What is a Multi-Cloud Strategy? – Benefits & Use Cases

As the speed of informational technology has increased, the cloud has expanded its power and flexibility. Today, the cloud provides the latest software, compute and storage technologies, as well as analytics, elevating the potential of multi-cloud strategies.

Many multi-cloud deployments are now driven by redundancy and vendor lock-in. Businesses must keep in mind their technical goals and the associated complex workflows. For example, a business might switch to a different provider for more competitive services or utilize the features and speeds of another cloud service provider in a different location.

What is a Multi-Cloud Strategy?

A multi-cloud strategy involves the intentional use of more than one cloud computing service. A multi-cloud deployment can consist of any implementation of software-as-a-service (SaaS) or platform-as-a-service (PaaS) offerings.

Many organizations adopt the cloud slowly. They might implement one aspect of their workflow at a time. This process allows organizations to try the cloud without fully taking the plunge, they might have trouble. Individually implementing services, however, can create an unwieldy cloud sprawl. Multi-cloud anticipates such a scenario and plans how your services would operate in the cloud ahead of time. 

Approaching the adoption of multi-cloud with a plan requires you to reflect on your enterprise’s needs and figure out which vendor aligns with you. According to Gartner, 81% of enterprises work with two or more public cloud providers, allowing them to use the best possible cloud for each workload.

Multi-Cloud Strategy Benefits and Common Uses

Reliability

Many early adopters of the cloud used a multi-cloud strategy to combat reliability concerns. Multi-cloud is still a smart way to prevent data loss or downtime as failures would be limited to specific parts of clouds. 

Freedom

Avoiding vendor lock-in is a major benefit of multi-cloud strategies. Cherry-picking features from specific providers can help your business leverage a provider’s strengths without suffering the weaknesses.

Disaster Recovery

Multi-cloud strategies lend themselves to improved disaster recovery. Even if one service shuts down, other providers will keep your data safe. This increased redundancy is critical in case of failure.

Decreased Expenditures

Creating a multi-cloud strategy for your business helps decrease capital expenditures in favor of more nimble operational expenditures. With multi-cloud, you won’t need to handle infrastructure, hardware, and power supplies.

Challenges in Developing a Multi-Cloud Strategy

When developing your multi-cloud platform, you must remember that many cloud providers offer volume discounts when you purchase more services. Qualifying for these volume discounts can be difficult if you aren’t using a single cloud provider. 

Furthermore, a multi-cloud environment takes experience to set up. Hiring people who understand the structure is crucial. It might make sense to rely on cloud-specific specialists, including cloud architects, network engineers, cloud automation engineers, and cloud developers. 

Ensuring your data is safe in the cloud is also critical. You must clearly communicate your data’s security needs before committing to any providers. Many organizations cite security and privacy as major reasons why they have not yet utilized the cloud. Ironically, it is oftentimes company users, not providers, who leak data unintentionally. For this reason, it is important to give each end-user the correct permissions and ensure they are up to speed on keeping data secure as an end-user.

Although you might face challenges in adopting a multi-cloud strategy, the numerous advantages outweigh the disadvantages. The bottom line is that a strong multi-cloud strategy can save money for businesses and increase efficiency. You should also plan and map your strategy to your individual business’s needs. The planning may take longer than the implementation. Tasking security and data experts with identifying weaknesses, unnecessary complexities, and risks can help ensure the plan’s strength and longevity.