Ready for Digital Innovation? Multicloud

Multicloud

We’re all familiar with the term “the cloud”; however, do you know what multicloud means? Do you understand why implementing it could greatly benefit your IT team? When a company's IT department is large, multicloud becomes an essential ally for managing new innovations and meeting business needs. Keep reading to learn more about this topic.

What is Multicloud?

In cloud computing, a cloud refers to a set of servers that clients access via the internet. Typically, each cloud is managed by a cloud provider—a company that offers cloud services. A public cloud is one that is shared by multiple clients.

«Multicloud» significa múltiples nubes públicas. Una empresa que utiliza una implementación de multinube incorpora múltiples nubes públicas de más de un proveedor de nube. En lugar de una empresa que utiliza un proveedor para el almacenamiento, stack de la aplicación completa y alojamiento en la nube, en una configuración de multinube se utilizan varios.

Thus, this is a cloud deployment model that allows organizations to provide application services across multiple private and public clouds with various combinations, such as multiple cloud providers, multiple cloud accounts, multiple cloud availability zones, or multiple cloud regions or facilities.

A multicloud setup abstracts the complexities of managing multiple cloud services from different providers of the same type (i.e., public or private) and consolidates them into a unified data plane.

Multicloud implementations have various use cases. A multicloud setup might take advantage of many IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service) providers, or it could use different providers for IaaS, PaaS (Platform as a Service), and SaaS (Software as a Service). Multicloud can be used purely for redundancy and as a backup system, or it can incorporate multiple cloud providers for different services.

Most companies migrating to the cloud will eventually end up with some form of multicloud implementation. A multicloud setup might even occur unintentionally as a result of Shadow IT.

What’s the Difference Between Multicloud and Hybrid Cloud?

A multicloud can also be a hybrid cloud, and a hybrid cloud can also be a multicloud, but these terms refer to different concepts.

"Hybrid cloud" refers to the combination of two or more different types of infrastructure: it combines a private cloud, an on-premises data center, or both with at least one public cloud. Multicloud refers to the use of different public clouds, and while a hybrid cloud can include a private cloud, it’s not a requirement.

Although some experts still use both terms interchangeably, "multicloud" refers to the use of multiple public cloud services—also known as Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)—especially within a single architecture. On the other hand, hybrid cloud refers to an environment that combines public or private cloud services with more traditional deployment models, including on-premises or managed hosting, with synchronization between the different platforms.

It’s becoming more common for such environments to include features of both multicloud and hybrid cloud. In these cases, most experts use "multicloud" as the overarching term.

Multicloud vs. Hybrid Cloud

Multicloud

• Has separate clouds for separate tasks, often from different cloud providers.
• May have public and private clouds working together as independent silos (i.e., they cannot share resources for load balancing across the public/private divide) and perform separate functions.
• Example: A business application that uses a public cloud application for a Platform as a Service (PaaS) function, another public cloud application for a Software as a Service (SaaS) function, and a private cloud application for an Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) function.

Hybrid Cloud

• Has different public and private clouds that can work together to perform the same task.
• Allows the same task to be available in both public and private clouds' storage and processing resources for load balancing and cost optimization.
• Example: A business application that can offload resources from its private cloud to support its SaaS application during peak loads (abstracting the details of handling different server providers).
• A multicloud approach involves using different clouds to handle different tasks, while a hybrid cloud approach involves using both public and private cloud resources together to support the same task. A multicloud could also be part of a larger hybrid cloud, depending on how the services are implemented.

What Are the Benefits of the Multicloud Model?

• Infrastructure with the Best of Each Category: Choosing the right cloud service for each workload allows you to meet the specific requirements of each task.
• Lower Risk of Committing to a Single Provider: Investing in multiple cloud providers gives you more options for where to run your workloads, helping to minimize price hikes and other risks associated with relying on a single provider.
• Disaster Mitigation: Properly utilizing multiple clouds can help minimize the risks of large-scale data loss or application downtime due to local failures in a cloud computing environment.
• Greater Geographical Flexibility for Data: While leading cloud providers have data centers around the world, companies that require certain data to be in specific countries can more easily meet these requirements through a multicloud strategy. multinube.

Reasons to Adopt a Multicloud Platform: Specificity

• Specific Services per Provider: Organizations can choose from different cloud providers to address the specific needs of their applications and infrastructure, fulfilling their unique business needs.
• Improved Scalability: A company can quickly scale across multiple cloud providers as demand increases.
• Containers and Microservices: Organizations using microservices to develop containerized applications with Kubernetes may find that some services are only available through specific cloud providers. Multicloud Kubernetes implementations are becoming increasingly popular as new services hosted by various cloud providers emerge.
• Lower Latency: Geographically dispersed organizations can reduce latency by choosing a local public cloud provider based on the location of each facility. This also eases the operation of the multicloud network, as major cloud providers are interconnected and enjoy fast, low-latency connections.

Reasons to Adopt a Multicloud Platform: Cost Savings

• Regulatory and Control Requirements: Some organizations may need to use multiple cloud storage providers to comply with government regulations and data sovereignty laws, which prevent certain types of data from residing in specific geographic regions.
• Lower Space and Costs: Most organizations using a multicloud setup leverage public cloud for infrastructure, avoiding the need to build and maintain their own data centers. This allows them to create a virtual data center in the cloud without physical hardware. This saves money and physical space since the company does not need to invest in its own hardware or facilities to house it. It also saves time, as the public cloud provider manages, maintains, and updates the data center.
• Power of Choice: The ability to choose from multiple cloud services offers advantages beyond just distributing failure risk across several providers. By adopting a multicloud strategy, companies can choose the provider that offers the best price for a specific service, ensuring that all providers continue offering competitive pricing.

How Is Multicloud Managed?

Although there are many multicloud management strategies and solutions, the best ones share common characteristics. Perhaps the most notable is container compatibility, which allows workloads to be moved seamlessly between multiple cloud providers. Therefore, container and Kubernetes support is critical for a strong multicloud management platform.

Automation is another key feature of effective multicloud management solutions. Automation enables IT teams to deploy, monitor, and secure applications quickly and reliably, while also scaling their operations without becoming overwhelmed. In this way, automation helps companies manage the complexity of multicloud environments.

Now that you understand the benefits and scope of multicloud, are you ready to implement it in your company? If you need professional advice, feel free to contact us.