Today's digital transformations are forcing enterprises to rethink their infrastructure investments, software applications and IT processes. 56% of U.S. businesses have already adopted a multi-cloud approach, and 80% of those who haven't are planning to do so in the next three years. It has never been a better time to move away from a standalone cloud model and adopt a business-first strategy.
This strategy will enable you to use the right technology and services which meet your specific business needs, no matter where those services reside, empowering your enterprise to achieve greater flexibility, cost optimization, security and faster time-to-market for new digital initiatives.
What is a hybrid multi-cloud solution?
Hybrid multi-cloud technology is a business strategy that enables enterprises to use a mix of public and private cloud, and on-premises services on an as-needed basis. This strategy enables enterprises to use the right technology and services at the right time to meet their specific business needs, no matter where those services reside.
This means enterprises will have the ability to shift workloads across public, private and hybrid clouds as part of a single, coordinated service strategy. In a hybrid multi-cloud world, enterprises would replace their existing on-premises infrastructure with a combination of public cloud and private cloud services.
This approach enables the business to access the public and private cloud services via a consistent public interface, while keeping sensitive and confidential data on-premises.
Why should you choose a hybrid multi-cloud strategy?
Hybrid cloud solutions support a business-driven IT strategy with options to meet dynamic requirements based on usage, availability, and performance needs. This type of solution combines multiple types of infrastructure as well as services from multiple vendors in one centralized management console, which offers cost savings, bandwidth optimization and resource utilization while meeting specific business requirements.
Avoid vendor lock-in
Taking a hybrid multi-cloud approach will help you avoid vendor lock-in by combining providers and resources from more than one source. This strategy allows you to use whichever service is the best fit for a particular workload, while avoiding over-reliance on a single vendor. You will also retain control over your data and gain the flexibility to choose the right partner to meet your requirements.
This approach allows you to manage your resources from a single console and avoid the overhead of managing multiple systems.
Cost efficiencies
A hybrid multi-cloud solution allows enterprises to choose the optimal on-premises solutions for the workloads which need to be co-located. Organizations which use a hybrid multi-cloud approach can also take advantage of cost efficiencies, such as reduced hardware and software maintenance costs, lower energy costs, and reduced hiring and training costs.
Reduced downtime
Your organization will be able to migrate workloads between different public and private cloud providers as needed. This kind of flexibility will allow you to respond to unplanned events such as extreme weather, natural disasters and cyber-attacks, while helping to reduce downtime.
With this solution, you can achieve greater resiliency and capacity by using a combination of on-premises solutions and public cloud services. This will help ensure critical business applications are always available and your IT teams are able to handle sudden increases in demand.
Governance and security
Your business can use an edge gateway to connect public cloud services with their on-premises environment. This will allow them to protect sensitive data by either storing it in public cloud services which have built-in encryption or by encrypting data before it's sent to the public cloud.
With hybrid multi-cloud technology, organizations can use consistent identity and access management (IDM) and security policies across all public and private cloud services, allowing IT teams to better protect against cyber-attacks, while ensuring employees can access the applications and data they need to do their jobs.
Unified operations
Hybrid multi-cloud technology will also provide a consistent experience across all public and private cloud services. This helps businesses achieve greater productivity by enabling employees to use a single interface to interact with all of their critical applications and data.
With a hybrid multi-cloud solution, businesses will also be able to simplify their operations and maintenance (O&M) processes. This will allow IT teams to manage all public and private cloud services from a single, centralized console. It will also enable them to automate many of their routine operations and maintenance tasks, such as updating software and adding new capacity when necessary.
Innovate with the right cloud solution to enhance your business-first strategy
A hybrid multi-cloud solution which combines multiple providers and services from multiple vendors offers all the benefits of a hybrid cloud while extending those benefits to more than one public cloud provider. This approach unifies monitoring, security and control across multiple providers, enabling your organization to take advantage of the best of several providers in a single solution.
The cloud specialists at BCS365 have all the resources, expertise and experience needed to shift your business to a cloud solution designed for its specific needs and environment. Talk to them today and start your cloud journey.