Overview of Multi-Cloud Management
A Brief Understanding of What Multi-Cloud Management Is
As digitalization is taking over the world, companies are constantly looking for options through which they can leverage next-gen technologies, using which they can automate their business and simplify the whole process. This will help businesses sustain themselves in the constantly changing environment.
Multi-cloud management is the set of tools and procedures that help a business monitor and secure its apps and workloads across
multiple cloud platforms. The cloud platforms could be public, private, or even a mix of both.
Why Should You Consider Multi-Cloud?
Enterprises should adopt multi-cloud as it is an ideal environment to allocate computing resources and reduce the risk of data loss and downtime. With the constant innovations in the cloud space, a multi-cloud environment allows companies the luxury of choosing the best available options for their cloud service requirements.
Is Multi-Cloud Infrastructure the Future?
The multi-cloud architecture allows the enterprise to distribute its workload across various cloud environments effectively. This helps the organization achieve widespread growth while minimizing risks associated with individual
cloud environments.
Multi-cloud infrastructure is the future because:
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It offers various cloud options to resolve rigorous needs across multiple computing and business functions.
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Allows organizations to enable a cloud environment, which combines security and cost-savings at the same time.
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Reduces latency and serves corporate data across geographically disparate locations while maintaining a unified end-user experience.
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It empowers firms to mix and match platforms in a way that the workloads are not locked into a single cloud provider.
The cloud is about how you do computing, not where you do computing.
Paul Maritz, former CEO of VMware and Pivotal
Most Efficient Multi-Cloud Management Tools
When you choose a multi-cloud management tool for your organization, it is critical to consider the user experience on offer, the number of customers, financial capabilities etc. Companies should also consider and compare the functionality of the tools they are looking into.
Some of the top multi-cloud management tools are as follows:
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BMC Cloud Lifecycle Management – defines and manages the complete lifecycle of a resource on a cloud. It also accelerates innovation and continuous delivery of services.
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Embotics Commander – offers automated provisioning for approvals and decommissioning, with custom actions to reduce sprawl and customizable multi-cloud service.
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Flexera – helps orchestrate APIs along with built-in assistance for networking, storage and more.
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HyperGrid – essentially used to monitor cloud service platforms. It also simplifies migration plans for companies using features like auto-discovery and right-sizing.
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Morpheus – provides operations and automation along with on-premise hypervisors, various cloud services, and swapping technologies.
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Scalr – enables role-based access control for different users, providing an open policy agent with a single toolset to eliminate any differences.
Top 7 Reasons to Adopt a Multi-Cloud Strategy
Adopting a multi-cloud strategy to ensure optimal distribution of assets across cloud hosting environments. Cloud computing has helped businesses achieve greater flexibility, accessibility, and resilience. With innovating at a rapid pace being the need of the hour, here are some of the top reasons for you to adopt a multi cloud strategy for your business.
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Businesses have the option of associating with the best-in-class cloud hosting platforms for each task, according to the requirements.
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Helps improve business agility with workload mobility.
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Enterprise can scale storage based on the requirements of individual data segments.
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•t helps build high-speed, low latency infrastructures and reduces costs.
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Mitigate any risk by switching to another service provider.
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Evaluate the benefits, terms, and pitfalls of multiple service providers to prevent vendor lock-in.
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Enjoy competitive pricing and offers such as adjustable contracts, flexible payments, etc.
Top 5 Challenges of Multi-Cloud Management
While
multi-cloud is considered to be the wave of the future, there are still some challenges that one might come across. Each cloud service provider has their own set of practices and guidelines, which can sometimes pose as a challenge. Some of the most common challenges are:
Management Complexity – The larger the number of cloud environments an organization uses, the greater the complexities that come along with it. With no standardization across cloud vendors and each cloud vendor having its own portal, APIs, and processes for managing its environment, adding vendors would mean an increasing management burden.
Skill Scarcity – The high demand for skilled professionals with the knowledge of managing multiple cloud platforms makes it difficult for organizations to find ideal talent. The prevalence of a tight labor market and rapidly changing technologies only add to the constraints.
Governance and Compliance – Some companies must pass through multiple compliance requirements to be met, irrespective of where the data is stored. This makes data governance highly critical.
Cost Control – There is always a chance of the cost associated with each service quickly spinning out of control. Vendors using different billing systems and employing different pricing, fees, and infrastructure sizes is also a common issue.
Interoperability – When organizations migrate their workload from their legacy systems to various cloud platforms, the lack of interoperability is a significant hindrance. This requires IT teams to deal with siloed vendor tools along with other interoperability challenges.
Best Practices for Multi-Cloud Management
Undertaking the right practice for your multi-cloud management is essential for you to attain optimum results from your strategy and achieve the goals that you have set. Some of the most effective practices that you can undertake are listed below:
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Identify and map your multi-cloud architecture according to your business requirements.
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Standardize consumption by charting each department’s usage and then increasing or decreasing resources accordingly.
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Achieve a cohesive multi-sourced ecosystem by integrating six key areas; business, organization, information, governance, processes, and tools.
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Ensure that an effective and reliable disaster recovery plan is in place.
The German stock exchange, Börse Stuttgart, wanted to improve the speed and agility of their IT operations and security. They also required greater visibility into costs, compute contention issues, and capacity. Using multi-cloud, Börse Stuttgart achieved better service monitoring and faster troubleshooting. They were also able to simplify IT management of their cloud proxy, enhance management reports and dashboards, and shift the usage of IT time from operations to innovation.
Conclusion
For an organization to effectively automate the task and optimize costs, they require a sturdy multi-cloud management platform. With the shift of focus from managing technology infrastructure to business transformation, a business can derive the maximum possible competitive advantage.
FAQ
Why Is a Multi-Cloud Strategy Important?
With an effective multi-cloud strategy in place, it provides the organization with the freedom to use the best possible cloud platform, depending upon the requirements.
What Is Multi-Cloud Management?
Multi-cloud management is a variety of tools and processes that aid a business in overseeing and securing applications and workloads across multiple cloud platforms.
What Is the Benefit of a Multi-Cloud Network?
Using a multi-cloud network, a multi-cloud platform can combine the best services that each cloud platform offers, allowing companies to customize their infrastructure as per their needs.