The demand for businesses to leverage the capabilities of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) has sparked a surge in investment in cloud computing. According to industry experts at Gartner, worldwide public cloud end-user spending is projected to exceed $675.4 billion (£531.6bn) this year, with a significant 20.4% increase in end-user spending on public cloud services compared to the previous year’s figure of approximately £441.6bn. This growth can be attributed to the advancements in GenAI and the modernization of applications.
To adopt GenAI at scale, many organizations are opting for a multicloud strategy. This approach allows businesses to mix and match cloud services that best meet their specific needs, providing access to high-quality products, enhancing cloud architecture resilience, and strengthening negotiation positions with providers. However, implementing a reliable, secure, and scalable multicloud build requires careful consideration of key factors.
Aligning the cloud with organizational needs is crucial for IT departments. Cloud diversity offers a range of choices to meet specific requirements. For instance, some companies choose to keep security-focused workloads in private clouds, while running regular business data and apps in cost-effective public cloud networks. Hybrid clouds are suitable when flexibility and agility are paramount, such as when sensitive IP in the private cloud needs to quickly expand into the public cloud for additional capacity or cost reduction. Moreover, a multicloud approach empowers organizations to leverage the most advanced technology available, with GenAI being a prime example of a rapidly-evolving development that companies are eager to utilize.
Ensuring data security is another common goal when adopting a multicloud strategy. By distributing workloads across multiple cloud regions or providers, organizations can minimize downtime and ensure business continuity. While the multicloud approach may expose businesses to a wider attack surface, implementing consistent security policies and compliance measures across all cloud environments, including encryption, identity and access management (IAM), and security monitoring tools, can reduce the risk of significant damage. Additionally, hyperscalers regularly introduce new security solutions to protect data, applications, and other workloads.
Successful workload migration to the cloud or between cloud platforms can be challenging. Thorough planning is essential to determine which workloads would deliver greater business value if moved to the cloud or a different cloud environment. Public-facing applications with a global reach are often suitable for the public cloud, while others may require a return on investment analysis to assess the value of scalability. Partnering with companies that specialize in migration can help bridge expertise gaps and align strategic goals across engineering teams.
The danger of vendor lock-in is a concern in cloud computing. A multicloud approach reduces dependence on any single vendor, allowing businesses to operate on their own terms. Major cloud providers offer pay-as-you-go pricing, enabling organizations to shut down their environment, export data and virtual machines, and switch vendors as desired. Open-source cloud computing platforms and tools further reduce reliance on proprietary platforms, providing developers with the flexibility to modify source code to meet specific needs.
While a multicloud approach offers numerous benefits, including flexibility, best-of-breed products, enhanced resilience, and cost optimization, careful planning and optimized architecture are necessary to realize these advantages. Legacy IT systems, on-premise infrastructure, and outdated hardware can hinder an organization’s ability to independently manage multicloud operations. Partnering with a vendor-neutral managed service provider (MSP) can help identify the optimal mix of infrastructure, solutions, and providers, enabling businesses to achieve complete agility and workload mobility.