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Modern business administrators and technology leaders must be open to change if they want to remain ahead of the curve when it comes to digitization. In recent years, the cloud has set the benchmark for such progress, allowing businesses of all kinds to facilitate digital transformation.

Now, groundbreaking change has come to the cloud industry itself. Traditional public cloud models of the past are paving the way for a new type of infrastructure: the multi-cloud. This model is already proving to be a key catalyst for change among cloud users. In fact, CIO recognized the multi-cloud as one of the most important trends influencing cloud adoption and strategy today.

While it may be the newest cloud trend, what exactly is the multi-cloud? As its name suggests, this model involves the use of more than one public cloud at a time. Some cloud users choose a model that combines several public clouds with private cloud infrastructure.

If you are looking to change to a less traditional cloud model at your company, then the multi-cloud could be the option for you. Before jumping in head first with a multi-cloud model, however, you will need to understand a number of key details about it and its uses.

Here are a few of the most important things that you should know as we enter into the era of the multi-cloud:

 

Having a multi-cloud strategy is crucial.

When implementing a multi-cloud strategy, you will find that it requires you to coordinate more elements than other cloud models. From security to applications to cloud contracts, you must be able to manage your multi-cloud infrastructure in a way that meets the needs of your company.

To this end, your multi-cloud strategy should include a digital management platform. This interface will allow both administrators and end users to access your cloud services from one centralized location. In addition, it will streamline the management of all cloud activities.

Your multi-cloud strategy should not end there, however. To make this model work across your entire organization, you must employ an integration strategy that will make it easier for multiple departments to work together within the multi-cloud. You can further promote the integration of your multi-cloud services by facilitating training among your team. Employees in all departments will need to understand how your different vendors operate so that they can properly navigate each cloud platform.

 

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It’s a great failsafe, but with a catch.

Using a multi-cloud model at your company will help to protect you from system failures and other disasters. With a traditional public cloud model, you will only have one point of service for all of your most crucial business processes. Should this single point fail, you will lose access to your information. The multi-cloud inherently creates numerous points of failure that will provide more of a failsafe against situations such as these.

While the multi-cloud may provide greater resiliency against disasters, it doesn’t offer the ideal protection for your company’s data. You will not automatically receive backups of your data by migrating to the multi-cloud. To best protect your organization from data loss, you will need to create backups on a regular basis and adhere to other policies that will enhance your cloud redundancy.

 

Avoiding vendor lock-in will be easy.

When you choose to work with a single cloud provider, you run the risk of being locked in to their services. In this traditional model, you must implement all of your cloud-based systems and applications within your provider’s architecture. Sometimes, your vendor will require you to use a platform or service that only they offer, making it difficult for you to move to another provider.

The multi-cloud eliminates these concerns by allowing you to deploy different cloud services in many cloud environments at once. This will not only reduce your dependence on a single vendor, but it will also allow you to enhance the resilience of your organization. When you are tied to one provider, you are also tied to any flaws in their operational and security processes. A multi-cloud strategy will eliminate vendor lock-in and allow you to engage with more trustworthy providers.

 

It is not a traditional cloud networking solution.

The multi-cloud creates an entirely unique type of cloud network. When you are looking at potential solutions, there are a number of key features that you should examine. All multi-cloud networking solutions should be able to collaborate with the most common public cloud models on the market while delivering a network through one resource platform. Moreover, this solution should simplify connections across multiple public cloud models, as well as to private clouds. These features all serve a crucial purpose within the multi-cloud: to provide better automation of complex cloud processes.

 

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Security will be more important than ever.

Multi-cloud computing may afford greater flexibility for your company, but often at the cost of security. Why? This cloud model is inherently more complex than more traditional structures. With more elements and services inside your cloud environment, you can face unique challenges when it comes to data governance and protection.

Thankfully, you do not have to relinquish all security controls when migrating to a multi-cloud environment. You will simply need to take a new approach to security, involving enhanced encryption, data organization, access management, and other tools. The key is to address all cloud and on-premises systems as a single entity and develop a security strategy that will allow you to protect your data from all angles.