Cloud models have evolved over time as more organizations have shown interest, and it has been predicted that in 2021, the cloud infrastructure market will grow 35%. More organizations have been considering if one cloud environment is enough for their requirements while also trying to determine what is best to optimize their environments.
At a high level, some prevalent architectures include hybrid cloud, multi cloud, or some combination of the two, with their differences and advantages outlined below:
What is a Hybrid Cloud Environment?
Hybrid cloud combines on-premises infrastructure with private cloud and/or public cloud. These environments promise enhanced scalability while maintaining security and control.
Hybrid Cloud Advantages
Many organizations choose hybrid cloud models due to their business imperatives, such as:
- Meeting strict regulatory or data sovereignty requirements
- Getting the most out of on-premises technology investments
- Addressing performance requirements
Investing in hybrid cloud environments can provide greater flexibility, more deployment options, and value. The added control within hybrid cloud allows organizations to only pay for what is used and the abilities to migrate their assets overtime. Organizations can phase workloads to public cloud where the public environment can be home to certain workloads while sensitive data can be housed in separate, private datacenters.
What is a Multi Cloud Environment?
Multi clouds are built up of multiple public cloud environments from different providers (i.e. Microsoft Azure, Amazon Web Services (AWS), or Google Cloud). An example multi cloud environment is an organization running compute and networking activities in AWS and using database services from Microsoft Azure.
Multi Cloud Advantages
Organizations may be more interested in multi cloud to receive best-of-breed services, to prevent vendor lock-in, or to take advantage of lower, variable costs. The major public cloud providers on the market all offer several competing services, in addition to non-overlapping services including storage limitations and cost-effectiveness, and organizations may benefit from analyzing their strengths and weaknesses to garner the best outcomes. Cost-effectiveness is also considered when thinking about vendor lock-in because it can become costly and time-consuming to switch and move systems elsewhere when necessary.
What Strategy Makes Sense?
Over the past few years, hybrid and multi cloud services have been the preferred choices for organizations. There are factors to consider when determining which cloud strategy is best, including:
- Strengths and weaknesses of third-party vendors or cloud providers
- Current workloads, databases, networks, and storage demands
- Location of resources and servers
- Regulatory compliance requirements
- Constraints some businesses are subject to
Not all organizations will benefit from the same cloud approach; an optimal strategy might combine both hybrid and multi clouds. According to Gartner, cloud is one of the fastest growing segments of IT spend. With this said, organizations might accidentally build out multi clouds or hybrid clouds that are unnecessary; it is important to be mindful of complexity sprawl and reevaluate what your cloud architecture looks like on a regular basis. As needed, your organization may benefit from implementing organizational controls to gate how cloud vendors are approved and added to your existing infrastructure.
With greater spend comes greater responsibility, and it is essential for your organization to optimize or clearly define your cloud strategy. If your current cloud strategy is lacking or non-existent, contact the Coretelligent Team to discuss options that will provide high rewards for daily business operations.
The Coretelligent Difference
Coretelligent has cloud solutions designed for your organization whether you need private, public, or hybrid cloud hosting. Our agnostic cloud approach will meet your business continuity goals with solutions powered by strong enterprise partners. Coretelligent’s experts have over a decade of experience providing cloud solutions to highly regulated industries. Our major differentiator is our strategic services resources who can offer expert guidance and design a roadmap for your organization to successfully migrate to the cloud based on storage, compliance, and operational requirements.
Keep your data safe, resilient, and easily accessible with Coretelligent’s unified cloud management. Schedule your complimentary, initial consultation today to get started.
