CIO OPINION
We can talk about why enterprises turn to multicloud , but first , let ’ s realize that the terminology is not settled . In practice , the term ‘ multi-cloud ’ continues to mean different things to different professionals . The term isn ’ t important , but understanding strategic intent and value is . As I like to say , multiple clouds are not multi-cloud .
The 76 % of respondents who are already using multicloud may be relying on divergent configurations . Examples include : data and create dashboards – that ’ s multi-cloud . This isn ’ t meant to critique the former scenario ; this is not a matter of right and wrong .
Myth # 2 : Lock-in is all about cloud services and APIs
A lot of discussion around multi-cloud is about ‘ lockin ’. The quest to avoid lock-in is almost as old as IT and it remains a somewhat futile endeavor . Lock-in is something that is created by the use of technology .
• Using a data center for private cloud plus using a single public cloud
• Using cloud # 1 for most workloads , with a single isolated service running in cloud # 2
• Using two or more clouds at scale to access the best-of-class services offered by each public cloud service provider
When I discuss multi-cloud strategy , I do it with an eye on gains achieved from multi-cloud ( or at least pain avoided ), based on implementing a strategy or an architecture that uses multi-cloud to produce benefits .
If you have two teams – one deployed in AWS and the other in Azure – and never the two shall meet : that isn ’ t multi-cloud in my book . If you have two teams – one team using data services in AWS to extract , transform and analyze data , and the second team using the data from AWS to leverage a service in Azure to visualize the
If you deploy or integrate something , you now have value you must recreate if you replace components . If your lock-in is low , your value is probably also low .
This can be especially true in cloud , where often the most agility , the most innovation , and the largest benefits accrue to those who move fast , leverage a lot of higher-order cloud services and incur a lot of lock-in .
You can deflect a good portion of lock-in with multicloud ready tools , such as HashiCorp ’ s Terraform . But
The term ‘ multi-cloud ’ continues to mean different things to different professionals .
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