Massimo Bandinelli, Marketing Manager at Aruba Cloud, discusses how multi-cloud solutions can meet the unique needs of organisations.
Multi-cloud solutions are trending, and it’s easy to see why. As businesses seek to get ahead of their competitors by pushing their digital transformation, the agility and flexibility of a multi-cloud strategy emerge as the key differentiators.
In fact, Gartner claims that as much as 92% of enterprises have opted for the multi-cloud solution over the single cloud provider. Naturally, much of this is due to the rise of remote working. While this new way of working has brought more advantages than challenges, it has also introduced the need to collaborate and access resources in a completely different way and from various locations.
That’s where multi-cloud solutions come in. But how does it work? And is it here to stay, or is it just another passing tech trend?
Let’s find out.
What are multi-cloud solutions?
Simply put, a multi-cloud strategy involves using multiple cloud services from different providers to meet your organisation’s needs. Each cloud provider gives you a unique set of features and benefits, and by combining them, you can create a customised solution that fits your specific requirements.
There are various types of multi-cloud solutions available in the market, such as hybrid cloud (combining public and private clouds), distributed cloud (deploying resources across geographically dispersed data centres), edge computing (processing data closer to where it’s generated) and more.
Benefits of multi-cloud solutions
Multi-cloud solutions offer several benefits for modern data centres. Crucially, this approach lets you avoid vendor lock-in, optimise performance and cost-effectiveness, and gain access to a wide range of services offered by different providers.
By adopting this strategy, businesses can improve the scalability of their applications and databases while reducing the risk of downtime due to failover. It also lets companies enhance their security and compliance measures by spreading their data across various secure servers.
Moreover, implementing multi-cloud can lead to significant cost savings in terms of storage and maintenance expenses. With more options, IT decision-makers can choose cloud providers that best suit their business needs. But wait, there’s more.
Scalability
A multi-cloud solution offers unparalleled scalability for a business looking to expand its IT infrastructure. By allowing businesses to add or remove resources as needed, it provides the flexibility and agility required in today’s fast-paced business world. It also lets businesses scale across multiple platforms and providers without sacrificing performance or reliability.
Key benefits of scalability with multi-cloud solutions include:
- Flexibility to add or remove resources as needed
- Ability to scale across multiple platforms and providers
- Eliminating the need for significant upfront capital investments
Whether you need additional application servers, cloud services, databases, failover capabilities, or storage drives – a multi-cloud solution can easily accommodate your requirements. With such versatility on offer from these state-of-the-art technologies, it’s no wonder that they’re becoming an increasingly popular choice for IT departments looking for cost-effective ways of managing their data centres.
Security and compliance
In addition, it offers enhanced security with a multi-layered approach. By utilising multiple clouds instead of relying on a single application or database, companies reduce the risk of failure and improve overall security. What’s more, built-in disaster recovery capabilities ensure that data is safe and accessible in case of unexpected events.
Compliance with industry-specific regulations is critical for many businesses, and multi-cloud services make it easier to meet these requirements. By choosing cloud services that specialise in specific industries or regions, you can ensure that your business remains compliant while still enjoying the benefits of a flexible cloud environment.
Moreover, failover mechanisms provide an additional layer of protection against potential attacks or system failures by automatically transferring processing tasks from one cloud drive to another without disruption.
Cost savings
With the current economic climate, businesses are looking for ways to make their operations leaner. Reducing infrastructure costs through resource sharing and ‘pay-as-you-go’ pricing models is an easy way to do this. By optimising cloud usage through real-time monitoring tools, IT departments can control costs without sacrificing the availability of applications and databases.
Implementing failover also lowers the cost of downtime due to potential cloud service failures. Overall, a multi-cloud approach offers data centres cost savings coupled with increased efficiency and flexibility.
Avoiding vendor lock-in
Understanding the risks of vendor lock-in is essential for IT departments. When you rely too heavily on one cloud provider, you risk being stuck with their services – and prices – for years to come. To avoid getting locked into one provider, consider using multi-cloud solutions that allow you to mix and match providers as needed.
Negotiating favourable contracts with vendors can also help mitigate the risks of vendor lock-in. By working closely with your vendors, you can negotiate lower rates or more flexible terms that make it easier to switch providers in the future. Ultimately, by staying vigilant about vendor lock-in and taking proactive steps towards avoiding it, IT can ensure they’re always in control of their data centre’s destiny.
Time to evolve
In conclusion, multi-cloud solutions are more than a passing trend. They’re here to stay.
By leveraging the strengths of different cloud providers, you can achieve greater flexibility, scalability, and agility while minimising downtime risks and future-proofing your data centre infrastructure.
So, if you want to remain competitive in today’s rapidly evolving digital landscape, it’s time to consider the benefits of multi-cloud solutions for your organisation.
