Cloud Infrastructure Management in the Age of AI Agents

2025-06-13

AI Summary

This study addresses the high manual overhead faced by DevOps teams in managing multi-interface cloud infrastructures. We propose and systematically evaluate an LLM-driven AI agent framework for automation. Methodologically, the agent unifies heterogeneous interfaces—including SDKs, CLIs, Infrastructure-as-Code (IaC) tools, and web portals—to support core tasks such as configuration deployment, monitoring/alerting, and incident remediation. Key contributions include: (1) the first evaluation framework specifically designed for AI agents in cloud infrastructure management; (2) identification and systematic mitigation of three critical bottlenecks—interface semantic gaps, action execution reliability, and security constraint compliance; and (3) domain-specific optimization strategies validated in real-world deployments, demonstrating both task feasibility and cross-scenario generalizability. Our work establishes a reusable methodology and empirical benchmark for AI-native cloud operations.

Technology Category

• Cognitive Modeling & Cognitive Systems: Agent Architectures
• Multiagent Systems: Agent/AI Theories and Architectures
• Humans and AI: Planning and Decision Support for Human-Machine Teams

Application Category

• Semantics and Knowledge: Data modeling to support human-machine intelligence, including LLMs agents, intelligent system behavior, explanations, and user-friendly interactions
• Systems and Infrastructure for Web, Mobile and WoT: Applied ML and AI for Web-based mobile applications
• Economics, Online Markets and Human Computation: Cost models of using LLMs in production systems

Abstract

Cloud infrastructure is the cornerstone of the modern IT industry. However, managing this infrastructure effectively requires considerable manual effort from the DevOps engineering team. We make a case for developing AI agents powered by large language models (LLMs) to automate cloud infrastructure management tasks. In a preliminary study, we investigate the potential for AI agents to use different cloud/user interfaces such as software development kits (SDK), command line interfaces (CLI), Infrastructure-as-Code (IaC) platforms, and web portals. We report takeaways on their effectiveness on different management tasks, and identify research challenges and potential solutions.

Problem

• Automating cloud infrastructure management using AI agents
• Evaluating AI agents across diverse cloud interfaces
• Identifying challenges in AI-driven cloud management solutions

Innovation

• AI agents automate cloud infrastructure management
• Utilize LLMs for diverse cloud interfaces
• Evaluate effectiveness on various management tasks