24.03.2021. Blog
Cloud computing has in less than three decades evolved into a mature technology and now represents a sophisticated computing paradigm. These days, end-users of cloud services are not limiting themselves to a single vendor and are using the multicloud approach. Organizations have increasingly begun to source basic computing, networking, or storage services, or any other specialized service as for that matter, from more than one cloud service provider.
Let us put things into perspective by looking at the facts for cloud computing in general and the multicloud trend in particular.
As per Gartner Inc, the cloud computing market is expected to grow from $242 billion in 2019 to $362 billion in 2022 – an increase of 50% over a three-year period. As per the Flexera 2020 State of the Cloud Report, 93% of decision-makers that were surveyed, said that they have a multicloud strategy in place.
Due to the interplay of people, processes, technology, and location, several deployment models have come into existence. Organisations are deploying dedicated computing infrastructure situated on-premise or at a colocation facility. This deployment model, known as private cloud, is in response to use cases driven by requirements such as:
Hybrid cloud installations (or just hybrid clouds) are integrations between at least one public and private cloud or on-premise data center within an organisation.
The multicloud option provides organisations the flexibility to select services from more than one cloud vendor and deploy them in a given deployment model. An example would be a website with a load balancer and autoscaling group hosted using one cloud service provider, with a database at the backend hosted in a private cloud, or a colocation facility operated by another cloud service provider.
There are several multicloud applications and use cases. Let us cover a few.
Organisational end users can take advantage of the integrations of Salesforce CRM with Oracle NetSuite to improve productivity and user experience.
With the use of cloud services from across cloud vendors, organisations have been able to redefine DR (Disaster Recovery) mechanisms and infrastructure. The generally accepted practice is to have a primary cloud service provider that hosts the website or application and to build a redundant switchover site using a secondary cloud service provider.
Example 1 - Multicloud Disaster Recovery
In 2019 Oracle and Microsoft formed a cloud interoperability partnership. This strategic alliance combines Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) and Microsoft Azure to accelerate enterprise cloud adoption. The alliance promises many collateral benefits to users who wish to take advantage of the best of breed solutions that both platforms offer. A case in point would be the ability to run a Power BI-based application in Azure and securely connect this in real-time with an Oracle Autonomous Database running in the Oracle Cloud.
Example 2 - Multicloud environment
Another outcome of this strategic alliance and resultant interoperability is the ability to use Azure infrastructure to deploy Oracle application such as:
Using a multicloud approach, stakeholders in cloud computing initiatives can derive numerous benefits, as listed below.
Each cloud vendor has services for which they are specifically recognised. This could be because the services are based on native technologies as is the case with Oracle and its Oracle PaaS offering or Microsoft’s SQL Server PaaS. Alternatively, the service could have been pioneered by a cloud vendor and has matured over a period of time, providing a richer feature set, stronger performance, and better overall experience.
No single cloud is better than a pool of cloud service providers combined. Users are able to make informed technology choices based on industry-leading cloud services.
Using a single cloud vendor for provisioning all virtual resources could very well mean concentrating the risk with that cloud vendor. It would make applications and infrastructure-less resilient when the vendor faces service disruptions. With a multicloud approach, it is possible to make alternate deployment plans, implement fault tolerance and promote business continuity.
Besides, a single cloud vendor could potentially result in vendor lock-in and tie down the user to licensing terms, pricing, and technology.
With multiple data centers and content delivery networks, cloud vendors have excellent network coverage across regions worldwide. It is always possible however that there are differences in latency and coverage for specific regions between two cloud vendors.
This difference in region-wise penetration and density between cloud vendors can be leveraged by organisations that need to provide better performance and lower latency to their customers. Moreover, organisations can take advantage of high-speed dedicated connectivity that cloud vendors offer to build high-performance and low latency hybrid installations connecting privately-owned infrastructure with the cloud.
Organisations can innovate and achieve greater flexibility by exploring new technology, running experimental workloads, tests, and proof of concepts. Selecting the right cloud services forms an important part of Go-To-Market (GTM) strategies of companies planning to launch new products or services.
Cloud services are designed to work within native ecosystems. There is usually no interoperability built in. Security is one of the most important focal points when integrating services from multiple cloud vendors. As it is, security considerations and requirements for implementing a single cloud service need to be understood and managed very minutely. The complexity increases manifold when we integrate and use services across multiple vendors in a multicloud environment.
Besides security and interoperability, there are challenges related to provisioning, automation and orchestration of cloud resources in a multicloud setting.
Many challenges and risks necessitate creating a pragmatic and effective strategy for adopting a multicloud approach. If you want to explore them all, check out this infographic elaborating on all the factors you need to consider. For the purpose of this blog, we’ll mention the centralised approach to Cloud Financial Management.
Cloud expenditure accounts for a growing share of IT spend for organisations. Traditional IT expenditure was like capital expenditure (CAPEX) as opposed to operating expenses on cloud services (OPEX). As a result, traditional budgeting and forecasting methods may not apply to cloud expenditure. What is required is a centralised approach to building dynamic forecasting, budgeting, and cost control capabilities that would not sacrifice employee productivity. One such approach is the FinOps (financial operations) methodology.
DevOps as a discipline plays a critical role in using cloud-based technology to deliver accelerated development of applications, thereby providing companies with a competitive edge in improving employee productivity and increasing customer retention. As discussed earlier, cloud expense is an operating expense and since a cloud resource is spun up by members of distributed teams, it is a variable in nature. Traditional methods of forecasting, budgeting, and cost monitoring will not work.
FinOps is a model and a culture that brings about transparency and financial accountability to cloud expenses without sacrificing productivity within the DevOps teams. It is a nimble approach to managing cloud cost spending. It is not just about cost control. The intent is not to cut down costs or impose constraints but rather to promote intelligent consumption of cloud services and improve productivity through transparency, collaboration, and timely reporting.
The three stages of FinOps are
Let us use our experience in multicloud architecture and help you to:
Our solution is built on FinOps principles and can provide you with a single unified view of your cloud resources by using automation, reports, budgets, and budget thresholds, action groups, resource actions, organisation hierarchy, schedulers, notifications, and recommendations.
Let us help you to manage and optimise your multicloud resources and help you to get the most out of your cloud investment.
See firsthand how easy it is to make informed decisions about your Multicloud. Learn how to manage cost and automate resources based on FinOps principles and best practices.
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