The idea of “multi cloud” is not the same as the idea of “hybrid cloud or hybrid IT,” though these two terms are often conflated.
You can use a public cloud and private cloud to create a hybrid cloud. David Linthicum coined the term pragmatic hybrid cloud, which denotes the pairing of traditional on-premise systems with public clouds.
Multi Cloud is different from the two categories that it falls under. It happens when companies use a variety of different public cloud providers as opposed to one or two.
We won’t dive into all of the possible combinations. For example, you can combine a multi cloud environment with a private cloud. More and more companies are moving to a multi cloud setup, even if they have a private cloud already set up.
With the latest market share information on public cloud providers, it seems Amazon AWS is in a clear lead over the other players. While the next two providers may be holding a combined total of 33% of the market share, Amazon AWS has an amount of usage at 33%.
As of January 2022, 94% of organizations now operate in multi cloud environments. This adoption was influenced by the COVID-19 pandemic which forced enterprises to adopt cloud and digital technologies overnight to enable remote work and minimize business disruption.
Why use a multi cloud?
Businesses and organizations have been making the switch from private cloud to multi cloud environments because they offer a lot of benefits that single public cloud providers may not. No one wants to have all their eggs in one basket.
89% of respondents said they have a strategy for using more than one cloud
Organizations use a variety of providers for their needs. One provider will not be able to meet all the needs of the company and could potentially fail, so using multiple providers reduce the risk from such an occurrence.
Businesses now rely on networks to connect their users and applications together. With this network, pre-COVID businesses were not concerned about supporting remote workers or applications that are outside their firewalls.
Multi Clouds are better for connected businesses, but they can be difficult to create and maintain.
4 advantages to multi node deployments
- Businesses don’t want to be locked into a single vendor and so use multi cloud deployments to avoid the problem. However, this comes with risks of its own. When one provider no longer fits for the company, it becomes difficult to start with another one.
- Multiple cloud providers can be unreliable, but by utilizing a configurable multi cloud environment you can use a server from each provider in order to ensure that your business does not go down.
- Cloud providers aren’t all the same, and these cost optimization services provide different levels of support. As a company, it is your choice to determine how you want to optimize these services. A multicloud deployment may be one way to lower costs and increase reliability for cloud technology.
- The need for the business to be flexible is determined by its data. Some data needs to reside under layers of security, while other data may be vital in day-to-day functionality. Multi Cloud deployments allow organizations to grow and change according to the needs of the present moment.
