Cross-Cloud, Supercloud, Distributed Cloud - Confused about Multicloud Terms?
Sanjay Narang
Senior Director of Technology at Target | Production Engineering | Transformative Leadership | Cloud Computing | Technology Strategy & Architecture
While multicloud is quite popular in the cloud industry, but there are a few related terms that carry subtle differences, often causing confusion. In this article, I aim to clarify these terms and provide a clear understanding of their distinctions. Before I come to the related terms, let me share my long-standing definition of multicloud:
Multicloud involves the concurrent use of multiple cloud services from at least two different providers within a specific scope - be it an individual application, a set of related workloads, or an entire organization. While many associate multicloud with applications or workloads utilizing multiple cloud services simultaneously, it can also apply at an organizational level. For example, if an organization deploys different workloads on different cloud platforms, this too is a multicloud scenario, albeit at a broader scope.
Now, let’s come to the related terms. It's important to note that there are no standardized definitions for these terms, so different companies may use them according to their needs and offerings.
Cross-Cloud
The term "cross-cloud" emerged with the adoption of multicloud solutions to express the need for standardized operations and interoperability. It emphasizes interoperability and the flexibility to transfer workloads and data effortlessly between different cloud providers. This term is often used by companies like VMware and Snowflake.
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Supercloud
Supercloud is a higher-level abstraction that evolved naturally from multicloud. It provides a unified platform or layer on top of multiple cloud providers, including private and edge clouds. This abstraction simplifies cloud management by offering a single interface to manage, deploy, and operate applications across various cloud environments. Organizations often build their own abstraction layers, which can be addressed as superclouds, which employees use to access cloud services without needing to learn different cloud providers.
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Distributed Cloud
Distributed cloud refers to the distribution of public cloud services to different physical locations while being centrally managed by the public cloud provider. This approach brings cloud resources closer to where they're needed, such as edge locations, on-premises data centers, or regional data centers. Examples include AWS Outposts, Azure Stack, and Google Distributed Cloud. However, not all providers use the term "distributed cloud"; some refer to similar offerings as hybrid or edge cloud solutions. Although primarily used for a single cloud provider, organizations utilizing multicloud can create their own distributed cloud by extending their supercloud abstractions to include edge solutions.
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Understanding these distinctions can help organizations choose the right cloud strategy based on their specific needs and objectives, ensuring they leverage the full potential of their cloud investments.
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are my own and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of my employer.
Network Engineering Leader@Target | Tech-Big Four-Retail-Semiconductor Industry | Transformative leader | Network Reliability Architecture & Strategy | Data Center & Security | Autonomic Infrastructure
5 个月Nice... This is insightful and informative.
Engineering Software with care
5 个月really good overview - clarifies a lot of the terminology! thanks for sharing! on the lighter side Sanjay, none of the clouds seem to have helped Bangalore's water situation ??