Many organizations today use multiple cloud providers to leverage different capabilities, optimize costs, and avoid vendor lock-in. However, managing multiple clouds also comes with challenges, such as complexity, security, and governance. How can you ensure that your multi-cloud strategy is effective and efficient? Here are some best practices to follow.
Before you choose your cloud providers, you need to assess your business and technical needs, such as performance, availability, scalability, compliance, and integration. You also need to consider your budget, skills, and existing infrastructure. Based on your needs, you can select the best cloud services and models for each workload, whether it is public, private, hybrid, or multi-cloud.
Instead of going in with a mindset that you wanna pursue a multi-cloud approach, the question should be - what are the features or services in the cloud you wish to adopt. Then narrow down the best hyperscaler for those chosen services and see whether it makes sense to proceed. Multicloud sounds great on paper but executing it is hardly but... It introduces operational, administrative and technological challenges that would make the overall cloud transformation more complicated than it already is. unless you are mandated by law or requirement from a regulator, choosing one cloud and building your estate on them is not only simpler & easier but also cost effective as you have much higher negotiating power when you consolidate on one.
Managing multiple clouds can be overwhelming without the right tools. You need to have a centralized and consistent way of monitoring, provisioning, deploying, and optimizing your cloud resources across different platforms. Cloud management tools can help you automate tasks, enforce policies, track costs, and troubleshoot issues. Some examples of cloud management tools are Cloudability, CloudHealth, RightScale, and Terraform.
Security is a critical aspect of multi-cloud management. You need to protect your data and applications from unauthorized access, breaches, and attacks. You also need to comply with the relevant regulations and standards for your industry and region. Some of the cloud security best practices are encrypting data at rest and in transit, using strong authentication and authorization mechanisms, applying patches and updates regularly, and conducting audits and assessments.
One of the benefits of using multiple clouds is that you can optimize your performance and costs by choosing the best option for each workload. However, you also need to monitor and measure your cloud usage and performance regularly, and adjust your resources accordingly. You can use cloud optimization tools to analyze your data, identify inefficiencies, and suggest improvements. You can also use cloud migration tools to move your workloads between clouds as needed.
Managing multiple clouds requires not only technical skills, but also organizational and cultural changes. You need to have a clear vision and strategy for your multi-cloud journey, and communicate it to your stakeholders and teams. You also need to train and empower your staff to use the cloud tools and services effectively, and adopt agile and DevOps practices. Additionally, you need to foster a culture of collaboration, innovation, and continuous learning.
Finally, you need to review and refine your multi-cloud strategy periodically, as your business and technical needs may change over time. You need to evaluate your cloud performance, costs, security, and satisfaction, and identify any gaps or issues. You also need to keep up with the latest trends and developments in the cloud market, and explore new opportunities and solutions. By doing so, you can ensure that your multi-cloud strategy is aligned with your goals and delivers value.