You must be aware of the benefits that cloud computing offers to your organization. Cloud computing gives you the power to operate anywhere, saves your cost, improves scalability and innovation and much more. Cloud reduces the large infrastructure needed to keep and maintain data in your organization. A recent survey states that 77% of businesses plan to leverage a multi cloud strategy.
The recent news of cloud outages that shook several business websites got CIOs and CTOs to reconsider their cloud strategy. Even though cloud outages are rare, just one instance is enough to lose out a chunk of hard earned customers. Businesses that overlooked their single cloud strategies have embraced the benefits of including multiple vendors in their cloud strategies. Having a multi-cloud environment overcomes financial risk posed by the chances of single vendor downtime as you will have a backup that is up and running.
What is Multi Cloud
Multi cloud is the process of leveraging your cloud services such as OpenStack, Microsoft Azure or AWS etc. such that you can choose several cloud solutions based on your requirement and budget. Let’s say for example that you could optimize your CRM and customer data storage services using Salesforce and your Microsoft related applications and SQL databases and related websites to Azure it supports Microsoft SQL . It may prefer Amazon or Google which are great in running large workloads to perform big data analysis, Your multi cloud strategy can let you choose your optimal vendor or multiple vendors based on each requirement of your organization without any compromises. Multi cloud lets you to store critical data in more than one platform so that things are under control even when unexpected happens.
Even the acquisition of Orbitera which is a multi-cloud support platform by Google re iterates that Google too recognizes that multi-cloud will reign the future.
48% of IT decision-makers who plan to implement a cloud-based solution within the next twelve months also plan to deploy six or more cloud services.
Why your Cloud Strategy Should Include Multiple Vendors
Saves you from downtime
This is a prominent issue when you are using a single cloud provider.
A multi-cloud arrangement protects you from paying the price of prolonged downtime duration as you can backup redundant data across multiple cloud providers. Using multiple cloud services, helps your business avoid data loss and downtime caused by a breakdown in any single component in hardware, software, data storage and other reasons.
Minimizes cost
You cannot find all the best features in one provider at low cost.
Different cloud services provide features at different costs. You can work out on an optimal cost by calculating the best price for the best package each provider gives you. You can make use of the services rendered by two best cloud computing companies easily at the same or even lesser cost. You can go for the cheaper priced models for processing less critical data and higher priced good security models for the critical data. You can subscribe a specific option from cloud as most cloud providers give you the freedom to pay as per use.
Prevents Vendor lock-in
This is another issue when you are stuck with a single cloud provider.
Fear of vendor lock-in is a major obstacle that many business face to grow.
Mary Meeker’s 2017 Internet Trends report states that there is a study increase in concerns regarding vendor lock-in among cloud users that by 2015, the percentage those cited vendors lock in shot up to 22% from 7 %.
The cumbersome task and risks involved to migrate the data from one cloud to another forces many enterprises to stay with a provider that doesn’t completely meet their requirements.
Multi-cloud strategy prevents this lock in and lets you utilize the best of all worlds without hassle or risks. It gives you the flexibility to control your data and make the best out of it.
Multi-cloud strategy lets you address your varied requirements in terms of performance, privacy, security and location and make you address each of them independently and effectively.
Flexibility
multi cloud strategy provides you the flexibility to leverage the best cloud-services from various providers letting your enterprise to remain dynamic meanwhile saving cost and selecting the best feature that fits the business. Multi cloud gives the company the flexibility to scale, improve performance, and reduce costs. You can also tap the benefits of hybrid clouds to its fullest potential by moving to multiple vendor strategy.
Improved Performance
Distributing data across multiple cloud providers helps you to be available throughout even when there is an unexpected cloud downtime. Distribution of workload helps you improve your performance considerably by taking the best feature of the cloud service provider.
Diverse Choices
Leveraging multiple clouds gives you a wide variety of choices. multi-cloud strategy enables you to utilize the best strength of each cloud provider and mix and match these features and services based on your organizational goals.
Risk Mitigation and Higher Resiliency
Multi cloud helps you get back to your feet during unexpected disasters by facilitating faster disaster recovery with its multiple backup of data where there are fewer chances of failure.
Branching out services across multiple vendors reduces your business risk due to downtime, application outages and data harm.
Conclusion
Multi-cloud is a blend of the best of all the worlds put together. It will help your business customize and prioritize the tools it requires and just pay for it. It saves your websites from the downtime that will lead to loss of reputation of your business. 86% of enterprises predict that they will need a multi-cloud strategy within the next two years, according to a study by IDC
In order to avail Cloud computing services it is always better to look at the Cloud computing service provider’s reviews and select the top cloud computing companies that suit your requirements.
