Building a multicloud environment requires more than a series of cloud migrations. The goal isn’t to have a set of disconnected cloud entities; the goal is to have a collection of cloud entities that integrate into a cohesive architecture providing the IT services your business needs. There are several key issues you need to keep in mind when implementing your multicloud strategy:
1. Integration is critical. The benefits of multicloud can disappear under the complexity of multicloud management if you don’t carefully consider your integration strategy. Depending on your goals, integration can require shipping data between clouds nightly or using an API for one cloud’s workload to utilize services from a different cloud. Keep good documentation of these connections and have a plan for how you’ll continue to operate when there are inevitable communication problems.
2. Tracking underlies management. You can’t manage what you can’t measure or see. Multicloud multiplies the dynamic nature of cloud and the difficulty of keeping track of instances, usage, and utilization. Although you probably don’t want to eliminate self-service entirely, it makes it more difficult to ensure workloads and resources are deployed to the most effective cloud environment.
3. Security needs to cross cloud boundaries. Not all data is equally sensitive, but keeping data secure is easier if you can apply the same controls and policies across clouds. Manual review, tracking, and updating is time-consuming and prone to error, so look for tools that can automatically identify configuration problems and distribute policies to each environment.
4. Resiliency isn’t automatic. Don’t expect a multicloud environment to automatically provide high availability and disaster recovery. You need to design this into your architecture, and you still need to document a disaster recovery plan that will let you leverage your multicloud resources to restore operations during an outage.
5. Balance cloud-specific and cloud-generic strategies. The more you use features that are specific to a cloud provider, the more you’re able to take advantage of their benefits. However, using provider-specific features locks you in to that specific provider and can make it more difficult to move resources when requirements change. Find a balance between using provider-specific and provider-neutral approaches so you retain the flexibility that’s the goal of cloud.
6. Bring in the tools and people you need to manage multicloud effectively. With multiple cloud providers, you need people with expertise in all your different clouds. You also need tools that can automate procedures to help you maintain your clouds in consistent states that conform to your policies.
VAST IT Services has the multicloud expertise to help you ensure your multiple clouds combine to produce a singular IT experience for your organization. Contact us to learn how to make sure you’re taking the most advantage of your multicloud infrastructure.
Additional Multicloud Resources:
Multicloud Brings Multiple Challenges
Transferring Data Between Multiple Clouds? What’s Your Data Governance Strategy?
Managing Multicloud Requires Visibility Across All Your Clouds
