Companies increasingly recognize that a single public cloud provider cannot fulfill all their needs. Therefore, the trend is to use different cloud services from different providers and different operating models in parallel. Multi cloud like that allows users to consolidate and manage distributed services in the central cloud. This is managed through a central cloud management platform. But the advantages of MultiStrategy cloud really? And what should be considered by managers in multi-cloud environments?
More flexibility
There is no cloud provider that can optimally cover all placement scenarios. For example, according to the current Gartner Magic Quadrant, the top three IaaS providers are Amazon Web Services, followed by Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud Platform. Although all three offer comprehensive portfolios, they differ slightly in orientation. With a multi-cloud approach, users do not have to commit to the provider. You can take advantage of various public cloud providers without having to bear the shortcomings. And even if vendors once raise prices for virtual machines, moving workloads to other providers is relatively easy.
The independence of providers also has a positive impact on cost optimization and resilience: in a multi-cloud environment, businesses can run intensive applications, high performance on services that are robust but may be more expensive. Workloads that use fewer resources, but are cheaper. In this way, costs can be optimized.
In addition, companies with multiple locations can avoid coverage gaps with a multi-cloud approach, because not every cloud service is available in each region. If a service ever causes a problem, all productivity will not be disturbed. Affected parties can delay the workload to alternative services until the incident is resolved.
Challenges in Multi Cloud
Apart from all the advantages, Multi Cloud also brings losses. It's nothing for data integration among the main challenges facing companies in the Multi Cloud. The more cloud providers the company uses, the more complex integration and management. Services differ not only in their user interfaces and operations. IT managers also have to deal with different pricing and licensing models, making billing more difficult and more transparent. In addition, cloud services are changing rapidly and IT managers need to stay informed about what's new. This requires a lot of knowledge and time resources.
In addition, data must be consolidated and cleaned before migration. Businesses also need to know exactly where their data is and synchronize data in different clouds and locales. But with certain company sizes, data can be more difficult to move. Companies only do justice to this complexity if they never ignore the constant: data management.
Comprehensive data management as a basis
Data management ensures that the right data is available at the speed needed at the right time - no matter which cloud you are in. Data stored in parallel in different clouds or in the cloud and in places must be synchronized to keep it updated. Otherwise, there is a risk that different users work with different data. This can cause errors and inconsistencies. In order for data not to be converted first, a uniform data format is also needed.
The good news: There is already an approach that enables efficient data management in the Multi Cloud. As the PAC study shows, companies are increasingly utilizing offers from managed service providers. According to him, 45 percent of respondents have worked with external service providers because of the high complexity of multi-cloud solutions. 37 percent plan to do so in the next two years. No wonder, because to master multi-cloud challenges, companies need a lot of knowledge and appropriate staff. In times of lack of skills, this is hard to find.
But what should be considered when choosing a suitable solution? Architecture must be able to safely transfer data assets that exist on various infrastructures - regardless of where they are. This allows users to increase the power of public cloud providers without having to control their data. Speed is also important - for example, moving or cloning a 2 terabyte database on Azure successfully with the right solution in seconds. Operations that can take hours and extra storage. In addition, data traffic must be kept as low as possible to keep bandwidth costs when transferring and online storage space low. NetApp solves this problem with Cloud Volumes ONTAP solutions with deduplication, compression and compression. Overall, data can be reduced by around 60 percent.
There is no other way in the Multi Cloud
Multi Cloud gives users the best approach: they can get services from any public cloud provider that best meets their needs and which is best. Therefore, large companies will not be able to avoid multi-cloud strategies in the long run. Because who benefits from using a different cloud provider, securing a competitive advantage. Who does not change, is suspended. However, there are pro-active challenges that must be faced when faced with change: To effectively implement a multi-cloud strategy, companies need data management that enables data storage and management in different environments. The necessary solutions are already on the market. It is the user's responsibility to make this solution usable for themselves.
Multi Cloud gives users the best approach: they can get services from any public cloud provider that best meets their needs and which is best. Therefore, large companies will not be able to avoid multi-cloud strategies in the long run. Because who benefits from using a different cloud provider, securing a competitive advantage. Who does not change, is suspended. However, there are pro-active challenges that must be faced when faced with change: To effectively implement a multi-cloud strategy, companies need data management that enables data storage and management in different environments. The necessary solutions are already on the market. It is the user's responsibility to make this solution usable for themselves.
