The future of cloud computing is multi-cloud

The future of cloud computing is multi-cloud: Here's why

Companies have never been more challenged as they are today. They have to rethink their business models in ever shorter timeframes and bring their products to market quickly and cost-effectively. Those who do not act flexibly and in a way that conserves resources have lost out. More and more companies are therefore turning to cloud service offerings. These are enabling the transformation of entire industries. They are becoming an increasingly important part of what you do and how you do it.

85% of Accenture's largest clients in the DACH region rely on multi-cloud strategies. They use the services of different public cloud providers, host applications on different platforms or combine several private and public clouds (hybrid cloud). This gives them control over the application and infrastructure, which is critical for business success.

The best of different worlds

For these companies, multi-cloud is the new normal. That's because multi-cloud is the combination of the best components from different worlds based on a capability-centric approach that helps reduce risk, cut costs and drive innovation. With a multi-cloud approach, you access multiple tools that allow you to monitor not only the applications in real time, but also the performance of the applications and infrastructure. This prevents high costs from premature scaling up or down.

Companies with multi-cloud strategies benefit in several ways:

-????????Independence:?Generally speaking, multi-cloud helps?avoid vendor lock-in?and reduces both operational and commercial risks.

-????????Innovation:?In addition to the direct advantages of cloud-native solutions, Multi-Cloud customers benefit from the?innovation efforts?of the cloud providers.

-????????Scalability & Flexibility:?Based on customer needs, Multi-Cloud infrastructures?scale automatically?and provide?flexible pricing?models.

-????????Integration:?Despite the fierce competition in the cloud market, the large hyperscalers enable?compatibility, i.e. the easy integration of various services.?

A change in thinking is a prerequisite

Of course, all these advantages do not come for free. After all, multi-cloud companies need more specialized staff, they need to let go of total control over their IT infrastructure, and they need to overcome other challenges. A capabilities-driven approach that considers the customer's current situation (cloud maturity, available staff skills, regulatory environment, etc.) is key to overcoming the downsides of embarking on a multi-cloud journey.

?Establish guiding principles

There are two basic ways to approach the multi-cloud challenge. Some enterprises prefer an "independence first" credo with no vendor lock-in and high integration overhead. Others go for a "technology first" approach with deliberate selection of solutions offered by cloud providers and full participation in the development of the selected cloud providers.

Regardless of which approach and framework an organization chooses to begin the multi-cloud journey, it must have clear multi-cloud guiding principles so that the journey has a destination.

Such guiding principles might look like the following:

-????????Hyperscaler agnosticism:?To ensure repeatability regardless of the chosen hyperscalers, core elements such governance services, automation, monitoring etc. should be created in an abstracted, hyperscaler-agnostic way.

-????????Automation first: It is highly recommendable to have workload and resource provisioning fully automated for build, run, and optimize activities.

-????????Harmonization:?Centrally managed service standards, policies etc. improve continuity, availability, and performance.

-????????Technology Stacks:?The use of platform blueprints “from the catalogue”, cloud architecture standards, cloud-native standards etc. increase the standardization level.

-????????Book of Standards:?Fundamental architectural standards (e.g., hardened OS images) in a central index simplify the migration in an exit scenario.

-????????Cattles not Pets:?Paradigms such as patch by replacement, auto-scale etc. at the core help establish architectural patterns for create and run.

-????????Operating Model: Being a more product or value stream organizations helps connecting and leveraging the transformational benefits

-????????Upskill people: Newly needed skills & behaviors shall be addressed very early and continuously to enable the talents being able to work in the future setups successfully

Every project is unique

Depending on an organization's specific situation, some of these guidelines may be critical, while others may be more negligible. However, this may well change over time. From more than 34,000 cloud projects, the more than 100’000 cloud specialists at Accenture know very well that every multi-cloud project is unique and can develop customized multi-cloud solutions for a wide variety of companies. Multi-cloud is definitely no longer a buzzword.

Curious how leading organizations like Google, Microsoft, Migros, Swisscom, and many more manage their cloud transformation? These and other experts will share their successes and failures on the road to the cloud at?Cloud Leadership Day?on June 21, 2023. By registering for the conference, you are also eligible to attend the twin event?Data & AI Leadership Day?at the Arena Cinema Zurich