System status
A recent report by Cockroach Labs on the state of multicloud in 2024 indicates that 62% of organizations have already incorporated a multicloud approach into their cloud strategy, and another 18% are moving toward that goal.
The shift is indicative of multicloud’s growing importance as a fundamental pillar of modern business strategies. But what is motivating these organizations to opt for multicloud?
Why organizations choose a multicloud strategy
In certain situations, multicloud solutions can prove to be useful. An organization adopting multicloud may, for instance, leverage machine learning models, specialized databases and immutable storage from three different cloud providers, each being a leader in its respective segment.
It’s a strategy that maximizes flexibility, agility and profitability while substantially reducing organizational risk.
According to the report, two out of three organizations (64%) expect to increase their use of multicloud in the years to come. The report also revealed that over half (55%) of businesses are already managing at least one workload distributed over several cloud providers.
The sheer extent of multicloud adoption reflects how willing businesses are to maximize their operational flexibility and strengthen their IT system resilience. Among other reasons, they feel driven to comply with regulatory requirements, eliminate dependence on a single provider, and seek out competitive advantages in negotiations with cloud service providers.
Anticipating and addressing challenges
However, adopting multicloud poses its own fair share of challenges. These include technical complexity, as well as security and financial concerns that require not only close attention, but also specific knowledge.
In order for the different cloud environments to communicate with one another, they must be configured properly, which involves programming increasingly complex APIs and applications—especially when data hosted by one provider needs to be transferred to another for processing.
Furthermore, all of the workloads, data and users spread out over multiple environments mean that the attack surface is increased. This exposure to cyberthreats multiplies a company’s risks. As a result, the solution architecture must factor in more variables than it would in a more traditional cloud environment.
In addition to these technical and security challenges, IT teams must consider the complexity of billing and the difficulty of anticipating costs. Adopting a multicloud strategy means you’ll bear the costs of transferring data from the cloud (the infamous egress fees), which can quickly take up a substantial portion of your cloud-related expenses.
You might infer from all this that such considerations would make multicloud prohibitive.
But it’s just the opposite.
Facilitating multicloud adoption
At a time when skilled labour shortages are a fact of life, nothing is preventing you from mapping out an accessible and effective multicloud strategy.
Whether you’ve already adopted multicloud and are looking to optimize your situation or are still in the planning stage, we recommend setting up a central hub that will serve as a foundation for your strategy.
- If a provider is offering a specific tool you need, limit yourself to integrating their environment only for that tool. That way, you can avoid the technological lock-in involved in transferring the entirety of your data and workloads.
- Opt for a secure cloud from which you can not only ensure your data security and compliance with the laws in your jurisdiction, but also control your consumption and associated costs.
- Capitalize on a sovereign cloud from which you can transfer your data as needed to microservices, applications, APIs, and other external environments without incurring egress fees every time.
- Choose a provider that can guide you throughout your project and also support or fully handle certain fundamental elements, such as cybersecurity, backups and even total environment management.
Multicloud as a competitive advantage
In short, opting for a multicloud strategy and collaborating with reliable partners offering secure solutions is an undeniable strategic advantage in the current commercial landscape.
The findings by Cockroach Labs, together with observed trends, confirm that multicloud isn’t just an option, but a competitive asset for any organization looking to maintain or grow its agility in a constantly evolving digital environment.
As the manufacturer of Cirrus, Canada’s leading sovereign cloud, Micrologic is the ideal partner to accompany you in adopting a multicloud strategy.
We offer a range of services tailored to modern requirements, helping businesses ensure the compliance and sovereignty of their data and improve the flexibility and resilience of their IT infrastructures, all while optimizing efficiency and operational performance.
Plan your next steps today by reaching out to one of our cloud experts.
