In 2022, 89% of companies employed a multi-cloud approach, according to a survey by Flexera. Clearly, a multi-cloud strategy is now the norm, giving organisations the power to tap into the capabilities of multiple cloud providers. A multi-cloud strategy is a game-changer, allowing you to create a highly customised ecosystem that meets various business objectives without being stuck with one vendor that might not meet all of your needs. By distributing workloads across multiple cloud providers, you gain much-needed flexibility, resilience, security and cost savings.
Multi-Cloud vs. Hybrid Cloud: What’s the Difference?
Before we get into exploring multi-cloud strategies and their numerous benefits, let’s clarify some commonly confused cloud terms:
Multi-cloud: When an organisation uses cloud services from at least two public providers to run applications.
Hybrid cloud: When an organisation runs applications using a combination of computing, storage and services in different environments, e.g. public and private clouds.
While our focus here is multi-cloud, it’s important to note that it isn’t always the most suitable solution. Some companies prefer hybrid cloud solutions, benefitting from the capabilities of public and private clouds.
Current Multi-Cloud Strategy Trends
There is no one-size-fits-all solution when it comes to multi-cloud strategies. According to Flexera’s 2022 State of the Cloud Report:
48% of organisations employing a hybrid cloud strategy use multiple public and private clouds.
31% use multiple public clouds and one private cloud.
12% use one public cloud and multiple private clouds.
9% use one public and one private cloud.
However, the reasons for using multi-cloud architectures differ across organisations. The most common reasons are as follows:
45%: Apps are siloed on different clouds.
44%: DR/Failover between clouds.
41%: Data integration between clouds.
36%: Workload mobility between clouds.
32%: Individual apps span public and private clouds.
27%: Cloud bursting.
25%: Intelligent workload placement.
20%: Cloud brokering.
These trends show that organisations are continuing to rely on sophisticated multi-cloud strategies. As they seek greater control and optimisation, we can expect multi-cloud to continue its upward trajectory.
However, success doesn’t come from simply adopting multiple clouds. It comes from investing in carefully formulated multi-cloud strategies that closely align with and support organisational goals while addressing current—and future—challenges.
What are the Benefits of a Multi-Cloud Strategy?
Multi-clouds are popular with businesses across almost all sectors because they offer a plethora of benefits, including:
Cost savings
Now that cloud spending is a significant line item in IT budgets, businesses are understandably seeking ways to reduce costs. By embracing a multi-cloud strategy, your organisation can benefit from significant cost savings. For example, a study by Accenture found that migrating areas of your business to the public cloud can cut your Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) by between 30 and 40%.
First-rate providers
With several innovative and reliable cloud providers to choose from, including AWS and Google Cloud Platform, your organisation benefits from tapping into a wide range of cloud capabilities. For example, one provider may boast particularly impressive upload speeds, while another offers better scalability to allow you to meet changing demands. Why stick to one when you can reap the benefits of several platforms?
Security, compliance and risk mitigation
When properly managed, employing a multi-cloud strategy improves your organisation’s security, compliance and overall risk profile. You can deploy and scale workloads while maintaining security policies and compliance across all workloads. Plus, by distributing various workloads across multiple providers, you avoid a single point of failure that could wreak havoc on your organisation.
Flexibility
Last but definitely not least, a multi-cloud strategy gives you much-needed flexibility. It gives you the advantage of being able to take advantage of specific providers’ stand-out capabilities rather than being locked in with one provider that may not have all the features you need.
AWS and Multi-Cloud Strategies
AWS is one of the most popular cloud platforms available today, and for good reason. Particularly beneficial for the finance, healthcare, retail and ecommerce and media sectors, AWS is scalable, secure, cost-effective and boasts a strong ecosystem of third-party software, data and services.
With AWS solutions for multi-cloud, you can simplify and centralise infrastructure and application management on AWS, on-premises and on other clouds. However, getting started with AWS, especially if you’re dealing with multi-clouds, can be overwhelming. You might need some support from experts to help get started—that’s where we come in.
Evolvere Technologies’ is made up of multi-cloud-certified experts—we have the skills and experience to rapidly deploy enterprise-grade solutions across not just AWS but also Azure and Google Cloud Platform, providing the best of all worlds linked together through Infrastructure as Code.
As part of recent customer engagements, our experienced team has delivered secure multi-cloud solutions with zero downtime that significantly expanded capabilities whilst reducing migration risk across AWS, Azure and Google Cloud Platform.
Are you thinking about a multi-cloud approach, or suspect your infrastructure setup would benefit from optimisation? Contact us today to discuss your multi-cloud requirements in more detail.