THE PATH TO RESILIENT DIGITAL FUTURE

Multi-cloud has gained significant traction in recent years, with enterprises increasingly recognising the benefits of adopting a multi-cloud strategy to optimise their IT infrastructure and gain a competitive edge.

Besides the flexibility in choosing solutions that align with their specific needs, it allows them to avoid vendor lock-in and ensure access to the latest technologies and competitive pricing.

A study by Rightscale reveals that among enterprises, 84% have a multicloud strategy, while 58% have a hybrid cloud strategy, indicating a combination of both private and public clouds. Gartner predicts that by this year, the majority of organisations (70%) will adopt a multi-cloud or hybrid cloud approach, recognising the value of leveraging multiple cloud services. According to Manish Ranjan, Senior Research Manager for Software, Cloud and IT Services for IDC MEA, the Middle East and Africa (MEA) region has experienced remarkable growth in ‘in-country’ data centre expansions by both global and regional cloud service providers. Leading hyperscalers like AWS, Microsoft, Google, Alibaba, and Oracle have invested in establishing their own cloud data centres in key markets. Additionally, regional telecom operators and data centre service providers have also expanded their cloud infrastructure capabilities. This growth has fostered the development of the overall cloud ecosystem, including system integrators (SIs), managed cloud service providers, cloud architects, and strategists, in response to the growing demand for cloud services.

“The availability of multiple mature cloud service providers has empowered organisations to make informed decisions, selecting best-of-breed solutions from various cloud providers. This has resulted in increased adoption of multi-cloud and hybrid-cloud scenarios across the region, especially in mature markets such as UAE,” he says.

Ihab Farhoud, Solution Engineering Director – METNA, VMware, highlights the numerous compelling reasons why enterprises are increasingly adopting a multi-cloud approach. These reasons encompass flexibility, maximising data utilisation, cost optimisation, and addressing geographic or regulatory requirements.

He says flexibility is a key driver for organisations, as they aim to steer clear of vendor lock-in and leverage the advantages of choosing best-of-breed solutions from multiple cloud providers. In today’s business landscape, the ability to swiftly and seamlessly deploy workloads across any cloud platform is crucial. Lengthy contracts with cloud providers that restrict resource consumption can impede agility.

Mohammed Abukhater, VP of Middle East, Turkey & Africa, F5, says, “In our 2023 State of Application Strategy Report, which gathered insights from over 1,000 IT decision makers worldwide and across various industries, two notable observations emerged. Firstly, hybrid and multicloud architectures are becoming increasingly prevalent, despite the challenges associated with their management and security. Secondly, multi-cloud networking is emerging as a promising strategy for effectively addressing and overcoming the complexities and demands of hybrid and multi-cloud environments.”

According to Srinivasa Raghavan, product manager at ManageEngine, the cloud has proven to be a disruptive force in the IT landscape, breaking down silos and enabling organisations to address critical business challenges more effectively. However, as cloud adoption continues to grow across industries, it brings forth a new set of challenges. These challenges include dependency on specific cloud vendors (vendor lock-in), the complexity of monitoring multi-cloud infrastructures, managing cloud costs, ensuring security and governance, and more.

Omar Akar, Regional Vice President for Middle East & Emerging Africa, Pure Storage, says organisations are drawn to the cloud for its abundant choices, agility, and flexibility. Each cloud provider offers unique services, prompting organisations to adopt specific providers to leverage those offerings. However, as businesses encounter diverse and evolving needs, they often find themselves requiring multiple clouds to meet various requirements. While this multi-cloud approach offers flexibility, it can also lead to silos and challenges in migrating data and applications between clouds.

He adds the operational complexity and risk factors can be managed with the appropriate strategy. A single pane of glass management and monitoring tool with a view on everything, including maintenance, upgrades, capacity, functionality, any potential issues like upgrades or more storage needed, will help support and remove some of the complexity.

Managing multi-cloud

To maximise multi-cloud environments’ benefits and cost optimisation, organisations should adhere to best practices in their management approach, says Avinash Gujje, Practice Head, Cloud Box Technologies .This involves comprehensive planning and strategic development. It is essential to assess organisational requirements, workload dependencies, and regulatory considerations to formulate a welldefined multi-cloud strategy that aligns with business objectives.

“Standardisation and automation are key factors in effectively managing multi-cloud environments. Leveraging cloud management platforms and tools enables centralised control and oversight, facilitating standardised processes. By automating provisioning, deployment, and scaling processes, organisations can improve consistency, reduce manual efforts, and enhance operational efficiency,” he adds.

Security and compliance should be given top priority in managing multi-cloud environments. Gujje from Cloud Box Technologies recommends implementing robust security measures such as data encryption, access controls, and regular audits to ensure comprehensive data protection and regulatory compliance.

Continuous monitoring and optimisation are also crucial for maintaining optimal performance and cost efficiency. By leveraging monitoring tools, organisations can track performance, availability, and cost metrics across their various cloud environments.This enables proactive identification of potential issues and allows for resource optimisation, resulting in cost savings and improved overall performance.

According to Farhoud from VMware, as organisations have embraced multicloud, they’ve encountered a big spike in complexity, security challenges and a skills shortage. Despite the challenges, organisations have accelerated multi-cloud use. For example, according to research by Vanson Bourne and commissioned by VMware, 97 percent of cloud-smart organisations surveyed say their approach to multi-cloud has improved their revenue growth, and 96 percent say it has improved their profitability.

Challenges

Akar from Pure Storage says that one of the biggest challenges is high or unpredictable costs because organisations have rushed into choosing cloud services or don’t know what they’re using (shadow IT). According to a report from Flexera, organisations as a whole, including enterprises as well as small and mid-sized businesses, are exceeding their cloud budgets by an average of 13%. “Organisations should beware of cloud egress charges where providers charge customers for network usage based on the amount of data transferred out of the cloud - but not into the cloud.”

Farhoud offers another perspective: “Certainly, managing multiple cloud environments can also introduce complexities in terms of integration, security, and governance. Organisations must carefully plan and implement their multi-cloud architectures to ensure effective management and optimisation of resources.”

Maintaining consistent security and compliance standards across cloud platforms is challenging. Organisations must implement comprehensive security measures and identity/ access management solutions to meet regulatory requirements.

Gujje from CBT says to address these challenges, careful planning, skilled personnel, effective tools, and robust governance frameworks are necessary for seamless operations and maximising the benefits of multi-cloud environments.

Ranjan from IDC sums up: “As multi-cloud and hybrid-cloud environments continue to mature, CIOs and IT leaders are expected to further invest in unified cloud management tools. They will also form partnerships with global and local system integrators (SIs) and service providers to simplify and streamline multi-cloud deployments while optimising configuration, control, and optimisation efforts.”