Cloud computing continues to be an ever-evolving process. Most companies have spent the last decade making a (mostly) gentle transition from on-premises computing to hybrid environments, with some aiming for full public cloud operations to meet the demands of big data and AI-driven data analytics.
The natural progression of this evolution has now led to a rise in the multicloud. In the broadest sense of the term, a multicloud approach involves companies using more than one cloud environment for their operations. The number one source of confusion when it comes to the multicloud is that it’s not actually a type of product, but rather is an overall approach to cloud computing. If you are using solutions from multiple cloud service providers, then you are already employing a multicloud strategy.
Over the last 5-10 years, the multicloud has become the new focus of IT. Companies are aiming to prevent vendor lock-ins and are diversifying their operating environments to make the most of all the cloud solutions available.
Do You Actually Need a Multicloud Strategy?
Although many companies are already using some version of cloud-based computing, a multicloud approach requires a specific strategy to tackle the overall IT environment. This means that a multicloud strategy involves a company choosing to use multiple cloud products for a specific purpose, not by default.
When it comes to cloud computing, many companies transition in a step-by-step manner, moving certain services and solutions to the cloud a little bit at a time. However, this method can quickly become disparate and disjointed, and an overarching strategy is necessary to navigate a complete transition to the cloud. Making the transition to a multicloud environment usually occurs because a competing vendor is either offering a lower price or a unique solution is required to gain more value from the overall IT environment.
The benefit of the multicloud is that it enables companies to optimize solutions to meet the specific needs of different aspects of business. It’s unsurprising then that according to Oracle, the number one reason companies use multiple cloud solutions is to access vendor-specific capabilities. For example, a company can use multiple cloud environments to handle sensitive data separately from apps or environments that must be highly available to the entire enterprise. So, a multicloud approach can allow a company to cherry-pick the best services from each of the leading cloud vendors and avoid vendor lock-ins that might limit their overall cloud capabilities. Another key highlight of the multicloud strategy is that it can improve disaster recovery, ensuring that the cloud environment is diversified enough to protect against data loss or breaches.
But a multicloud strategy is not without its drawbacks. For most companies, the issue with multicloud remains optimizing costs. Just because competing vendors have unique solutions applicable to certain workloads in a company, it doesn’t always mean that it is economical to purchase many diverse cloud services. In general, cloud solutions can be more cost-effective than on-premises data analysis and storage, but managing multiple products from diverse vendors can still be prohibitively expensive, especially for smaller companies and start-ups.
Beyond costs, one of the biggest concerns for companies when it comes to multicloud and cloud computing is security. How can multiple cloud environments be safely operated and integrated without compromising data security and access? IBM has already announced security solutions designed specifically for the future of multicloud operating environments.
Cloud Companies Are Giving in to the Multicloud Strategy
In an ideal world, you might expect the big cloud providers to shy away from multicloud strategies. Why would you want to encourage your customers to purchase solutions from your direct competitors? However, it seems that Google, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft, and others are recognizing that whether they like it or not, multicloud is here to stay. In recent years, all the major public cloud companies have started offering open solutions with improved interoperability—even between vendors. With the release and continued development of these solutions, it seems the cloud companies are recognizing that most companies are either currently using or are looking to adopt a multicloud strategy for their IT needs.
Although Google and AWS remain the top providers that come to mind when most engineers picture cloud computing, Oracle and Microsoft have teamed up to help change that by betting on the multicloud. Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) is now partnering with Microsoft to make multicloud strategies even more accessible. For example, Oracle Interconnect for Microsoft Azure uses a low-latency, private network to facilitate interoperability between Oracle Database products and Microsoft Azure solutions. At Microsoft Inspire in late July 2022, the companies shared that their joint offering would be expanded to further simplify their multicloud experience. The updated joint solution is now optimized for engineers to seamlessly migrate workloads between OCI databases and Azure without replatforming or introducing additional security concerns. By removing fees for moving data between the two cloud environments, it’s clear that the cloud leaders recognize the imminent multicloud future and realize that cost remains a barrier for many companies. According to Oracle, the solution is already being used by AT&T and Marriott International, among others.
“There’s a well-known myth that you can’t run real applications across two clouds. We can now dispel that myth as we give Oracle and Microsoft customers the ability to easily test and demonstrate the value of combining Oracle databases with Azure applications. There is no need for deep skills on either of our platforms or complex configurations—anyone can use the Azure Portal to harness the power of our two clouds together,” said Clay Magouyrk, executive vice president, Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, in a press release.
Google’s answer to the multicloud is Anthos, a consistent development and operations environment for use in both hybrid and multicloud environments. Essentially, the environment can be used in any setting that can run Kubernetes, and Google reports that Anthos can increase operations efficiency by 40 to 55 percent. Plus, Google’s BigQuery Omni can facilitate data collection across any cloud environment, something of particular interest for Industry 4.0, where data needs to be collected across on-premises and cloud environments for seamless integration into AI-driven analytics.
AWS offers a similar solution in competition with Anthos: Amazon EKS Anywhere allows engineers to create and operate Kubernetes clusters on any infrastructure (on-premises, hybrid or multicloud).
Beyond the Microsoft and Oracle partnership, SAP and Accenture also announced their joint offering earlier this year, which is aimed at helping companies adopt a multicloud strategy to transform their businesses. As the multicloud truly is an approach rather than a single product, the SAP and Accenture offering will likely continue to be a key player over the next few years as companies navigate the best way to approach their multicloud transition.
So, Is Multicloud Just a Buzzword?
It seems that the multicloud is here to stay. With Oracle and Microsoft continuing to expand their multicloud partnership and other public cloud companies aimed at supporting the multicloud transition, it is likely the new normal for cloud computing. As more and more companies add additional cloud environments, multicloud will likely become a reality for most large enterprises. While cost can still be prohibitive up front, multicloud approaches are usually applied as a capability-focused strategy that makes the most of the best tools available from all the cloud vendors.
Data is useless if companies don’t have a purpose for it, and intelligent data collection and advanced data analytics are already driving value for most companies. With big data defining Industry 4.0, a multicloud approach will be important in letting companies make the most of unique offerings by cloud computing companies. Plus, improved disaster planning and reduced technology lock-ins will provide additional value.
Where will we continue to see advancements in the multicloud? As always, it will likely be with security and interoperability that makes it easier for companies to navigate diverse cloud vendors without compromising data storage and protection. With more multicloud-focused solutions coming to market, we will hopefully see a drop in costs that will allow more companies to make the transition and realize the benefits of a multicloud IT environment.