Intelligent SME.tech Issue 07 | Page 17

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// TECH TRENDS //

Thirty percent of companies are using three or more clouds . Why would a company choose to use three or more ?
The best reason to use multiple clouds is that you can then take advantage of the strengths of different vendors . The hyperscale clouds offer hundreds of products , of course , and they continue to introduce new ones at a very rapid pace . Some of these newer services might be worth using from time to time , even if many of them end up having niche appeal for very targeted use cases .
Independent cloud products are focused almost exclusively on the fundamental value of the cloud- the infrastructure layer of compute , storage and network . Vultr ’ s focus on the fundamentals has led to a streamlined user interface and API that are much easier for developers to learn and use . This , of course , helps developers and businesses move faster and realise value from their cloud investments more quickly . As an example , a customer might use an independent cloud provider for particular applications so they can stand the applications up more easily and experience lower operating costs over time .
Independent clouds also offer better value than the big three hyperscale providers . Cloud infrastructure truly doesn ’ t have to be as expensive as the largest cloud vendors make it , primarily with charges for services that many users don ’ t need . Another pain point for businesses is that hyperscale providers present unpredictable , complex bills , whereas independent cloud providers can provide greater flexibility . This often impacts users in the form of unexpected overage charges for compute and network usage , all of which can be contained and made more predictable through an independent cloud provider .
Why do companies decide to use a cloud managed service and what are the benefits ?
The general benefit of using a managed service , e . g ., to operate open source software , is that an organisation need not staff manual operation of a cloud service ( or otherwise reinvent an automated way of managing that service ). Managed services customers can therefore focus on their core business .
Managed services often allow their customers to automatically upgrade software , so they might take advantage of new features in the base open source technology , and this also often helps users keep their systems more current on security updates . Managed services can sometimes come with additional features , e . g ., user interface and administration , that are not part of the open source software or a managed database offering , like a relational database .
What are the benefits of a public cloud PaaS ?
Using a public cloud PaaS might make sense for a small percentage of users , but most prefer a wider range of choices and flexibility , which PaaS doesn ’ t provide . PaaS providers lock users into a connected set of features that make it more difficult to extricate their business from when it needs change . A developer-centric cloud computing platform that allows users to build and scale applications efficiently tends to be a better and more flexible solution for most businesses . Particularly given how easily most technologies can be integrated , most users prefer to choose a best-of-breed solution by category or optimise their selection of platform services based on their specific needs by use case . This is at odds with the typical PaaS approach , where a PaaS vendor wants users to embrace just their offerings .
What are the barriers facing companies with regards to multi-cloud ?
The primary barrier is that using multiple clouds introduces complexity , and that each cloud is to a certain extent an island with its own private networking . Consequently , transferring data between clouds can be more expensive and slower than keeping data within a single cloud . There are ways to mitigate these issues with interconnection , but there is still complexity and costs associated with this . �

THE BEST REASON TO USE MULTIPLE CLOUDS IS THAT YOU CAN THEN TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THE STRENGTHS OF DIFFERENT VENDORS .
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