What comes to your mind when you hear the word multi-cloud infrastructure? It shouldn’t be an impossible guess for businesses or organizations already using cloud-based services. Cloud technology is rising, and both small businesses and large companies are thriving on cloud-based platforms. And currently, there is a wave for multi-cloud infrastructure.
Read on as we explain the bolts and nuts of multi-cloud infrastructure. What is it? What are the advantages, and is it right for your business?
What is multi-cloud infrastructure, and why should you consider it?
Multi-cloud is a trending term among small businesses and large enterprises. Simply put, it refers to using more than one cloud-based infrastructure or service for your business. If you are already harnessing its powers, you can understand the need to have one or two more.
People choose multi-cloud for different reasons depending on the needs of their businesses. Some just want to enjoy diversity, and getting fixed by one vendor may be disadvantageous for your business. The multi-cloud infrastructure allows you to enjoy the best service from a specific provider at that particular time.
Others also embrace the multi-cloud idea as a backup plan for any eventuality. If your business requires a 24/7 online presence, you may consider a multi-cloud infrastructure. That way, if one fails, you can quickly and automatically switch to the next provider that is ready to receive traffic. Though cloud service failures are minimal, you cannot leave anything to chance. Even the social media giant platforms like Facebook sometimes experience outages.
The last reason you may consider switching to multi-cloud infrastructure is to meet your customers’ needs. Some of them may only be familiar with a particular technology that you use through a platform as a service (PaaS), and you will lose them if you change to another provider. Instead of making costly changes, you can embrace multi-cloud infrastructure.
The advantages of multi-cloud infrastructure
We cannot accurately tell you why you should consider a multi-cloud infrastructure, but what we know is that you do it for the benefit of your business. One cloud provider may introduce new policies that affect the usual operation of your business. Also, you may want to make your organization immune to faults and outages. These are the main reasons many business owners consider multi-cloud as the future.
When to switch to a multi-cloud system all depends on your current situation. It may be an overdue action that you ought to have done the previous year. And even without the reasons stated, you may consider the move for the advantages that come with it.
Meet customer demands and expectations
As a service provider, consider giving enough choices to your customers. You are likely to lose a good percentage of your loyal potential clients if you restrict them to only one option. Think of people who want to use your platform as a service. They will ask you if you can offer your technology on a cloud of their choice. Some may need AWS, Microsoft Azure, or any other.
Why would your prospects have varied choices? It all boils down to their businesses. If they offer the same services as AWS or Azure, they may avoid using their cloud services. It makes no sense to support your competitor to beat you in the market. You can solve such problems by considering a multi-cloud infrastructure.
Cloud technology advances quickly.
Different cloud providers work around the clock to introduce new services to help solve the problems. The milestones are rolled out when ready depending on the cloud service provider.
As a multi-cloud user, you can take advantage of a new feature that a particular cloud provider already has to develop or grow your business. You get a performance boost to beat your competitors. Also, you enjoy the benefits until other cloud providers reach there.
Multi-cloud infrastructure is not always flawless.
As a business owner with a cloud-based system, you should reduce your footprints. However, that is not possible with a multi-cloud infrastructure. You double the number when using two and triple it when implementing the third one. The result is that you will need much more resources to monitor and maintain your infrastructure footprints.
Also, it is expensive, and you will need much more resources to implement a multi-cloud system. Most SMEs may not have enough money in their budgets to handle this upfront cost. Even if you can afford to move to a multi-cloud infrastructure, sustenance use is not guaranteed. It is only possible if the returns from the investment are enough to cater to all operational costs.
The secrecy in adopting the multi-cloud system is to do it right. There is that specific period when your business or organization demands it, and your timing is crucial to leverage the full advantage of multi-cloud infrastructure.
What to remember when using multi-cloud infrastructure?
We already know the benefits and drawbacks of a multi-cloud system. Now, we will discuss some of the best practices to adopt to take full advantage of the infrastructure. It will make it possible to implement and manage multi-cloud.
Choose Appropriate Tools
Your success as a multi-cloud user depends on the tools and processes you will be using. Strictly speaking, you may not benefit much if you are not using infrastructure as code. So, choosing an IaC tool compatible with a multi-cloud infrastructure is not optional.
Once you have the appropriate tool, you also choose a process where you will use them. For instance, with IaC tools, you don’t want to make changes in the console manually. If that happens, expect anomalies in your system.
Consider the following tools and processes for supporting your infrastructure in a multi-cloud system:
- Terraform for multi-cloud infrastructure code declaration.
- Spacelift for continuous integration and deployment for your infrastructure as code.
- Docker as a container for cross-cloud packaging and deployment mechanism.
- Okta or any other central identity solution for accessing cloud provider consol.
Modularize key components in IaC
Moving to multi-cloud can be easy, but only if you implement a module system in your infrastructure as code. It will help you know the exact module to create whenever you want to include another cloud provider in your system.
For example, you should configure ‘cert-manager’ for Kubernetes clusters provided by AWS. When adding the GCP, you only need to create an equivalent Kubernetes cluster and import the cert-manager without editing it.
Consider Architecture That Supports Multi-Cloud
If you create architecture for a specific cloud provider, adding another one for a multi-cloud system becomes nearly impossible. Make it as generic as possible so that you don’t have any problems using any cloud service. You will find it easy to incorporate new ones with just simple tweaks.
Conclusion
Switching to multi-cloud infrastructure is a big project that requires careful planning and resources. If you consider implementing it, keep in mind choosing the best tools and processes, making the deployment and maintenance easy and more cost-effective. So, invest your time and scrutinize all available options before deciding what to and not to use.
