12-27-21 | Blog Post
Every day more and more organizations are moving to the cloud. Consequently, there are a number of public cloud options like Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud Platform to name but a few of the major clouds. Using multiple clouds can be a huge benefit for businesses. On the surface, using multiple clouds allows you to get the best features out of every cloud platform. According to Rightscale’s 2016 Cloud Report most companies are using on average 3.6 different cloud platforms. Sometimes this is done unintentionally. The HR department will use one cloud service and the marketing team will end up using a different service independent of one another. However, businesses everywhere are starting to realize the benefits of using a multi-cloud strategy. Let’s explore the advantages of this strategy for your business.
For many businesses the main reason they employ a multi-cloud strategy is not to reap all the different benefits of certain cloud platforms, rather multi-cloud strategies are employed with an eye on mitigating potential disaster and data loss. Using a multi-cloud strategy seriously minimizes a business’s risk of widespread data loss or application downtime.
These worst-case scenarios are more than just theoretical. In fact, the recent Amazon Web Services S3 outage caused a lot of problems for businesses around the world and highlighted the importance of having a multi-cloud strategy. The lesson learned from the AWS S3 outage is that a multi-cloud strategy can help your business continue operations even in times of crisis.
Besides the large security and disaster concerns there are other reasons to employ a multi-cloud strategy. It is smarter financially and business wise to not put all of your chips in one cloud vendor. Multi-cloud approaches keep service providers honest about pricing. Utilizing a multi-cloud approach gives you more negotiating power when working out a service deal, and it ensures that you won’t be price gouged. All of this ultimately adds up to give you the ability to strike better deals for your business.
Multi-cloud approaches also help in the event that a provider changes their Service Level Agreement (SLA). If your provider changes their SLA in a manner that no longer works well for your business’s needs, a multi-cloud approach allows you to easily move your workload to another provider.
Multi-cloud strategies give you the ability to create the best possible cloud environment for all of your needs. Certain clouds are going to be more secure, will be better at running Microsoft Office, will handle large amounts of information better than others, or some will cater to smaller organizations and thus be able to provide a more unique level of service. Whatever your unique needs may be, pursuing a multi-cloud strategy is the best way to ensure that all of them are met.
Companies that are consistently growing need more than just a single cloud provider. It can be risky to hope that your cloud service will grow with the growing needs of your business. A multi-cloud approach ensures that no matter how big or fast your company grows you will always have the resources you need to continue operations and continue expansion.
The few detractors of a multi-cloud approach will argue that it is inherently less secure to have multiple cloud providers. However, if your clouds are well-managed this risk is mitigated comfortably. Please contact us to learn more about cloud services and how your business can benefit from a multi-cloud approach.
