An Introduction to Multi-Cloud

In this era of the internet, Cloud computing is one of the widely used and loved services that has completely transformed the IT infrastructure. 

 

Cloud computing is the on-demand access to computer resources—applications, servers, data storage, development tools, networking capabilities, and more—hosted in a remote data center controlled by a cloud services provider over the internet. 

 

In cloud computing, a cloud is a group of servers that cloud clients may access over the Internet. These clouds are managed by a company that offers cloud services, and these clouds are often public clouds that have several customer shares. 

 

When there is more than one public cloud, it is called multi-cloud. In this article, we are going to deeply learn about multi-cloud services.

 

(Related read: Risk Management in Cloud Computing)

 

 

What is Multi-Cloud?

 

As per this article written by Citrix, a multi-cloud approach is one in which an organization uses two or more cloud computing platforms to execute diverse activities. 

 

Organizations who do not want to rely on a single cloud provider for cloud hosting, storage, and full application stack, might leverage resources from several providers to get the most out of each unique service. 

 

A multi-cloud solution is a hybrid of software as a service (SaaS), platform as a service (PaaS), and infrastructure as a service (IaaS) concepts, which are the services provided by cloud computing. It can be used only for redundancy and system backup, or it might include several cloud suppliers for various services. 

 

In general, IT experts use the phrase to indicate a strategy that makes use of several public cloud products.

 

(Also read: What is Virtualization in Cloud Computing?)

 

Multi-Cloud vs Hybrid Cloud:

 

A hybrid cloud is not the same as a multi-cloud, but hybridization may be present in a multi-cloud. A hybrid cloud is essentially a combination of a private cloud and a public cloud. 

 

There are many similarities between Multi-cloud services and Hybrid cloud services, and it is easy to confuse between the two. But, there are some key differences stated by VMware, that helps in distinguishing between the two:

 

• Multi-cloud, unlike hybrid cloud, does not necessitate the usage of a private cloud — an organization can be multi-cloud if it uses more than one public cloud.

• In contrast to hybrid cloud, multi-cloud does not need unified or coordinated operations to work amongst the many cloud environments. Having said that, seamless visibility and operations between environments is an ideal situation for getting the most out of your multi-cloud approach.

 

Keeping these distinctions in mind, it is possible to have a multi-cloud system that is also a hybrid cloud by utilizing at least one private cloud, at least one public cloud, and some level of interoperability between the private and public cloud environments. 

 

To put it another way, hybrid cloud is always thought of as multi-cloud, while multi-cloud is not necessarily thought of as hybrid cloud.

 

Multi-Cloud Management:

 

Technology is becoming more dynamic, relying on both on-premise and off-premise virtual infrastructure. Self-service, governance and compliance, resource management, financial controls, and capacity planning all become significantly more complicated as a result of this. 

 

Cloud management and automation technologies make it easier to keep track of and manage these diverse resources. Within businesses, automation has been utilized in a piecemeal fashion, with different technologies being used by different teams for different management domains. 

 

However, modern automation tools can automate assets across many environments. The addition of contemporary automation tools to multi-cloud systems reduces the complexity of the infrastructure while improving workload security and performance for both traditional and cloud-native apps.

 

Multi-cloud Management is a set of tools and practices that allows a company to monitor, optimize, and secure applications and workloads across the data center, edge, and any cloud environment. 

 

(Suggested blog: Cloud computing guide)

 

A multi-cloud management system allows cross-functional teams to manage various clouds from a single interface, including numerous cloud providers like AWS, Azure, and GCP, as well as multi-cloud deployment and container orchestration technologies like Kubernetes.

 

Companies should consider using multi-cloud management platforms because of the following benefits:

 

1. With the help of these platforms, management becomes easier for the IT teams as the entire system turns centralized. 

2. For organizations to realize the benefits of multi-cloud, a strong multi-cloud management solution provides visibility throughout the whole multi-cloud ecosystem.

3. It might be hard to keep security policies consistent across different cloud providers and IT teams may deal with possible security concerns proactively rather than reactively using a managed approach.

4. Multi-cloud management aids in cost and use tracking, and some platforms even utilize intelligent data analysis to improve cost management.

5. When companies adopt a multi-cloud strategy, one of the numerous benefits they seek is availability. However, to truly reap the benefits of multi-cloud, IT teams must be able to replicate and transfer workloads smoothly when one environment fails. This is made possible by effective multi-cloud management.

 

(Related blog: Types of Virtualization in Cloud Computing)

 

 

Advantages and Disadvantages of Multi-Cloud:

 

There are many advantages of Multi-cloud, some of them are given below:

 

1. Better Reliability and Flexibility:

 

A multi-cloud deployment prevents a company from placing all of its eggs in one basket. If one cloud fails, users will still be able to access some functionality through the other deployed clouds. Furthermore, one public cloud may be utilized as a backup for another cloud.

 

The ability to select cloud services from several cloud providers depending on a mix of cost, performance, security, and compliance needs, as well as the geographical location that best suits the company is another advantage of Multi-cloud.

 

2. Reduced vendor lock-in:

 

Moving to the cloud necessitates reliance on third-party cloud providers, and as businesses rely on these suppliers more and more, it can be tough to transition away from them. When a multi-cloud architecture is utilized, however, systems and storage are distributed among various suppliers.

 

As a result, because the bulk of the infrastructure stays in place during the transfer, it is easier to transition away from utilizing one of these suppliers.

 

3. More security:

 

Multi-cloud, like a hybrid cloud, helps companies by ensuring rigorous security compliance while optimizing computing resources. Multi-cloud also lowers the possibility of a distributed denial of service (DDoS) assault knocking mission-critical apps offline. When a single hour of downtime may cost a company thousands of dollars, effective security procedures pay for themselves.

 

4. ROI optimization:

 

A multi-cloud approach enables stakeholders to select the specific solutions that are best suited to their company. As various business demands emerge, evolve, and grow more complicated, the company may assign resources for specific uses, maximize those resources, and pay for just what they utilize.

 

5. Easier Disaster Management:

 

Concurrent outage across several cloud suppliers is highly unlikely. Service providers like Google Cloud Platform, Microsoft Azure, and Amazon Web Services have outstanding service level agreements in place to safeguard their customers against downtime. The danger of catastrophe is considerably reduced when two or more of these services are used together.

 

 

Like advantages, there are some demerits of multi-cloud as well. We have listed down the disadvantages of Multi-cloud below:

 

1. Difficult to Manage:

 

Interfacing with many suppliers, each with its own set of procedures and technology, is required for a multi-cloud implementation. Furthermore, with data stored and processes operating in various clouds, it becomes more difficult to have comprehensive visibility into the technological stack.

 

2. Increase in Latency:

 

If services in many clouds must communicate with one another to fulfill user requests, latency might well be introduced, depending on how tightly the clouds are linked, how far away the data centers are physically, and how frequently multiple clouds must interact.

 

3. More attack surface:

 

Since there are many pieces of software and hardware integrated into multi-cloud, there is more likelihood of vulnerability to any attack. 

 

4. Decrease in performance efficiency:

 

It can be challenging to balance loads across many clouds, particularly if the data centers are located in various parts of the country.

 

 

Conclusion

 

Multi-Cloud allows businesses to avoid the risks of relying on a single source. Spreading workloads among various cloud suppliers allows businesses to utilize the cloud as needed. Multi-cloud capabilities are used by certain companies to handle very large quantities of storage that are often accessed by a wide range of users.

 

In this article, we have discussed every aspect of multi-cloud, including definition, management, advantages, and disadvantages.