Organisational demands for cloud computing services seem to have increased on account of increased workloads. Businesses have seemingly started to avail services from two or more cloud providers to accommodate more data, which has given birth to multi-cloud strategies. From what it’s understood, a multi-cloud strategy utilises public clouds, private clouds, or amalgamation of both. “I believe a multi-cloud strategy is about ensuring we have the tools and partners to build a digital infrastructure that supports our mission and growth objectives. It’s like having a network of partners, such as AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud, each contributing their strengths to our operations,” Ranjan Chopra, MD and CEO, Team Computers, an information technology (IT) consulting firm, told FE TransformX.
An extensive understanding
Market experts suggest that multi-cloud strategies enable companies to enter and invest in different sectors. Multi-cloud solutions, using Kubernetes, help with development of applications for various computing conditions. It has also been seen that multi-cloud conditions can be combined with DevOps, which refers to an integrated approach towards software development and IT, and other cloud-oriented applications, such as microservices architecture and containers. In terms of benefits, multi-cloud strategies ensure economical costs, high security and regulatory guidelines, prevention of vendor lock-in, growth of network performance, increase in innovations, among others.
In terms of differences between multi-cloud and hybrid cloud strategies, the former needs control from multiple providers whereas the latter can be handled using a single platform. For inculcation of a multi-cloud management strategy, IT officials need to remain familiar with every platform’s pros and cons. Reportedly, the three main techniques taken into account for shaping multi-cloud management strategies are monitoring consolidation, standardisation, and management consolidation. “I think a multi-cloud strategy makes use of the services offered by cloud providers. Benefits of this strategy can fit in with the DevOps realm’s principles of agility, resilience, and efficiency. Your cloud environments can be either private, public, or a hybrid in a multi-cloud environment. A multi-cloud strategy’s objective is considered to provide the freedom to choose the appropriate computing environment for each job,” Sujit Patel, MD and CEO, SCSTECH, an IT solutions company, stated.
The numbers!
With regard to public cloud users, 81% of responders informed about operating using two or more providers, as per a recent study by Gartner, a research and consulting firm. The reason behind corporate purchasers’ selection of multiple cloud providers is the maximum share of megavendors in the public cloud services sector, wrote Michael Warrilow, VP-analyst, Gartner, in a blog. He further stated that 10 largest public cloud providers will dominate half of the total public cloud market until 2023. Going by market reports, the factors which drive multi-cloud computing reasons are governance, sourcing, and architecture.
Data from Global Market Insights, a global market research firm, showed that the multi-cloud management market is expected to clock $87.3 billion by 2032, at a 25% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) between 2023-32. Insights from a survey conducted by Hashicorp, a software company, found that one in every four businesses utilise one cloud, since 76% of platforms were already using multi-cloud computing strategies. The survey also found that a corporation’s desire to add multi-cloud computing strategies depends on the magnitude of its employees and operations. It’s been found that 41% of market share, for the multi-cloud computing market in 2022, was occupied by the public cloud deployment sector, whereas the cloud automation sector held 24.81% market share. Estimates have shown that in 85% of situations, a multi-cloud environment will be cheaper in comparison to other public cloud applications. “I view investment in a multi-cloud strategy as the allocation of resources across portfolios. Just like we diversify investment for financial security, adopting a multi-cloud approach ensures IT resilience, cost optimisation, and adaptability,” Chopra mentioned.
Furthermore, it is predicted that multi-cloud computing will be a digital benefactor for different organisations. There are signs that multi-cloud computing can shape future prospects of enterprise IT. A combination between multi-cloud and sovereign cloud computing mechanisms will allow supply of different kinds of products and services for organisations, despite following international regulatory guidelines. “I consider that cloud computing has future prospects as technology develops further. Cloud computing has a future and should continue to influence how we live in the years to come. Key trends to watch should include the usage of hybrid and multi-cloud settings, the advent of edge computing, the development of AI and ML, and the significance of security,” Patel concluded.
