If some technology is dominating the enterprises as a platform of choice, it is undoubtedly cloud technology. Since its inception today, cloud technology has shaped and offered strategies towards enterprise solutions in a way that has forced it to turn into a must-have host for enterprise applications. Cloud is evolving every day like from the public to a hybrid cloud with its clients changing needs. As per CIO analysis, if we look into the recent trends in cloud technology, then the first one that will take the momentum this year is – multi-cloud computing.

As per other statistics, almost 80% of enterprises are supposed to implement multi-cloud computing architecture by 2019. This is definitely an indication that enterprises are most interested in – ‘what is the best out of the lot,’ rather than ‘who is the best’?

Though it may sound synonymous with hybrid cloud, multi-cloud and hybrid cloud are not the same considering infrastructure. Hybrid cloud is another trend among organizations that orchestrates between private cloud and third-party, public cloud. On the contrary, there is no choice of orchestration between the public cloud services in the multi-cloud case.

Furthermore, it is more about choosing the necessary best services among cloud service providers. Interestingly, the hybrid strategy trend (combining public and private clouds) has fallen from 58 percent to 51 percent within one year (2017-2018). On the contrary, adopting a multi-cloud strategy(public or private) grew slightly high.

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Why not a single vendor and multi cloud?

Every cloud vendor has its own specific set of offerings services in terms of security, geography, privacy, pricing model, functionality, etc. However, not every business has the same requirements related to all services. Furthermore, there are rapid changes happening in the dynamic enterprise IT landscape, due to which it is nearly impossible to predict which cloud is the best fit for the business needs. This is one of the main reasons for selecting multiple cloud service providers.

Besides, by diversifying, an organization can get some more benefits like –

Optimized ROI

In a multi-cloud infrastructure, you have multiple choices from diverse cloud vendors. Hence, you can get a rich set of cloud options that can support a diverse range of business functions. As a result, the business gets the scope to optimize returns on investment for cloud services.

Low Latency

Latency is often an issue in cloud computing. This often happens when data needs to travel to distant locations through a cloud network. Latency or minor delays are caused as the data has to travel across several nodes before reaching the end-user. However, it is feasible to maintain a unified end-user experience across disparate data locations with the multi-cloud infrastructure. The data center closest to the end-users can serve the requested data with minimum server hopping.

Less chance of downtime

Though the possibility of downtime is rare with the robust architecture of best in class cloud vendors, they do not provide 100% certainty on it. An hour downtime may cause a million dollars of revenue loss for a company. Moreover, it may cause a more prominent issue concerning data protection. Because most of the vendors’ SLA don’t ascertain any responsibility for data, and it’s the companies’ responsibility itself.

Minimized risk of DDoS attack with multi cloud security

One of the greatest risks for software applications or servers is the DDoS (Distributed Denial of Services) attack. It may come from any sources like from the hackers or even if by an authorities body. Hence, if a single cloud vendor provides all the application supporting services like network, security, etc., it is evident that such an attack will take a toll on the business.

On the contrary, a multi cloud security pattern mitigates this risk. Because even if a DDoS attack happens on one cloud and its service becomes unavailable, other services remain available as they are on different clouds.

Avoiding vendor lock-in

There is a wise saying that “don’t put all your eggs in one basket.” The same is very much applicable to single-vendor cloud services. Let say a company designs its application that is compatible with one selected vendor’s services. However, at a later point in time, they decide to migrate to another vendor. No doubt, it will cost huge both in terms of effort and cost. Under those circumstances, a multi-cloud strategy helps to avoid such vendor lock-in.

So from the above points, we can conclude that multi-cloud gives better opportunities in flexibility, data management, optimized cost, multi-cloud security, and more agility.

Shadow IT

Shadow IT is a reality in today’s IT landscape. Since hardware or software deployment from a central IT team can be large enough, migrating the data and infrastructure to different public clouds can be impossible at that point. Multi-cloud deployment is a viable solution here.

Performance

As with the multi-cloud computing latency issue can be resolved; at the same time, organizations can improve on the other performance metrics such as packet loss and jitter. This can happen by choosing a cloud provider whose data centers are geographically closed to the customers. This significantly reduces server hops.

When would multi-cloud be useful?

– When users are located geographically disparate locations and not near any data center

– If countries who have imposed GDPR regulation for storing data

– Where public cloud is in use with on-premises resources.

– A non resilient cloud-based application that can affect disaster recovery if one of the single data center is down.

Challenges of Multi cloud computing

Migration and compliance issue

When diversifying from a single cloud to multi-cloud computing architecture, the biggest challenge is to ensure that the expected results are achieved through proper deployment. It may need multiple deployments rather than a single one. Besides, every cloud vendor has their own portal for deployment; hence access management could become an issue.

Additionally, cloud vendors must agree on the existing compliance needs. To manage multi-cloud deployment, companies must have proper multi-cloud management software and adequate resources with the required skill sets. This often becomes a challenge.

Cost due to poor management

If a multi cloud environment is poorly managed, it can incur large expenses. Though in multi-cloud infrastructure, organizations use multiple services from different cloud providers; however, many times, utilizing all the services as per demand becomes cumbersome. As a result, organizations have to pay for unused services too. 

Performance

It is necessary to ensure the applications’ performance and speed to the end-users in a complex multi-cloud environment. This needs a huge scale of monitoring of data along with the identification of the problems. However, managing such a huge task effectively by humans is quite problematic. To solve this, you may need to leverage machine learning and artificial intelligence.

Cloud Sprawl

Cloud sprawl is an area that organizations need to prevent while adopting a multi-cloud strategy. Cloud sprawl happens when users fail to decommission unused cloud computing instances or services. Cloud Sprawl creates resource visibility issues which affect cloud bill.

Data Security

In a multi-cloud environment, you need multi layers of data security to ensure that data is not compromised in any way if one security is breached. Thus you need to provide a security framework in a multi-cloud environment.

Best Practices to Manage Multi-Cloud Environment

Multi cloud architecture should be mapped according to requirements

Before implementing the cloud, you should map your entire network to identify where the cloud fits in it. Once you get a clear picture of the cloud’s role in the overall system-management strategy, implement it accordingly. This helps to avoid any backfill gaps.

Standardized consumption

A multi-cloud environment allows you to mix and match cloud services from different vendors. For example, you can choose analytics service from Azure, AI capabilities from IBM, or storage from AWS. Hence, it is essential to standardize the services in different ways. 

Integration is necessary

In multi-cloud, common standards for integration and management for the supplier ecosystem are necessary. Six key areas should be focused in this context – business, information, organization, governance, tools, and processes.

Use of containers

Applications can be packaged with all their dependencies using containers. This increases the portability and simplicity of multi-cloud management.

Final words:

Multi-cloud architecture empowers an organization to distribute the workloads across multiple cloud environments. This, in return, gives them many benefits while mitigating risks associated with individual cloud environments.

If we compare the weight of advantages with the challenges, the advantage outweighs the challenges if properly managed and handled. Interestingly, the inclination towards multi-cloud and its challenges motivate innovations and improvements from the leading cloud providers! So, the future in the multi-cloud means a lot for business!

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