Single Cloud to Multi-Cloud: The Case for Making the Switch

Are you considering a move from a single cloud environment to a multi-cloud environment? When cloud computing first emerged, it seemed like one cloud solution was the way to go. IT wrongly assumed that one cloud could meet the varied needs of the modern-day enterprise. For this reason, organizations started by moving applications to the public cloud with a bit of refactoring. 

After cloud computing became widely accepted for less mission-critical applications, IT began to move more applications to the cloud. The need for more services and applications eventually led to the need for the multi-cloud. 

Reasons for Moving to Multi-Cloud

Some reasons organizations eventually move to a multi-cloud architecture include:

• Different divisions or departments within an organization are starting to procure cloud services anonymously from each other.
• IT starts replicating its public cloud deployments on other platforms to ensure effective disaster recovery and avoid vendor lock-in. 
• There is an acquisition or merger of companies using different clouds.
• Some companies are intentionally pursuing a multi-cloud strategy for cost optimization.

What Challenges Necessitate the Move from Single Cloud to Multi-Cloud?

The unique challenges organizations face when using the cloud often necessitates moving from a single cloud to a multi-cloud. Today, organizations are using multiple public and private clouds to prevent vendor lock-in, deploy applications, and exploit best-of-breed solutions. 

You should consider a multi-cloud strategy if your organization is facing any of these issues:

1. Users are often not close to a data center or any office.
2. Users are in different geographical areas or even international.
3. DevOps teams need separate testing or development environments. 
4. Your organization is a likely target of DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attacks that could put a strain on infrastructure. 
5. The organization’s security policies or concerns call for having some data and infrastructure situated in a private cloud or even on-premises. 
6. You have service requests distributed globally. This makes it necessary to distribute workloads across data centers to optimize performance. 
7. Your organization already has multiple cloud contracts, and you want to centralize access and management. 
8. There are multiple cloud contracts whose costs are spinning out of control. 

What are the Advantages of Moving from a Single-Cloud to Multi-Cloud Architecture? 

The application of multi-cloud environments might be a tough concept to fully grasp. But the idea is simple. It’s about your organization choosing to distribute its assets, applications, software, and redundancies across several clouds. 

The whole concept might seem to go against the grain. After all, having all your “eggs” in one basket seems like the best way to keep your information secure. Multi-cloud, on the surface, looks like a huge security risk for many organizations. In addition, most public cloud providers encourage organizations to host all their services with them. They even give plenty of discounts and perks. 

However, the multi-cloud model is not without its perks. Using multiple cloud providers might just be what you need to push your organization’s digital transformation to the next level. Here are some of the benefits of making the move from a single cloud environment to a multi-cloud environment:

1. It gives organizations the power of choice, so they can avoid vendor lock-in. 
2. Organizations can take advantage of the benefit each cloud provider has to offer. It’s the proverbial having your cake and eating it, too. 
3. It puts organizations where they can maximize their cloud budgets by distributing workloads where they run most efficiently and cost-effectively. 

Conclusion

For a small organization with minimal cloud computing needs, sticking to a single cloud service provider is a no-brainer. But for enterprises with a complex IT infrastructure and heavy technological needs, a solid multi-cloud strategy can make a significant difference to the bottom line.