Overview of Multi Cloud

When cloud computing proved itself as an emerging technology of the current situation and if we will see there is a great demand of cloud services by most of the organizations irrespective of the organization’s service and organization’s size. There are different types of cloud deployment models available which are used by the organizations as per their requirements like a basic cloud use may be to run an application in a single cloud model whether private cloud or public cloud. But with the advancement of technology and services when one organization wanted to go for different cloud deployment models from different cloud service providers then the concept of multi cloud evolved.

Multi Cloud :
Multi cloud is the use of two or more cloud providers together, they might be public, private or a mix of both to achieve the organization’s goals. Basically it is the use of various types of cloud operators to have more features and increase their organization’s flexibility which also covers the disadvantages of the individual platforms. Companies prefer multi-cloud environments as they can distribute computing resources and minimize the risk of downtime and data loss.

Multi cloud allows one organization to use most appropriate and most beneficial cloud options based on their business requirement that may be public or private cloud for each separate application. 

Why to go for multi cloud ?

1. Innovation –
   Multi cloud strategy have the flexibility to rapidly innovate while also taking advantage of the best features every cloud provider gives. This helps the development teams to focus on innovating without the limitation of the providers holding them back.
2. Risk Mitigation –
   Cloud providers have different locations across the globe that can be picked to host the cloud environment.
3. Vendor lock-in –
   By taking service from multiple cloud providers the risk of getting stuck on a single provider in case the provider goes out of business or change their term of service.
4. Power Negotiation –
   If there are multiple providers it is easy to negotiate with the providers for better pricing.
5. Latency –
   Being able to select which region to host your cloud environment is very useful as the organization can pick regions which will have less traffic and provide lower latency to the customer.

Service providers used in multiload computing :
As multi cloud is a combination of multiple cloud vendors so there is no specific multi-cloud infrastructure vendor. Instead, it involves a mix of multiple cloud service providers i.e

• Amazon Web Services (AWS)
• Microsoft Azure
• Google cloud
• IBM
• Oracle etc.

Security in Multi-cloud environment :
A multi-cloud environment needs to be monitored by a third party, and they have to be provided with proper administration rights too. Also, they would have to check on the infrastructure on a regular basis as it will keep changing.

Some drawbacks of using Multi-cloud :

• Talent Management –
  Finding the right people to manage and develop on a multi-cloud infrastructure can be a hassle.
• Cost estimation, Optimization and Reporting –
  Getting a multi cloud provider might sound easy and cheap but estimating the costs and consolidating it is tough.
• Security Risks –
  Handling a multi cloud environment is difficult because they have to manage all individual providers and the organization has to give them enough admin rights to do so.

Challenges Faced In Multi-cloud Environment :

1. Finding the right providers.
2. Integration or setting up a bridge among the different environments owned for data flow.
3. Picking out locations and price which will be suit their needs.
4. Securing them by regular monitoring the data clouds.