𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐜𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐚𝐠𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐜𝐥𝐨𝐮𝐝 𝐢𝐧𝐯𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐝𝐢𝐬𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐞𝐝 𝐚𝐜𝐫𝐨𝐬𝐬 𝐬𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐥 𝐩𝐮𝐛𝐥𝐢𝐜 𝐜𝐥𝐨𝐮𝐝 𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐦𝐬?
SP (Scott Pletcher): Most companies, according to industry studies, have some sort of multi-cloud strategy. However, the hybrid cloud approach, which combines a public cloud provider with virtualization equipment in their own data center, is the most popular multi-cloud variant. Fewer organizations use more public cloud providers.
However, there are compelling reasons why you might find yourself in a public multi-cloud scenario. You may have inherited a new public cloud through a merger or acquisition. Perhaps you are integrating IT operations after years of running each business unit independently. Some cloud providers simply don't work in specific areas for international businesses, so if you need a local provider, you're suddenly multi-color...whether you want to. or not.
𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐬𝐨𝐦𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 “𝐛𝐚𝐝” 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐨𝐧𝐬 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐮𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐧𝐮𝐦𝐞𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐬 𝐩𝐮𝐛𝐥𝐢𝐜 𝐜𝐥𝐨𝐮𝐝 𝐬𝐞𝐫𝐯𝐢𝐜𝐞𝐬?
SP: In my opinion, some views on this matter are outdated and need to be reconsidered.
For example, some business leaders believe that using more public clouds will help them maintain bargaining power with other vendors. This may have been true in the past, but not anymore.
Due to competition, all the major cloud providers offer nearly identical services. So if you don't agree with your cloud provider, you have the option to switch to another (but not ideal, as your team will need additional skills). You are no longer obligated to pay the previous supplier's sunk costs in fixed assets. Everything should be portable if your cloud architecture is developed properly.
Another typical justification that companies give for using multiple public clouds is to ensure reliability. It is common to produce multiple suppliers for the same raw material to reduce supply risk. In addition, you can use multiple telecom partners to protect against a group of utilities that cut a fiber line by mistake.
Public cloud providers, on the other hand, provide methods and services to ensure reliability. If a tornado destroys a single cloud data center, your data and services will continue to function properly, assuming you've designed everything right and are using your redundancy capabilities. supplier.
𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐚𝐝𝐯𝐚𝐧𝐭𝐚𝐠𝐞𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐝𝐢𝐬𝐚𝐝𝐯𝐚𝐧𝐭𝐚𝐠𝐞𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐮𝐭𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐳𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐬𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐥 𝐩𝐮𝐛𝐥𝐢𝐜 𝐜𝐥𝐨𝐮𝐝𝐬?
SP: Let’s take a look at the issues from a few different perspectives:
Development of cloud skills
While each cloud service has comparable features, the way you use and optimize these features varies widely. Since each vendor has unique characteristics that are rarely the same, your team will need to learn more. If you choose to use multiple public clouds, you will complicate your recruitment and training efforts, given the current shortage of people with the necessary cloud expertise. You also extend the skill hill climb time. Although planned, high-quality training shortens the time it takes to achieve maximum productivity, mastering skills requires hands-on practice. Having multiple public cloud providers means your engineers will need more practice, which unfortunately comes with lots of bugs and redesigns.
Multi-cloud architecture
Organizations can move their workloads to the cloud in a variety of ways. Lift and move (move a virtual machine or container to the public cloud) is a common first step, although it offers only temporary benefits.
When you can use cloud-native designs, such as fully managed and serverless services, the benefits really start to kick in. All the major vendors have solid products to help you gain scalability, reduce costs, improve security, and offload an undifferentiated workforce from your employees. Cloud-native designs often take advantage of the cost and efficiency of cloud providers.
If you use a lot of public clouds and need a cloud agnostic architecture, you will almost certainly be forced into a "lowest common denominator" architecture for all of them (many possibilities). capabilities are at the virtual machine or container level). You won't be able to get the most out of a single provider, and you risk reducing the potential ROI of your cloud spend.
Resilience
As high outages affect public cloud providers, you should consider your level of risk. Should you diversify your cloud services by adding a third public cloud provider? In my opinion, any major cloud provider can build a more resilient or resilient landscape than many other cloud providers. If you have chosen a cloud-native architecture, then resiliency is built-in.
If you don't have it installed, multisite and multi-region options with scaling, auto scaling, and auto failover are already pre-installed or just one click. You'll need to use manual or third-party solutions to monitor systems, synchronize data, and enable failover if you're building these resiliency across multiple vendors. You'll also have more transfers and contacts if you don't have a team of absolute unicorn cloud engineers who are well versed in different cloud providers, which isn't ideal during a crisis.
Renowned Gartner Vice President and Analyst Lydia Leong wrote an in-depth look at why multi-cloud failover is not the best strategy for ensuring resiliency.
Cost
"Why build one when you can have two for twice the price?" about John Hurt's character in the movie Contact. Since cloud providers offer tiered pricing and spending plans, pooling your spending with one provider can save you money on bills.
When using different cloud service providers, the cost is not limited to the monthly bill. Other tangible and intangible costs, such as those related to recruitment and skills development, are included in the total cost of ownership.
𝐈𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐲𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐞𝐥𝐬𝐞 𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐦𝐮𝐥𝐭𝐢-𝐜𝐥𝐨𝐮𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐛𝐮𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐞𝐬 𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐛𝐞 𝐚𝐰𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐨𝐟?
SP: Some of those who advocate for the use of many public clouds may have ulterior agendas. If a cloud provider is aiming to gain market share, for example, it has an incentive to advertise multi-cloud as a reasonable solution. They may be attempting to obtain a piece of the pie in whatever way they can.
Similarly, third-party technologies exist to assist businesses in managing cloud complexity, and they are vociferous about the numerous advantages of multi-cloud, which is understandable.
The following are the most crucial questions to ask yourself:
- What are your objectives for your cloud strategy?
- Are you sure you won’t be able to accomplish it with only one provider?
Multiple public clouds, in my opinion, should only be used as a last option.