Multicloud’s 'Inevitable Dominion': Taking Stock of the Big Cloud Trend
As cloud computing advances, multicloud looks like the main winner. We examine what’s going on.
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Depending on the source, “multicloud” could be a mix of public clouds, or a combination of the elements we described in the introduction. Over at Cisco, “multicloud” means the adoption of more than one public cloud. And the company’s new report, 2022 Global Hybrid Cloud Trends, finds that nearly half (47%) of organizations polled use between two and three public clouds.
(Hint for channel partners: The more clouds, the more opportunity for you to intervene. More than one-third (37%) of Cisco respondents are concerned about security in their multicloud environments. Thirty-five percent are worried about increased operational complexity. And a full third are fretting cloud cost management.)
Unlike Cisco, Dell sees multicloud as the mix of public, private, container and edge platforms. And this variety, one of the company’s top general managers says, has led to the death of the “cloud-first” world.
“[I]t’s no longer cloud-first. It’s now multicloud,” Dayne Turbitt said at a UK roundtable in late May.
That’s the Dell mantra, apparently. Need more proof?
“The world needs multicloud by design, not by default,” said Dell co-COO Chuck Whitten at Dell Technologies World in early May. “And that is the great unsolved infrastructure challenge that we are working on.”
Another vendor report (Cisco’s was on the first slide) concurs that multicloud remains the go-to environment for organizations.
Flexera, in its 2022 State of the Cloud Report, found that 89% of respondents look to multiple clouds, including public and private, to deliver the workloads they need. Typically, these organizations house different apps on different clouds (45%). Also, nearly all (96%) respondents said they use at least one public cloud and 84% have at least one private cloud. Four in five (80%) have hybrid clouds in place.
Enterprise Strategy Group (ESG) recently published data that mirror what various vendor-driven reports show: That multicloud is a big deal. Earlier this year, the research firm found that 86% of current public cloud infrastructure users rely on multiple clouds. Between two and four public clouds typically end up in the mix.
“Organizations are betting big on multicloud,” said Rob Strechay, senior analyst at ESG. “It is more than reality, but a necessity. More organizations are deploying applications that span multiple clouds to get the job done, and it provides them more benefits than it does risks.”
Multicloud is hard to do. Let’s be clear about that. The different platforms do not interoperate, and making that happen takes a lot — and we mean a lot — of work.
“It’s very hard, operationally. … You have to be super sophisticated.”
That was the word last year from Tony Safoian, CEO and president of SADA Systems. SADA is a Google Cloud-only managed service provider; it used to specialize in Microsoft, too. But now, for various reasons, SADA only provisions Google Cloud.
Duan Van Der Westhuizen, senior vice president of public cloud at global MSP Ensono, agreed.
“I used to believe multicloud was the next wave,” he said at the inaugural Channel Partners Cloud Roundtable in November 2021. Ultimately, though, “it’s too complicated,” he said.
To echo Safoian, channel partners can offer multicloud solutions. You just need to be trained, skilled and knowledgeable — and willing to go to the required lengths to make it work.
“You could run infrastructure on one and data on another … but it can’t be a mixed data lake or infrastructure,” Safoian pointed out. “That requires lots of sophisticated engineering.”
Multicloud is a buzzword with legs. It’s out there, running around — arguably running rampant. Channel partners may feel tempted to automatically adopt multicloud branding and marketing. But make sure you’re ready for what that entails.
As Brent Ellis, senior analyst at Forrester, cautions in a blog, “[B]uilding applications to use multiple clouds is hard. There can be massive inefficiencies, complexities and redundant tasks in managing multiple versions of the same application across more than one cloud.”
Those challenges are surmountable, with the right people and strategies in place.
We’ve compiled some resources to help guide you as you help your customers take advantage of the blend of public, private, containerized and edge clouds. If you’re ready to bring on multicloud’s inevitable dominion, check out the following links:
• Are You Ready for Multicloud? 5 Steps for Smarter Planning
Multicloud is a buzzword with legs. It’s out there, running around — arguably running rampant. Channel partners may feel tempted to automatically adopt multicloud branding and marketing. But make sure you’re ready for what that entails.
As Brent Ellis, senior analyst at Forrester, cautions in a blog, “[B]uilding applications to use multiple clouds is hard. There can be massive inefficiencies, complexities and redundant tasks in managing multiple versions of the same application across more than one cloud.”
Those challenges are surmountable, with the right people and strategies in place.
We’ve compiled some resources to help guide you as you help your customers take advantage of the blend of public, private, containerized and edge clouds. If you’re ready to bring on multicloud’s inevitable dominion, check out the following links:
• Are You Ready for Multicloud? 5 Steps for Smarter Planning
It’s no secret — cloud computing reigns supreme. It’s the technology that gives organizations the power to operate from anywhere. But the type of cloud computing that’s ruling the world is not just one kind. Get ready for multicloud’s inevitable dominion.
Why? Because even though the hyperscalers – Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud Platform – boast huge market share, they cannot claim sovereignty. The private cloud providers – Cisco, Dell, Oracle, HPE and IBM, and even the Big 3 with their respective offerings – serve niche (often large, like Fortune-whatever level) customers with unique demands that hyperscalers cannot touch with their public setups. In addition to public and private clouds, multicloud also includes Kubernetes and the edge. Therefore, with all those capabilities in hand, multicloud, often interchanged with “hybrid cloud,” supports a range of activities and requirements.
Mixing public, private, containerized and edge cloud environments usually leads to the most desirable business outcomes. That’s due to the extra security measures, the customized accesses and permissions, geographic considerations and so on. And that’s why we’re about to get into a slideshow above highlighting multicloud’s inevitable dominion. Because when you know why something is so popular, you can help your customers construct the cloud configurations that best suit their needs.
Want to contact the author directly about this story? Have ideas for a follow-up article? Email Kelly Teal or connect with her on LinkedIn. |
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