What are the advantages of a multi-cloud strategy?
There’s fierce debate around the multi cloud. Some will tell you that deploying a product across several regions or several AZs (Availability Zones), with a single cloud provider is complicated enough as it is. So why make it even more difficult by adding more providers?
The answer is – because the tables have turned. Nowadays, the obstacles are falling one by one, thanks to open source, and this strategy’s advantages clearly beat the ever-dwindling obstacles.
Open source: the driving force behind the adoption of the multi cloud
Using open source technologies is a safe bet for you, but also for your provider. The technologies developed by the community (like Kubernetes, created by Google before being handed over to the CNCF for maintenance) are vendor agnostic by design. They pave the way for the development of standards that facilitate the adoption of the multi cloud. In the next few years, the adoption of the multi cloud will increase exponentially.
Reducing provider lock-in
Of course, we are not going to abolish it completely. When you choose to use a specific technology, or the services of a cloud provider, then you are, of course, tied-in to their user agreement. Still, you will gain independence and, should this partnership not suit you anymore, it will be easier for you to terminate it. Being able to smoothly migrate your infrastructure can be a key argument in the particular case of a startup merger or acquisition.
Leveraging the best of each cloud provider
Another key argument is, of course, the freedom the multi cloud offers. Choosing the products that best suit your infrastructure is no longer a luxury beyond your reach. Using managed services will make it easier for you to coordinate and integrate cloud environments to your infrastructure. By delegating the maintenance tasks (backup, monitoring, patching, etc.), you will save time, and increase your efficiency. Most importantly, you will always be able to regain your freedom.
Reducing infrastructure costs
By hyper-customizing your infrastructure to meet your needs, there will be a direct impact on your costs. No more unnecessary products, no more excessive consumption. As your teams save time, your company will save money. Even though your purchasing power will be distributed across several cloud providers, your ability to compare providers will increase your negotiating power.
Building redundant architectures
Deploying with the multi cloud allows you to diversify to your infrastructure’s hosting locations, which guarantees high availability for your clients. So, should one of your cloud providers encounter technical issues, the features and services that are deployed on other clouds will still be available for your users.
Leveraging a true competitive advantage to benefit your teams
Building your infrastructure across multiple providers, AZs, and regions, protecting you from any incident is a thrilling challenge, which will certainly lead to an improved user experience for your engineers and developers.
Empowering your teams
Building your infrastructure across multiple providers, AZs, and regions, protecting you from any incident is a thrilling challenge, which will certainly lead to an improved user experience for your engineers and developers.
Simplifying recruitment to help your teams grow
By relying on more than just one provider, you won’t have to limit yourself to niche experts when recruiting Cloud Architects. Some of your developers might feel a bit anxious about transitioning from a single cloud to the multi cloud. Involve them in the discussions when choosing providers, reassure them by providing them with documentation and helping them get acquainted with the new providers’ ecosystems. Finally, give them the opportunity to upgrade their skills, which will benefit both the company and their CVs.
Now that you know all the arguments, there are three possible outcomes:
- You are already leveraging the services of several providers, but you want to benefit from all these advantages to the fullest
- You are currently using an on-premise or hybrid approach, and now you want to move on to a multi-cloud strategy
- Or you either think all of this is just nonsense, or you simply don’t believe what you just read. In this case, we would like to hear about your reservations
If one of the first two fits your case, then the next step for you is to analyze your infrastructure to find out what works and what doesn’t, and define the areas of improvement.
All this should help you determine your next move.