinet plays a critical role in multi-cloud governance by providing continuous monitoring, threat detection, and compliance validation.

Fortinet’s platform uses machine learning to establish behavioral baselines and detect anomalies across AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, and Kubernetes environments. It provides automated compliance monitoring for standards like PCI DSS, HIPAA, SOC 2, and CIS benchmarks, helping organizations maintain security posture across diverse cloud environments.

The platform’s agentless and agent-based monitoring options provide flexibility in deployment, while its integration with CI/CD pipelines enables shift-left security practices. For organizations prioritizing security in their multi-cloud strategy, Fortinet provides essential visibility and protection capabilities.

13. HPE Zerto

HPE Zerto is HPE’s data protection and cyber-resilience platform built on continuous data protection. It protects and moves workloads across hybrid and multi-cloud environments, delivering near-zero data loss and fast recovery while also enabling migrations and non-disruptive testing.

HPE Zerto’s continuous data protection with journal recovery provides always-on replication and a time-based journal that delivers RPOs measured in seconds and RTOs in minutes. The platform supports recovery, migration, and replication across on-premises platforms and major clouds such as AWS and Azure.

Ransomware resilience capabilities detect encryption behavior and enable rapid, clean recovery to points just before an attack. Application-centric orchestration protects multi-VM and Kubernetes app stacks with write-order fidelity and built-in automation for failover and testing. HPE Zerto for Kubernetes brings data protection as code and continuous backup into the app lifecycle.

Key Features to Consider in Multi-Cloud Management Platforms

When evaluating multi-cloud management platforms, several key features determine their effectiveness in addressing organizational needs:

Resource Orchestration and Automation

Effective multi-cloud management platforms provide robust orchestration capabilities that allow organizations to define, deploy, and manage complex resource configurations across different cloud environments. This includes support for infrastructure-as-code approaches, template-based deployments, and automated workflows that reduce manual intervention and ensure consistency.

The ability to automate routine tasks and implement self-service capabilities significantly improves operational efficiency and reduces the risk of configuration errors. Look for platforms that offer flexible automation frameworks that can be customized to match your organization’s specific requirements and integrate with existing CI/CD pipelines.

Cost Management and Optimization

With cloud costs continuing to be a major concern for organizations, multi-cloud management platforms should provide comprehensive visibility into resource utilization and spending across different providers. This includes features like cost allocation, budget tracking, and recommendations for optimizing resource configurations.

Advanced platforms may incorporate machine learning algorithms to identify cost-saving opportunities, such as rightsizing instances, eliminating unused resources, or shifting workloads to more cost-effective regions or providers. The ability to implement automated policies for cost control, such as scheduled shutdowns of non-production environments, can deliver significant savings.

Security and Compliance

Maintaining consistent security posture and compliance standards across multiple cloud environments is a critical challenge that multi-cloud management platforms must address. Look for features like centralized identity and access management, policy enforcement, and compliance monitoring that work consistently across different cloud providers.

Effective platforms provide visibility into security configurations, detect compliance violations, and enable automated remediation actions. Integration with security information and event management (SIEM) systems and support for industry compliance frameworks like GDPR, HIPAA, or PCI DSS are valuable capabilities for organizations with specific regulatory requirements.

Monitoring and Observability

Comprehensive monitoring capabilities are essential for maintaining visibility into the performance, availability, and health of resources across multiple cloud environments. Multi-cloud management platforms should provide unified dashboards, alerting mechanisms, and reporting tools that aggregate data from different providers.

Advanced observability features, such as distributed tracing and anomaly detection, help organizations troubleshoot complex issues that span multiple environments. The ability to correlate events and metrics across different cloud services provides valuable context for understanding system behavior and optimizing performance.

Conclusion

Open-source multi-cloud platforms like Apache CloudStack, Kubernetes, Terraform, ManageIQ, and OpenStack offer cost-effective solutions for managing diverse cloud environments. When selecting a platform, prioritize your needs for orchestration, cost management, security, and monitoring. Despite integration complexity, these solutions deliver flexibility, cost savings, and vendor independence—enabling organizations to build efficient multi-cloud environments without expensive licensing fees.