#NEXTGENCLOUD: My Journey to the World of Multi-cloud: Conclusions and Recommendations, Part 4 of 4
Author: Antti Pohjolainen, Codento
Background
This is the last part of my four blog post series covering my journey to the world of multi-cloud. The previous postings are Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3.
Conclusion
The leading research topic that my study attempts to address is what are the business benefits of using multi-cloud architecture? According to the literature analysis, the most significant advantages include cost savings, avoiding vendor lock-in, and enhancing IT capabilities by utilizing the finest features offered by several public clouds.
According to the information acquired from the interviews, vendor lock-in is not that much of a problem. The best features of various public clouds should be utilized, according to some respondents. Implementing a multi-cloud may result in cost savings. Still, it appears that the threat of doing so is being used as a bargaining chip during contract renewal talks to pressure the current public cloud vendor for more affordable costs.
The literature review and the interviews revealed that the most pertinent issues with multi-cloud architecture were its increased complexity, security, and skill requirements. Given that the majority of the businesses interviewed lacked stated selection criteria, the research’s findings regarding hyperscaler selection criteria may have been the most unexpected. Finally, there is a market opportunity for both Google Cloud and multi-cloud.
According to academic research and information gleaned from the interviews, most customers will choose multi-cloud architecture within the purview of this study. The benefits of employing cloud technologies should outweigh the additional labor required to build a multi-cloud architecture properly, although there are a number of dangers involved.
According to the decision-makers who were interviewed, their current belief is that a primary cloud will exist, which will be supplemented by services from one or more other clouds. The majority of workloads, though, are anticipated to stay in their current primary cloud.
Recommendations
It is advised that businesses evaluate and update their cloud strategy regularly. Instead of allowing the architecture to develop arbitrarily based exclusively on the needs of suppliers or outsourced partners, the business should take complete control of the strategy.
The use of proprietary interfaces and technologies from cloud providers should be kept to a minimum by businesses unless there is 1) a demonstrable economic benefit, 2) no other technical alternatives, such as other providers not offering that capability, and 3) other technical issues, such as significant performance gains. Businesses can reduce the likelihood of a vendor lock-in situation by heeding this advice.
If a business currently only uses cloud services from one hyperscaler, proofs-of-concept with additional cloud providers should be started as soon as a business requirement arises. If at all possible, vendor-specific technologies, APIs, or services should be avoided in the proof-of-concept implementations.
Setting up policies for cloud vendor management that cover everything from purchase to operational governance is advised for businesses. Compared to dealing with a single hyperscaler, managing vendors in a multi-cloud environment needs more planning and skill.
Additionally, organizations are recommended to have policies and practices in place to track costs because the use of cloud processing is expected to grow in the upcoming years.
Final words
This blog posting concludes the My Journey To The World Of Multi-cloud series. We here at Codento would be thrilled to help you in your journey to the world of multi-cloud. Please feel free to contact me to get the conversation started. You will reach my colleagues or me here.
About the author: Antti “Apo” Pohjolainen, Vice President, Sales, joined Codento in 2019. Antti has led Innofactor’s (Nordic Microsoft IT provider) sales organization in Finland and, prior to that, worked in leadership roles in Microsoft for the Public sector in Finland and Eastern Europe. Apo has been working in different sales roles for longer than he can remember. He gets a “seller’s high” when meeting with customers and finding solutions that provide value for all parties involved.
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