Glossary Multicloud migration

A clear trend has emerged: organizations are shifting to multicloud strategies to enhance their IT infrastructure. Multicloud migration, the distribution of digital assets across multiple cloud environments from different providers, offers unprecedented flexibility, scalability, and resilience. Cloud-to-cloud migration also plays a crucial role, enabling smooth transitions between providers.

This approach allows businesses to harness the unique strengths of each cloud provider, optimizing performance and cost while mitigating the risks of relying on a single vendor. While multicloud migration presents integration complexities, its strategic implementation is vital for maintaining a competitive edge, ensuring robust data protection, and complying with diverse regulations. This marks a significant shift in how businesses manage IT resources in the global market.

What is multicloud?

Multicloud architecture is a strategic approach to IT management that involves using multiple cloud computing and storage services from various providers within a single, diverse environment. This approach leverages the strengths of different cloud services to create a more robust, flexible, and scalable IT infrastructure. It allows businesses to integrate a wide range of cloud resources, optimizing their systems for specific tasks by tailoring resources to the performance requirements and workload characteristics of each application.

This deployment model offers several benefits, including:

• Enhanced performance and reliability: Distributing workloads across multiple cloud environments reduces dependency on a single provider, minimizing downtime risk.
• Cost efficiency: Choosing from a variety of cloud services enables businesses to take advantage of competitive pricing and avoid vendor lock-in, allowing them to switch platforms as their needs evolve.
• Strategic flexibility: Multicloud solutions provide greater control over IT capabilities, aligning them more closely with business objectives.

Types of cloud platforms

Cloud platforms can be classified into various types based on deployment models and service offerings:

4 main types of cloud computing

The cloud computing landscape includes four main types, each designed to meet different business needs and security requirements, helping organizations optimize their IT strategies.

1. Private cloud

This cloud environment is exclusively used by a single organization and offers the highest level of security and control. A private cloud is either hosted on-premises or by a third-party provider but remains within a private network. This isolation from public networks enhances security, making private clouds ideal for businesses with sensitive data or strict regulatory requirements.

2. Public cloud

Public clouds are operated by third-party providers like Google Cloud, Amazon Web Services (AWS), and Microsoft Azure. Resources such as servers and storage are delivered to clients over the internet. The public cloud model offers scalability, elasticity, and a pay-as-you-go pricing structure. It is a cost-effective and easily deployable solution, as the cloud provider owns and manages the hardware, software, and infrastructure. This is well-suited for companies seeking to avoid the capital expenditures of maintaining physical servers.

3. Hybrid cloud

A hybrid cloud environment combines private and public clouds, and can also include traditional on-premises infrastructure, allowing data and applications to move between these environments as needed. This flexibility provides businesses with more deployment options and data management strategies. Hybrid clouds help optimize existing infrastructure, enhance security, and ensure compliance. They are particularly useful for balancing workloads, managing data throughout its lifecycle, and meeting legal and regulatory data storage requirements while maintaining the security and control of a private cloud and the agility of a public cloud.

4. Multicloud

Multicloud involves using multiple cloud services from different providers. It may include a combination of private and hybrid cloud infrastructures. Unlike hybrid cloud, which emphasizes integration and orchestration between cloud types, multicloud focuses on orchestration between different cloud types without necessarily integrating them. This approach offers several advantages, including vendor agnosticism, improved performance, and enhanced redundancy and disaster recovery capabilities. Organizations can choose the best cloud services for specific tasks and operational requirements from a wider range of providers.

Multicloud vs. hybrid cloud

While both multicloud and hybrid cloud architectures involve using multiple cloud services, the key difference lies in their underlying structure.

Multicloud refers to the use of multiple cloud services from various providers, which may or may not be integrated with each other. This approach allows organizations to leverage the strengths of different providers and tailor their cloud solutions to specific needs.

In contrast, hybrid cloud combines a private cloud with one or more public cloud services within a unified environment. This allows businesses to maintain sensitive data or workloads in their private cloud while leveraging the scalability and cost-effectiveness of public clouds for other applications.

3 main types of cloud computing services

Cloud computing services have transformed how businesses deploy and manage technology. At a high level, these services can be categorized into three main types, each serving distinct roles within the IT ecosystem and catering to different business needs:

What is a multicloud migration?

Multicloud migration is the strategic process of moving digital assets from local on-premises infrastructure to multiple cloud environments, each consisting of more than one cloud platform. This approach aims to leverage the unique benefits of various cloud providers, such as improved scalability, performance, and fault tolerance. By avoiding over-reliance on a single cloud, organizations can optimize operations for efficiency and performance.

This shift requires a detailed plan addressing compatibility, complexity management, and alignment with business objectives. A successful multicloud migration involves:

• Assessment and selection: Evaluating the existing IT landscape and selecting the right cloud services to meet specific organizational needs.
• Phased migration: Implementing the migration in stages, addressing technical and security considerations at each phase.
• Data security: Ensuring data is secure both in transit and at rest across various platforms.
• Application optimization: Fine-tuning or re-engineering applications to leverage the capabilities of the chosen cloud services.
• Regulatory compliance: Ensuring compliance with data sovereignty and other regulations, especially in global operations.

A well-executed multicloud migration enhances operational flexibility and positions enterprises to capitalize on cloud innovation and cost management.

Insight specializes in Google Cloud migrations and can help businesses incorporate Google Cloud into their multicloud strategies. Our expertise extends to assisting customers already on other cloud platforms who want to add Google Cloud to their mix, unlocking the full potential of multicloud for their organization.

Why adopt a multicloud approach?

Organizations embrace multicloud strategies for a variety of compelling reasons:

• Risk mitigation: A primary driver for adopting multicloud is to mitigate the risks associated with IT infrastructure failure. By distributing data, applications, and services across multiple cloud platforms, organizations ensure that a failure or downtime in one cloud does not disrupt the entire operation. This diversification, both geographically and across vendors, significantly reduces the risk of service outages and data loss, preserving business continuity and strengthening disaster recovery capabilities.
• Flexibility and scalability: Multicloud environments offer unparalleled flexibility and scalability, enabling organizations to adapt to varying workloads and demands. Each cloud provider excels in different areas, offering specialized features and technologies for specific tasks. For instance, one provider may be ideal for analytics services, while another may offer cost-effective data archiving. Businesses can leverage multicloud to match each workload with the most suitable technology and scale services up or down as needed without being locked into a single provider's ecosystem. This flexibility allows for tailoring services to the evolving needs of the business, a critical advantage in today's dynamic market.
• Cost-effectiveness: Multicloud strategies can lead to significant cost savings and operational efficiencies. Companies can select the most cost-effective services from various cloud providers across their operational areas. The increased competition among providers often results in better pricing models, such as pay-as-you-go, where businesses only pay for the services they actually use. Multicloud also helps avoid vendor lock-in, freeing companies from the obligation to subscribe to an entire suite of services from a single vendor. Instead, they can choose the best offerings from multiple sources, optimizing their IT spending.

5 steps to a seamless multicloud migration

1. Assess your application’s readiness

• Evaluate each application's architecture, dependencies, and compliance requirements to determine its readiness for the cloud.
• Consider factors like scalability, portability, and resource usage.
• Decide whether applications can be easily re-architected for the cloud or require significant code refactoring.

2. Plan and prepare

• Develop a comprehensive migration plan outlining timelines, costs, and technical processes.
• Identify internal and external resources needed, define roles and responsibilities, and establish clear objectives and success metrics.
• Ensure all stakeholders are aligned and potential risks are mitigated.

3. Carefully weigh your cloud options

• Compare cloud providers and services based on technical compatibility, costs, geographic location, service level agreements (SLAs), and compliance standards.
• Evaluate each provider's strengths and weaknesses against your application and business requirements.
• Select cloud services that best leverage their unique features and avoid potential pitfalls.

4. Construct your migration checklist

• Create a comprehensive checklist covering all necessary steps and considerations.
• Include pre-migration activities (e.g., data backup and security), the actual migration process (e.g., data transfer and application re-hosting), and post-migration activities (e.g., environment testing and performance monitoring).
• Ensure nothing is overlooked and each phase of migration proceeds as planned.

5. Validate your cloud journey

• Thoroughly verify and test the new multicloud environment.
• Test migrated applications and services for functionality, performance, and security.
• Ensure they operate correctly in the new cloud setup and interoperate with other IT infrastructure components.
• Address any identified issues to ensure a stable, secure, and operational environment.

Insight's team of experts can guide you through every step of your multicloud migration, from assessing your application's readiness to validating the new environment. We specialize in Google Cloud migrations and can help you seamlessly integrate Google Cloud into your multicloud strategy, ensuring a smooth and successful transition.

Multicloud Management

Multicloud management requires a comprehensive approach to ensure seamless orchestration across a diverse range of cloud platforms. This involves:

• Visibility: Gaining a unified view of all cloud resources, usage, and performance to effectively monitor and optimize the entire multicloud environment.
• Automation: Streamlining and automating repetitive tasks, such as provisioning, scaling, and security updates, to reduce manual effort and minimize errors.
• Security: Implementing robust security measures across all cloud platforms to protect sensitive data, ensure compliance, and mitigate risks.

Effectively managing a multicloud environment allows organizations to maximize the benefits of their diverse cloud portfolio while minimizing complexity and risk.

Benefits of multicloud

Challenges of multicloud

• Complexity in management: Multicloud environments introduce increased complexity due to the management of diverse platforms, tools, and processes. It requires robust management tools and specialized skills to effectively monitor, orchestrate, and optimize operations across multiple cloud providers.
• Data integration issues: Maintaining consistent data access, integrity, and synchronization across multiple cloud platforms can be challenging. Organizations need to implement effective data integration strategies and tools to ensure seamless data flow and avoid inconsistencies.
• Cost management: Tracking and optimizing costs across multiple cloud providers can be a complex task. Different pricing models, billing structures, and resource utilization patterns can make it difficult to accurately forecast and manage expenses. Implementing comprehensive cost management tools and strategies is crucial to avoid unexpected cost overruns.

The cost vs. value of multicloud

Multicloud strategies, while inherently more costly than single-cloud solutions, offer a compelling value proposition that can outweigh their initial and operational expenses.

The primary cost drivers of multicloud include:

• Complexities of managing multiple service contracts
• Increased data integration requirements
• Need for specialized staff with diverse cloud expertise
• Costs associated with cloud migration processes
• Data transfer costs between platforms
• Potentially higher overheads for maintaining multiple vendor relationships

However, these costs are balanced by significant value in the form of:

• Enhanced flexibility: Mix and match cloud services to tailor solutions to specific tasks, optimizing performance and cost-efficiency.
• Improved risk management: Prevent vendor lock-in, negotiate better terms, and access innovative features from multiple providers.
• Enhanced security and compliance: Distribute data and application risk across multiple environments, improving business continuity and resilience.
• Increased reliability: Ensure high availability and avoid single points of failure by leveraging multiple cloud providers.

The strategic advantages of multicloud, such as scalability, vendor independence, and workload optimization, often justify the higher costs, particularly for organizations with demanding requirements for availability, data regulations, or global reach. The decision to adopt multicloud ultimately depends on balancing the increased costs with the long-term strategic value and operational benefits it offers.

Multicloud use cases and examples

Multicloud use cases and examples demonstrate the versatility and strategic advantages of this approach for diverse business needs:

• Better latency globally: Multicloud enables organizations to distribute their applications and data across geographically dispersed data centers. This allows them to serve users from the nearest location, significantly reducing latency and improving performance for a global user base.
• Disaster recovery: By replicating data and applications across multiple cloud providers in different regions, multicloud provides robust disaster recovery options. In the event of a localized outage or disaster, operations can be seamlessly transferred to another cloud environment, minimizing downtime and ensuring business continuity.
• Regional requirements: Multicloud allows businesses to meet legal and policy requirements by operating within specific geographic regions. This is particularly important for organizations dealing with data sovereignty regulations or industry-specific compliance standards.
• Shadow IT: Multicloud can help control and integrate unsanctioned IT projects (shadow IT) into the corporate environment. By offering a wider range of approved cloud services, organizations can reduce the appeal of unauthorized cloud usage and maintain better control over their IT resources.

Multicloud migration has opened up a new strategic dimension in cloud computing, offering significant benefits while presenting unique challenges. As cloud technology continues to evolve, multicloud deployment strategies are likely to become the norm for modern businesses seeking to maximize their digital potential.

Partner with Insight to unlock your multicloud potential

Navigating the complexities of multicloud requires a trusted partner with proven expertise. Our team specializes in Google Cloud migrations and can help you seamlessly integrate Google Cloud into your existing multicloud strategy. Let us help you optimize your multicloud environment for enhanced performance, scalability, and cost-efficiency. Contact us today.