Are you a business owner considering switching to a multi-cloud strategy in 2024? Before investing, you must understand the advantages and disadvantages of leveraging multiple public clouds instead of opting for one fully managed cloud service.
A multi-cloud strategy is growing in popularity as business owners struggle to find just one public cloud provider that meets all their needs and requirements while staying within budget. In fact, in a survey of public cloud users, 81% said they work with two or more vendors.
This article will explore what a multi-cloud strategy is and the advantages and disadvantages of a business owner making the investment in 2024.
What is a multi-cloud strategy?
A cloud is a collection of servers hosting software and infrastructure that customers, individuals, and business owners can access over the Internet. It offers users on-demand availability to computer resources such as data storage and computing power.
There are both private and public cloud services. A public cloud is run by an external third-party vendor that may have servers in one or more data centers. Public clouds are shared by multiple individuals and organizations renting server space within the same physical server.
An on-premises private cloud is a data center maintained and secured by a single company, not an external vendor. While, a private hosted cloud sees a third-party provider host and maintain private cloud servers that organization accesses over the Internet instead of an internal network.
A multi-cloud strategy sees businesses leverage two or more public or private cloud services from any number of vendors.
For example, in a multi-cloud configuration, a business may first choose to introduce managed cloud hosting for its website, which provides daily automated backups, 99% uptime, and unlimited bandwidth for ultimate scalability.
They then may use another vendor for data storage and another for the full application stack.
Many businesses adopt a multi-cloud strategy for reliability, cost savings, or to prevent vendor lock-in. Others adopt a multi-cloud approach to take advantage of clouds that best suit their business objectives and application needs.
You may have also heard the term hybrid cloud. A multi-cloud can be a hybrid cloud and vice versa, but these terms have different concepts. A hybrid cloud strategy is when a business deploys two or more distinct types of infrastructure: it combines at least one public cloud with a private cloud, an on-premise data center, or both.
Advantages Of A Multi-Cloud Strategy
The following advantages show business owners why they should invest their time and money in a multi-cloud strategy in 2024:
Reliable
By using a multi-cloud strategy, a business avoids putting all its trust in one provider. If one cloud goes down, some functionalities will still be available to users from the other clouds the company has deployed.
Reduced vendor lock-in
Once a business begins relying on cloud providers, it can become difficult to move away from them. With a multi-cloud strategy, you don’t rely on a single provider, so you can choose a range of solutions that align with your business requirements.
If a multi-cloud strategy is used, systems and storage are spread out across multiple vendors. Therefore, it’s easier to deploy to other providers because the majority of the infrastructure still remains in place during the migration.
Saves money
Opting for a multi-cloud strategy—and not committing to using one cloud provider for all your infrastructure needs—can effectively reduce your IT expenditures because public cloud solutions involve fewer overhead costs.
In addition, this strategy allows businesses to select the most affordable services from different vendors. Organizations can compare providers to secure each contract’s best possible price and payment terms.
Utilize the best services
Businesses can align their needs, requirements, and budgets with the most suitable cloud hosting provider for each specific task.
For example, one cloud provider may offer the best hosting solution, while another may better suit a business’s storage needs.
A business can select from each provider’s physical location, database, service level agreement, pricing, and performance characteristics while crafting an overall cloud solution to meet pressing business needs.
Rather than adapting internal processes to fit a provider’s requirements, businesses have the freedom to access multiple options, each tailored to different segments.
Enhance security
A multi-cloud strategy can help ensure that an organization complies with the broad range of regulatory and governance mandates, such as the CCPA (California Consumer Privacy Act) in the US and the GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) in Europe.
Multi-cloud strategies often include adopting a zero-trust approach to cloud security, which can help ensure the security of every cloud transaction and interaction.
In addition, Utilizing multiple cloud providers helps protect against infrastructure failure or cyber-attack. Organizations can rapidly failover workloads from one cloud provider to another and fail them back once the problem is solved.
Disadvantages of a multi-cloud strategy
The following disadvantages show business owners why they should be wary of making the investment in 2024
Complexity of management
A multi-cloud deployment means interfacing with several different vendors, each with various processes and technology. In addition, it becomes harder to have complete visibility into the technology stack with data stored and processes running in multiple clouds.
Increased latency
If services in multiple clouds need to talk to one another in order to fulfill user requests, that can increase latency (delays), depending on how tightly the clouds are integrated, how far apart the data centers are geographically, and how often the clouds need to interact.
Source: TestMySpeed
Greater attack surface
It is critical to maintain strong security measures when thinking of cloud adoption.
A complex multi-cloud environment with data moving across multiple public clouds poses obvious risks because the more pieces of software and hardware that are integrated, the more vulnerabilities there likely are.
In a multi-cloud environment, the native security controls of various cloud service providers can lead to security capabilities, risk of human error, or misconfiguration.
Uncontrolled costs
We mentioned earlier that you can access lower price services by shopping around for multiple providers, rather than paying one cloud provider to do everything.
However, more clouds and more vendors means more bills to keep track of, which can result in unexpected costs and fees.
Stellar examples of multi-cloud strategies
To better understand how businesses are implementing multi-cloud strategies in practice, let’s look at some prominent examples from the tech industry:
1. Netflix
As one of the world’s leading streaming services, Netflix has adopted a sophisticated multi-cloud approach. While Amazon Web Services (AWS) remains its primary cloud provider, handling the majority of its streaming infrastructure, Netflix has strategically incorporated Google Cloud Platform (GCP) into its ecosystem. They leverage GCP specifically for AI and machine learning tasks, taking advantage of Google’s advanced capabilities in these areas. This allows Netflix to optimize its content recommendation algorithms and improve user experience while maintaining the robust streaming infrastructure provided by AWS.
2. Spotify
The popular music streaming platform Spotify has crafted a multi-cloud strategy that combines the strengths of different providers. They use Google Cloud Platform (GCP) for their data analytics needs, benefiting from Google’s powerful big data tools and machine learning capabilities. This helps Spotify analyze user behavior, create personalized playlists, and improve its recommendation systems. Simultaneously, Spotify utilizes Amazon Web Services (AWS) for content delivery, leveraging AWS’s global network to ensure fast and reliable music streaming to users worldwide. This combination allows Spotify to optimize both its backend analytics and front-end user experience.
3. Airbnb
The vacation rental platform Airbnb presents another interesting case of multi-cloud adoption. While AWS is their primary cloud provider, supporting most of their core operations, Airbnb has expanded its cloud strategy to include Google Cloud. This expansion was driven by their need for enhanced big data processing capabilities. By incorporating Google Cloud into its infrastructure, Airbnb can better handle the massive amounts of data its platform generates, including user interactions, booking patterns, and pricing dynamics. This multi-cloud approach enables Airbnb to maintain its AWS-based services while taking advantage of Google Cloud’s data analytics and machine learning strengths.
These examples illustrate how large, tech-savvy companies leverage multi-cloud strategies to optimize their operations. They demonstrate that a multi-cloud approach isn’t about simply dividing workloads between providers but rather about strategically utilizing the strengths of different cloud platforms to address specific business needs. By adopting similar strategies, businesses can:
- Leverage the best-in-class services from each provider
- Avoid vendor lock-in
- Enhance their capabilities in areas like AI, machine learning, and big data analytics
- Improve reliability and performance by distributing workloads
- Potentially reduce costs by optimizing workload placement
However, it’s important to note that these companies have significant resources and technical expertise to manage the complexity of multi-cloud environments. Smaller businesses considering a multi-cloud strategy should carefully evaluate their capabilities and needs before implementation.
Project management as a use case
As businesses consider implementing a multi-cloud strategy, project management is one area where they might leverage cloud services. Several top-rated project management software solutions operate on the cloud, offering teams flexibility and accessibility. Here is a comprehensive list of the best project management software you can use in 2024.
These cloud-based tools exemplify how businesses can leverage different cloud services to meet specific needs. For instance, a company might use Paymo for general project management while utilizing AWS for data storage and Google Cloud for analytics, illustrating the practical application of a multi-cloud strategy.
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Will you invest in 2024?
Hopefully, this article shows that the advantages of a multi-cloud strategy outweigh the disadvantages, especially for large companies.
Investment-wise, a multi-cloud strategy has a lower overhead cost but can be harder to control. To make the right investment, shop around for low-cost vendors in each specific area, but remember to keep track of bills and fees from all providers.
As organizations navigate the complexities of multi-cloud environments, new tools and services are emerging to simplify management. Cloud management platforms, multi-cloud orchestration tools, and AI-driven optimization services are becoming essential for businesses to fully harness the power of multi-cloud strategies.
As we move forward, the ability to seamlessly integrate and manage multiple cloud environments will become a key differentiator for successful businesses in the digital age.
Rebecca Barnatt-Smith
Author
Rebecca is a marketing expert at Solvid Digital. She specializes in small business strategy and has written for a number of large marketing and business publications such as Envato and Maddyness.
Alexandra Martin
Editor
Drawing from a background in cognitive linguistics and armed with 10+ years of content writing experience, Alexandra Martin combines her expertise with a newfound interest in productivity and project management. In her spare time, she dabbles in all things creative.
