By Rabi Prasad Padhy, Chief Technology Officer (CTO), Crayon Software Experts India
A multicloud strategy ensures flexibility, agility, inclusivity, and long-term viability in the ever-changing customer’s unmet business needs or the customer’s journey. Larger enterprises and organisations are constantly attempting to be more innovative and build digital platforms to respond to customers and dynamic market changes in a better way. I’ve given a bird’s-eye view of overall Multicloud Advantages, use cases, and an approach for developing a solid multicloud strategy and operating model in this article.
Business transformation is a change management strategy that aligns people, processes, and technology with a company’s core business objectives and long-term vision. It promotes new business strategies and encourages innovation. The term “digital transformation” refers to a company’s reimagining through new technologies and other methods. Digital Transformation refers to reimagining a business by implementing new technologies and optimizing legacy systems to improve operations. It can be part of Business Transformation or can be a stand-alone initiative, for example, Intelligent Automation, AI Solutions etc.
MultiCloud Strategy accelerates business transformation, and it influences technology selection, adoption of new business models, development of new innovative solutions, or workload migrations to different clouds in response to new business scenarios, such as business acquisition/merger scenarios. Flexibility, portability, availability, security, and innovation are the main goals of the multicloud strategy.
Prior to implementing a multicloud strategy and approach, there are several factors that need consideration. The strategy use single network deployment architecture to use multiple cloud services (IaaS/PaaS/SaaS) from heterogeneous cloud providers. As shown below, the Multicloud Strategy is based on three key concepts:
- Cloud Orchestration: Ability to manage workload lifecycles and place workloads on desired cloud (public/private).
- Cloud Portability: The ability to move an application’s runtime or data between clouds.
- Cloud Interoperability: Collaboration between applications running on different clouds, whether they are the same or different.
Multicloud Strategy Use-cases:
- Digital Voice Assistance/Chat/Voice Bot
- Product Recommendation Engine
- AI for Account/Loan/Fraud detection
- Market Place Solutions
- Contact Center AI
- IoT in Banking / Smart Bank
- API Banking
- Digital Payment Platforms
- Cloud-Native Development
- Microservices Adoption
- Blockchain Solutions
- IoT and Edge Computing
- AR / VR / MR Solutions
Design Consideration for Multicloud Strategy
As some cloud service providers have better service offerings than others, a multicloud strategy allows business teams to select different cloud services from different cloud service providers. For instance, some cloud platforms specialize in IoT service offerings, while others excel at AI/ML capabilities, Blockchain capabilities, SAP workloads, etc.
- Design the Foundation: Make a plan for a global network. If your environment has been fully cloudified, simple cloud connectivity via a VPN solution may be sufficient. A dedicated connection may be established between an on premise data center and cloud provider for more complex results.
- Network Connectivity: Consider what applications and services require a routable connection between components, when designing Multicloud network connectivity.
- Application Spanning: Identify the applications and services that must be deployed across multiple clouds, guided by a business requirement and technical design, and work to automate provisioning and management through scripts and templates (e.g., Terraform, configuration management, etc.)
- Security integration: There are two forms, cloud access authorization and securing the environments where applications and services are deployed.
- Skillsets: It’s all about retraining and upgrading your skills. Skillsets need attention as it can help ensure that cloud consumers can operate successfully within all CSPs that make up the multicloud strategy, which is not something everyone wants to talk. Nearly all CSPs offer formal training online or on-site, which can be used for quick upskilling of employees and staff.
Multicloud Strategy and IT Operating Model
- Create a Vision: Create a vision using new technologies like cloud and digital, and consider the impact on current and future business models.
- Create a Baseline: Using current state workload analysis, technical requirement identification, and business and technology process assessment, create a baseline of technology capabilities, infrastructure services, and in-flight projects.
- Strategic Decisions: The baseline results aid an organization’s strategic and tactical decisions, such as which cloud platforms and managed services to use.
- Organizational Impact: Set the tone in the organisation for realignment of cloud operations, decide on an execution strategy, and consider a Multicloud COE to help with the transition. To create a new model for delivering technology to customers, end-to-end business process re-engineering supports agile, DevOps, IaC (Infrastructure as a code), and IT automation.
- Financial impact: Create an operational perspective that includes a cost model, future spending, and cost savings.
- Roadmap: Create a plan for moving to the cloud while still meeting business objectives.
The strategic intent of a Multicloud IT Operating Model is translated into operational capabilities. Its goal is to provide a unified view of how services are delivered within the company.
A Multicloud Operating Model addresses:
- Structure of the cloud organization and responsibility and accountability.
- Cloud governance, Cost Optimization, security, and compliance.
- Change management on an application concerning Infrastructure, Data and Security.
Multicloud is the way of the future, and a multicloud strategy allows larger businesses to choose the best cloud for each workload. We can correctly implement a Multicloud strategy by analyzing the current situation and future requirements, focusing on challenging parts that require reform, particularly within the customer’s entire IT landscape. Finally, both hybrid Multicloud strategies provide organisations with the precision they need to deliver business services efficiently and effectively. We must consider the various pros and cons and the best practices when planning for multicloud adoption for innovation solutions or specific workloads to a new cloud delivery model.
