When an organization utilizes cloud services from more than one provider, they are said to be taking a multicloud approach. Because “cloud” now encompasses a wide spectrum of service, a multicloud environment might include Google Drive, Microsoft 365, and Amazon AWS. But it is important to distinguish multicloud from hybrid cloud, which involves a deployment that straddles both public clouds and an on-premise private cloud.
Multicloud Benefits
You might think it would be more productive to stick with one cloud vendor, but sourcing cloud services from multiple vendors has significant advantages, including:
- Flexibility: While most cloud vendors consider themselves a total cloud solution, each offering has strengths and weaknesses. For instance, Microsoft’s Azure cloud is great for analytics capabilities, but Amazon’s AWS is better for Alexa Skills applications.
- Proximity and network performance: While many think of the entire cloud as “out there somewhere,” some cloud vendors offer servers that are physically located in closer proximity to your users and customers. This means that mission-critical high-performance applications can run on networks with lower latency.
- Continuity and redundancy: If your sole cloud provider were to experience a prolonged outage, your business would suffer the consequences. While that’s a low likelihood with the hyperscalers, it’s a potential hazard with a more specialized vendor.
Even with the major players, performance problems or unanticipated fees might cause companies to rethink their relationships. Working with multiple vendors makes it easier to switch vendors without having to shift the entire infrastructure. Multicloud environments allow clients to determine which cloud providers are best for which workflows – and relationships can be leveraged as negotiating tools when contracts expire or new services are needed.
Multicloud Difficulties
There are a number of issues and drawbacks associated with the multicloud approach, including:
- Complexity: The multicloud approach adds layers of complexity when integrating services from different vendors. It will take effort to get several clouds to work together seamlessly. Even after making it all work, companies still need to keep track of data protection and privacy, cloud usage, and the costs associated with each vendor.
- Network bandwidth: Most cloud providers make it affordable to move data to and within their cloud – but make clients pay to export it. If your procedures require transmitting large files back and forth across cloud providers, expenses could grow out of control.
- Skills gaps: In addition to porting code across different cloud services, your programmers and admins have platforms they prefer working with. Of course, they can learn the new platform, but working with several platforms at once will necessitate a learning curve for the current team and make it difficult for new hires to hit the ground running on day one.
Addressing Security
One multicloud challenge deserves special mention: security. A multicloud environment offers criminals a widespread and complex attack surface. Any cloud rollout project runs the risk of exposing vulnerabilities to attackers: there is data traveling across the internet between the cloud and on-site systems, meaning that employees are saving, storing, and working on a platform the company doesn’t fully control.
Adding additional public cloud providers results in more network connections that need to be secured. And while most cloud provider platforms incorporate security tools, the tools from various providers aren’t guaranteed to play nice with one another.
In other words, companies will need to make sure that all users are following best practices at all times, as well as develop a comprehensive data governance policy and utilize whatever available tools to gain full visibility into their multicloud infrastructure.
Alliance IT is a managed and cloud services provider based in Sarasota. We can help you to determine your needs and develop the appropriate strategy for your company.
