It’s probably safe to say that in the year 2020, all things considered, cloud migration may have been one of the most prominent topics on everyone’s mind. With an almost overnight shift to remote work, companies are turning to the cloud now more than ever to connect, communicate and collaborate. And just getting to the cloud hasn’t been the only challenge companies have faced when planning their cloud initiatives, but rather which cloud is the right and best solution to deploy. With so many cloud options available, businesses are motivated to take a more granular look into their applications and overall needs. The goal is to identify the most optimal cloud platform; providing an individual application with the best environment to garner top performance. Utilizing multiple cloud models to satisfy the needs and requirements of specific applications, instead of storing everything in the same place, is referred to as a multi-cloud approach.
Leveraging a multi-cloud approach gives an organization several advantages. Let’s take a look at a few. Specific applications may perform better in one environment over another. Why? By leveraging multiple clouds, clients are able to migrate individual workloads to the cloud of their choice based on the expected outcome and performance of the application. Using multiple cloud platforms also allows businesses to avoid vendor lock-in, leverage provider-specific tools, and move workloads between clouds if performance doesn’t meet initial expectations.
There are several ways to implement a multi-cloud approach.
When migrating to the cloud, the ultimate goal is to get the applications outside of the physical four walls of the business. Some businesses might simply leverage multiple public cloud options like AWS and Azure. Other businesses might work to convert the majority of their applications to a Software as a Service (SaaS) model and then find a cloud platform for all of their remaining applications. The majority of businesses will consider a combination of all of these solutions. How can they do this best? They will take some of their applications to a SaaS model while they will look at an Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) or enterprise cloud solution for their mission critical or legacy applications. In many cases, companies will look to leverage a public cloud model for their cloud native or new development applications, in conjunction with another solution for their secondary needs. Ultimately, the right approach is whatever fits the needs of the business, and meets the initiatives set forth by leadership.
But, sometimes the hardest part of the cloud migration process is defining a starting point.
Due to the complex nature of even beginning a cloud migration, some organizations have opted to move everything to a single cloud provider initially, then migrate to a multi-cloud environment down the road. This phased multi-cloud approach allows the business to create separate projects and see progress throughout their entire cloud journey. This also allows the organization to define reachable goals that can be changed and adjusted with shorter completion times.
Conclusion
The multi-cloud approach isn’t a new trend, but seems to be gaining more attention, especially in recent months. In fact, multi-cloud management software platforms are currently on the market. These platforms allow businesses the ability to manage multiple cloud platforms from a single dashboard.
Although the move to the cloud requires comprehensive planning, here’s something you can count on: your plan changing!
Regardless of if your organization has taken a multi-cloud approach from the beginning, or they have started down the road only to find out that their initial strategy has been blown out of the water, many organizations have found their cloud environment ends up looking much different than they first planned.
“One cloud fits all” is not a phrase we hear often, and it’s not a stance that has to be accepted in today’s world given rapidly evolving cloud offerings, pandemics and other business disruptions.
Things are constantly changing, but with change comes opportunity. All Covered is here to help. Our dedicated cloud experts can help set your business up for success with whatever cloud strategy is right for you. Contact us today to learn more.
