Investing in cloud services is necessary in order to improve business resilience and reduce the effect of ongoing disruptions. End-user spending on public cloud services in India will total $4.4 billion in 2021, according to the latest forecast from Gartner, Inc. As compared to 2020, end user spending on public cloud will grow 31.4% in 2021. Clouds are increasingly becoming the new data centres, the internet the new network, and SaaS the new application stack.

When it comes to supporting certain apps, workloads, and business processes, not all cloud services are created equal. There are various kinds of cloud offerings and infrastructure platforms. Organizations don’t prefer vendor lock-in, and have started opting for multi-cloud computing. Multi-cloud is the use of multiple cloud computing and storage services in a single heterogeneous architecture. Organizations embarking on multi-cloud journeys must make an effort to determine which services are appropriate for certain activities. 

In many instances, multi-cloud platforms are replacing long-established, integrated legacy IT infrastructures. Companies must make the diverse cloud services fit together to ensure the transition is seamless and processes are not affected. In some deeply regulated sectors, such as financial services, there may actually be requirements for avoiding dependence on any single cloud provider specifying that a second cloud provider be deployed for disaster recovery purposes.

It’s a known fact that the cloud provides enormous possibilities for organisations, and it is unlikely that any modern application will not make use of cloud infrastructure in some way. However, in order to maximize its full rewards, one must carefully plan their strategy. Don’t rely on simple tools and methods; instead, consider the long term. Instead of leaving a mission-critical application solely in the hands of one vendor, try multiple vendors as cloud costs continue to rise and the application stack becomes stuck due to its inability to expand.

Here are some essential methods for ensuring a multi-cloud data architecture plan is stable, safe, and on track for long-term success.

Maximize adaptability with multi-cloud

Since technological innovation is always going ahead, don’t just think about a single cloud. Internal application teams, as well as the databases and tools they use to build data-rich apps, must be able to work across different clouds. A company might save time doing this, however, they are not enabling future flexibility or robustness by leveraging multiple clouds for scalability or in times of crisis for essential applications. Their strategy should operate across various clouds, and they should select the application that best meets their immediate needs. Companies should keep their options open.

Adhere to Cloud Standards

The Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF) has established extremely clear and unambiguous cloud standards. Even private technologies created in the larger clouds are now open source and standard among multiple cloud providers. Stick to the standards, minimise bespoke work, and any organization would be well on their way to multi-cloud success.

Design for Local Compliance and Privacy Rule

The location of your data is an important consideration in the design of multi-cloud operations. A big organization would  have a large amount of data and typically a large worldwide presence with a wide range of compliance and privacy standards at the industry, region or country levels. Reading any cloud provider’s SLA or user agreement will soon reveal that they won’t — and can’t — take accountability for privacy compliance. When a company migrates data to the cloud, they retain ownership for the privacy and compliance of user information.

Optimize Data Architecture

To make the cloud’s promise of adaptability a reality, companies must build throughout the entire stack. The rate of digital change is advancing at a high pace, with no intentions of slowing down. When that comes to planning, companies should go big and scale their idea at least tenfold. In our experience, a yearly doubling of transaction and data volumes hardly covers it in large organisations. It is not uncommon for mission-critical, data-intensive systems to encounter scaling issues. So, organizations should consider the big picture and choose a solution that optimises their functionality and aligns with their business strategy, allowing them to simply maintain control over their cloud expenditures.

Overall, multi-cloud architecture enables organisations to create safe and powerful cloud environments outside of traditional infrastructure. To maximize the effect of multi-cloud, however, the issues must be addressed head on. Working with various cloud providers allows organisations to utilize the optimal solution for their task. As a result, businesses derive greater value from their data and are more likely to gain a competitive edge. Adopting the concepts outlined above will offer any organization with a guiding principle that will allow them to be more flexible, stable, and innovative.

Developing a right multi-cloud approach and strategy can be a big benefit for organizations, as cloud is an integral part of the IT infrastructure. Whether it’s investing the right amount of time in strategizing, looking at flexibility and scalability of the offerings, evaluating network performance, enhancing risk management, strengthening resilience, or driving innovation, multi-cloud is the solution.  It would be apt to say that multi-cloud is here to stay, and crafting the correct strategy will help organizations in their long-term success.

Original article: https://www.cxooutlook.com/establishing-a-multi-cloud-strategy-for-long-term-success/