The Benefits of a Multicloud Strategy

As more companies are coming to the cloud, what type of deployment strategy are they deciding is best for them? For most, it's multicloud.

A multicloud strategy is the use of two or more cloud-based computing services. Multicloud can refer to any deployment of multiple software-as-a-service (SaaS) or platform-as-a-service (PaaS) cloud offerings, but it is generally used to refer to a mix of public infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) environments.

Organizations choose to implement a multicloud strategy for many reasons: to enable flexible distribution of workloads, increase security, improve reliability, enable versatile DevOps environments, and, of course, reduce costs.

The Road to Multicloud

The numbers don’t lie. Among enterprises over the past few years, there has been a seismic shift from on-premises computing to cloud-based strategies. By one estimate, 83 percent of enterprise workloads will be in the cloud by 2020. What are some of the factors that have led to this change, and is it the right change for your organization?

Three main factors have led to a rise in cloud computing:

• Cost: Using on-premises systems to run today’s enterprise workloads comes with ongoing price tags for hardware, maintenance, power consumption, and physical space—even when these systems are not in use. Cloud-based solutions typically charge only for the resources used, don’t require any hardware provisioning, and won’t take up any valuable office space.
• Agility: Cloud-based technologies provide greater flexibility to integrate multiple solutions, can dynamically scale to meet workload demands, and can be managed remotely. Cloud-based resources can be provisioned and decommissioned on demand, based on current enterprise needs.
• Deployment: Cloud-based IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS offerings enable enterprises to acquire compute, storage, networking, application, and software resources as needed in a matter of hours or days. On-premises solutions require systems to be purchased, delivered, installed, and maintained, a process that can take weeks or even months, leaving you with an expensive solution before you’ve even begun to use it.

Prior to this change in thinking, security leaders, particularly in larger, enterprise organizations, hesitated to adopt cloud technologies all at once. But advances in security and integrated management capabilities have eased those fears.

Security Benefits of Multicloud

A well-designed multicloud strategy decreases the effectiveness of distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks by allowing IT and security teams to shift the workloads that operate in impacted environments to other cloud environments. This capability, combined with a strong DDoS protection solution, provides resiliency beyond having only a single DDoS protection strategy.

Multicloud environments also allow for a core-to-edge security approach. Security defenses that sit at the edge of the network, away from the core infrastructure and closer to the end user, can be implemented on demand often as part of a cloud service. As a result, attack detection and mitigation happens before potential threats can reach the core network where applications and workloads exist.

A multicloud strategy can also improve reliability outside of the event of an attack. If the primary cloud encounters an issue, a passive cloud can seamlessly act as a failover solution to ensure uninterrupted site availability, content delivery and ecommerce transactions.

Benefits for DevOps

Enterprises that want to achieve maximum agility for their DevOps teams know that multicloud is a must. Multicloud environments give DevOps cost-effective, self-service resources to run and test workloads in a variety of environments. Additionally, DataOps is requiring increasing support from DevOps, and highly accessible and integrated cloud environments support this type of collaboration.

A Strategic Approach

Today’s enterprise business practices have become a race to outpace the evolving technology use of competitors. But, the approach must be strategic. A well-planned multicloud environment will make enterprises a secure and resilient force in the marketplace, while also fostering the flexible environments that are imperative for innovation.

Laurent Gil, Security Product Strategy Architect for Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, will speak about multicloud security and compliance at SINET ITSEF 2019 on April 11 in Mountain View, CA.