Why consider a Multi-Cloud Strategy for your Business
- Cloud, Software Development
Cloud computing has become an integral part of IT infrastructure, but many organizations are still relying on a single provider. A multi-cloud strategy offers compelling benefits that leading companies are already taking advantage of. Read this post to learn more about the advantages of multi-cloud and explore best practices for implementation.
What is a Multi-Cloud Strategy?
A multi-cloud strategy involves the use of two or more cloud computing services from different providers. This is in contrast to a single vendor strategy, where an organization uses one provider like AWS or Azure for all workloads. With multi-cloud, companies match specific applications and services to the platform that best meets their individual needs.
Benefits of a Multi-Cloud Approach
Flexibility
Cloud platforms differ in terms of functionality, pricing, and performance. By adopting a multi-cloud strategy, you can choose the best cloud for each workload while avoiding vendor lock-in. You have the freedom to switch workloads between providers as your needs change.
Security
Using multiple providers improves security posture through the principle of defense-in-depth. If one cloud is compromised, others remain secure. You can implement more layers of security controls across environments.
Risk Mitigation
Workload distribution over several clouds improves reliability and business continuity. If one cloud encounters latency problems or an outage, companies can rapidly switch to a different provider without downtime. For applications that are mission-critical, this redundancy is essential.
Compliance
Regulations vary across industries and geographic regions. A multi-cloud model allows you to locate data and applications in the cloud that meet applicable compliance needs.
Cost Savings
Cloud platforms differ in terms of functionality, pricing, and performance. By adopting a multi-cloud strategy, you can choose the best cloud for each workload while avoiding vendor lock-in. You have the freedom to switch workloads between providers as your needs change.
Multi-Cloud Challenges
While providing organizations with several critical benefits, designing and implementing a multi-cloud architecture presents challenges that many IT teams struggle to overcome. The reason is that most companies have not invested in training their internal architectural resources to be prepared to manage these complexities. Here are some of the challenges that need to be considered:
Integrating multiple cloud platforms poses challenges, as networking, APIs, data formats, and protocols vary widely between cloud providers (such as AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud). Applications and data may require refactoring to enable movement between clouds. Unified APIs and abstraction layers become essential.
Another challenge is the handling of multiple interfaces, consoles, and tools. Fragmented visibility often leads to gaps in monitoring, control, and action readiness. A proven approach to address this challenge is the creation of centralized dashboards, analytics, and automation to maintain oversight.
As the number of cloud environments grows, so does the scope of security and compliance. To eliminate vulnerabilities, IT security teams need to take a defense-in-depth approach, which encompasses applying consistent access controls, encryption, and policies across all cloud instances.
In order to achieve and maintain a cost-optimized and efficient multi-cloud strategy, companies must closely govern consumption and utilization across providers. Without financial expertise and governance, organizations tend to overprovision cloud resources or fail to decommission unneeded capacities.
Assessing Multi-Cloud Readiness
Before adopting a multi-cloud architecture, it is critical to thoroughly assess your organization’s readiness. Here are the most critical aspects this analysis should examine:
Application portfolio
Catalog all your business applications and workloads. Identify which applications can be migrated to a cloud environment as they are versus those that need refactoring. Document the hosting, data, security, and integration requirements for each application. This will allow you to determine the optimal cloud deployment strategy.
Network evaluation
Assess your current network architecture and capabilities. Determine if you have the connectivity, bandwidth, and capabilities to accommodate inter-cloud data flow and integration.
Data gravity and migration
Understand where your data resides currently, both on-premises and in any existing cloud environments. Are there any silos? How easily can data be migrated to other platforms? Any complexities, potential pitfalls, and/or latency issues should be addressed before continuing the multi-cloud journey.
Compliance factors
Document all regulatory and data residency requirements applicable to your data, applications, and geography. This includes GDPR, HIPAA, PCI DSS, and other mandates.
Skills and expertise
Successfully designing and implementing a multi-cloud strategy requires experienced architects and engineers. Does your internal team have the required expertise and/or bandwidth to execute? If not, do you have an external partner who reliably delivers? Identify any skill gaps, as experience and expertise make ALL the difference in order to avoid risks, extra costs, or even project failure.
Platform evaluation
Assess available cloud providers based on your applications, workloads, data architecture, etc. Factoring in criteria such as geographic footprint, compliance certifications, service capabilities, and costs is critical to ensure efficient outcomes.
Risk analysis
Conduct a risk analysis of the multi-cloud model, considering potential impacts across infosec, business continuity, costs, and other areas. Define strategies to mitigate the identified risks.
This readiness assessment exposes any gaps you need to address before adopting a multi-cloud architecture. Taking technical requirements and business objectives into account, this assessment allows you to create a detailed migration plan, evaluate the right cloud platforms, and determine the distribution of applications across your multi-cloud environment.
A multi-cloud approach provides companies with tremendous advantages but also involves nuanced planning and execution. In order to successfully assess their readiness and identify potential gaps, more and more organizations partner with leading award-winning cloud development companies like ELASTECH. We are recognized for enabling businesses with the freedom to move, develop, and enhance applications across hybrid and multi-cloud environments.
Click below to reserve your time with one of our proven cloud architects, who will help assess your multi-cloud readiness and determine the best strategy for your success.
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