The digital sky is bursting with clouds of every kind, and organizations are reaching out to grasp several at once. They seize the opportunities offered by diverse cloud providers, breaking free from the confines of a single vendor. Their approach is a powerful strategic move. Its promise—slashed costs, bolstered resilience and unmatched data back-ups; its bottleneck—configuration issues. And the tightrope between reaping multi-cloud benefits and stumbling into cybersecurity risks is thin.
“The foremost area where IT leaders have to adapt is cybersecurity,” said Aleksandr Morozov, a cloud security researcher and CTO at Oasis Defender. “As digital interactions multiply, so does our vulnerability to cybersecurity threats. We have to defend against attacks, safeguard data privacy and adhere to international regulations. The adequacy of cybersecurity measures we take directly impacts business integrity and consumer trust.”
Given these stakes, multi-cloud configuration seems to be an even more tricky aspect to stay on top of. Any slip-ups can spiral into escalating costs, performance hitches and glaring security vulnerabilities. Knowing how to configure multiple clouds mistake-free is essential to keep the promise of multi-cloud alive.
Multi-Cloud Adoption is Escalating
On the brink of adopting multiple clouds, a question arises: Why pay more when you can pay less and get more? Organizations steer towards the most cost-effective cloud services, making sure each application finds its optimal cloud match to optimize performance and costs.
The global march toward digital transformation results in a whopping 92% of organizations already using a multi-cloud approach or in the process of adopting one. Statistics suggest an average usage of 2.6 public clouds and 2.7 private clouds among organizations.
The multi-cloud setup beckons organizations to distribute their workload across a spectrum of cloud services, each boasting unique benefits. This distribution not only fuels innovation but also provides organizations with robust data recovery mechanisms to use in the event of breaches.
Multi-cloud also flings open the gates to escape vendor lock-in. No longer shackled to the offerings of a single cloud provider, organizations go for cherry-picking cloud features, explore diverse pricing options and choose geographical locations for sensitive data storage.
In many regions worldwide, stringent local data regulations dictate the storage of sensitive data within that region’s borders and within specified cloud environments. By leveraging multiple clouds, global organizations can stay compliant with relevant regulations and data governance policies.
With digital transformation beckoning, organizations are just beginning to harness the benefits of multi-cloud. However, with multiple clouds come multiple risks. Configuring and orchestrating several clouds typically pose challenges, and businesses across industries require robust multi-cloud tools and strategies in place.
These Industries Need Multiple Clouds More Than Others
The shift towards a multi-cloud paradigm among businesses isn’t merely a trend chase. It’s a strategic move to elevate operational processes.
Although the use of a multi-cloud approach is bound with configuration and data breach risks, employing multiple cloud services from different providers brings game-changing benefits. This approach allows businesses to enhance flexibility and improve service monitoring and cost-efficiency—all while helping them better adapt to market changes and technological advances.
On top of that, a multi-cloud strategy lays a solid groundwork for implementing advanced analytics and AI solutions. Businesses handling vast data, requiring high computational power, or having strict regulatory compliance needs stand to benefit most from this approach.
“IT leaders must prioritize the infrastructure for remote work. It’s essential that this infrastructure supports seamless collaboration, regardless of geographical boundaries,” Morozov says.
The global insurance sector is clearly betting big on multi-cloud, with statistics indicating an average use of 11.4 clouds in 2023. Insurance businesses handling massive amounts of sensitive customer data employ multiple clouds as the key to operational efficiency and compliance with data regulations.
Banking and finance organizations stick to strict industry regulations and use multi-cloud environments to save costs, improve data security, and recover data easily. They seek to use the best features offered by multiple cloud providers to meet data storage rules and avoid reliance on a single provider.
Besides, financial service organizations often experience rising costs and growing operational issues. That urged them to shift to a multi-cloud approach — their great strategic move. With this transition, they can see a 40% drop in spending by having a clear view of cloud activities across various regions.
Similarly, health care businesses embrace multi-cloud to distribute workloads across different cloud services and keep their critical and sensitive data secure. They need a reliable backup in case of system failures to improve and maintain high standards of patient care and operations.
The telecommunication sector is no less in need of a multi-cloud approach. In this field, escaping vendor lock-in and optimizing costs by combining a variety of vendors serve as the propelling forces.
Retailers typically use around eight clouds from multiple vendors. Their multi-cloud strategies are cost-efficient, help improve scalability, and enhance customer experience by tailoring different cloud services to specific workloads and geographical locations.
Configuration Mistakes: Why They Occur While Managing Multiple Clouds
Managing many clouds means juggling a set of rules and systems from various cloud providers. Different settings in each cloud platform can lead to errors, especially when getting clouds to work together. Even a minor mistake can cause issues affecting performance, security, and costs.
Besides, handling multiple clouds requires special talent. To err is human; common errors involve setting up access controls incorrectly, mismanaging user permissions or incorrectly configuring workloads. Small oversights lead to huge security and operational problems, and without the right training or experience, the chances of making errors increase.
Configuration mistakes often come from the complex nature of multi-cloud setups. Moving into many clouds means dealing with different infrastructures, APIs, databases, networks, and security systems daily.
The complexity of multi-cloud makes getting a full view of the whole setup tricky. This lack of clarity can hide configuration mistakes, letting them linger undetected or delaying fixing processes.
Last but not least, different policies across cloud environments also complicate things. Each cloud setup might have its specific policies and configurations. Without reliable tools, clear rules and ongoing learning, configuration mistakes are imminent.
How to Avoid Multi-Cloud Configuration Mistakes With AI
Navigating through multiple clouds can feel like sailing in stormy seas, and organizations need robust tools and reliable solutions to mitigate performance issues and stay safe.
AI-driven software allows for unified visualization and configuration of multi-cloud security. Let’s see how it aids in the journey.
Unified Dashboard
Multi-cloud management solutions bring together data from different cloud providers onto a single dashboard. This makes it easier to see and manage security across an organization’s cloud setup, making the process less complicated.
Smooth Integration
A unified interface helps different cloud systems work together smoothly. That means fewer errors and better cooperation between cloud environments.
Better Visibility
Having data put together, organizations get a better view of security setup across different clouds. They can see and fix issues faster while keeping multiple clouds secure.
AI and Machine Learning
Solutions hinge on using intelligent technology to spot potential threats quickly. Fast actions help reduce the negative impact of any security issues and keep multi-cloud setups shielded from breaches.
Compliance Monitoring
The cloud setup has to align with industry rules and standards, which becomes more complicated while using multiple clouds. Using a unified system, organizations can stay compliant and avoid legal issues.
AI-driven solutions offer an intelligent way to untangle the complex knots of multi-cloud configurations while assuring a safer and more efficient multi-cloud experience.
Final Thoughts
The multi-cloud trend is on the rise, offering both opportunities and challenges for organizations. It allows businesses to pick cloud features from multiple providers, easily comply with regional data rules and avoid being tied to just one vendor.
Different sectors like finance, health care and retail are adjusting their cloud strategies to adopt multi-cloud. Yet, configuring multiple clouds is a tough nut to crack. Diverse policies, different settings across cloud platforms and possible human error complicate multi-cloud configuration.
However, AI-driven tools can offer a unified dashboard for a better view and management of security across cloud platforms, simplifying multi-cloud setups. Using AI and machine learning for managing clouds leads to quicker threat detection and resolution and helps organizations keep their strategies within legal limits.
In the multi-cloud discourse, careful configuration supported by AI is a key to receiving multi-cloud benefits while managing the risks efficiently.
