Multi-cloud models offer companies all the benefits of XaaS and the flexibility to choose the best environment for each workload. But how should you choose the right providers and cloud services for your use cases?

A multi-cloud strategy that leverages cloud services from different public cloud providers simultaneously allows organisations to precisely balance workloads and operational expectations alongside innovative evolutions within their architecture. A highly agile and scalable approach, multi-cloud provides companies with the flexibility they need to opt into the best workload for each environment while exploring the benefits of Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS), Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS), and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS). 

It is, says McKinsey, a $3 trillion value-add for companies that do it right. Yet so many companies are struggling to find their balance within the cloud. The problem is that building a multi-cloud strategy requires the same level of attention to detail and personalisation as a physician would provide to patients. The remedy has to fit the patient – the cloud has to fit the business. It is not a one-size-fits-all solution, and it asks that the organisation assess their requirements, select the most suitable cloud providers, and create a multi-cloud strategy that helps them to thrive.

To ensure your business steps into multi-cloud with ease, the first step is to identify the critical functions and match them with appropriate cloud providers. By establishing clear management guidelines and consistently optimising your cloud strategy, you will ensure your investment is effective and adaptable enough to meet the needs of each workload. Using cloud-agnostic advisory services ensures you get a richly layered multi-cloud strategy that isn’t biased towards any one hyperscaler or cloud provider and delivers to your precise requirements – you don’t want to shoehorn a solution into the business because a sales team needs it to fit.

There are, of course, cost implications when moving to multi-cloud. The positive side is that once you’ve decided to make the move, the business can take advantage of competitive pricing across different cloud providers, which potentially lowers your overall costs. It also gives you flexibility of choice as you can select the most cost-effective option for each workload and optimise your spending based on specific requirements. However, managing multi-cloud means you do need additional resources and expertise, and this leads to increased operational costs. You need to consider staff training, integration efforts and ongoing management, as well as the data transfer and egress fees between different cloud platforms. The latter can accumulate if they’re not carefully monitored and managed.

FinOps (Financial Operations) practices are invaluable here, as they allow you to effectively manage your costs within a multi-cloud environment. FinOps principles can help you to implement processes for the monitoring, analysing and optimisation of cloud spending, and ensure your business has established clear cost accountability, implemented cost-allocation tags, and used cost-optimisation tools. Prioritising FinOps and these tools means that your business can effectively mitigate or minimise the risks of cost overruns and ensure the continued cost-efficiency of your multi-cloud strategy.

Implementing FinOps and creating a successful multi-cloud environment requires one last ingredient – visibility. You need visibility to ensure you can accurately assess your multi-cloud performance, investment, availability, and value, and this requires a centralised dashboard that consolidates data from across all your cloud providers. This is bolstered by the use of cloud-native tools that provide you with platform-specific insights and customised dashboards designed to facilitate real-time tracking. These tools are essential to ensuring that your business stays on top of costs and compliance, and that your multi-cloud investment meets your strategic expectations while remaining seamlessly integrated with ITSM and DevOps tools that deliver efficient workflows.

Managed services are a solid investment into the deft orchestration of your multi-cloud investments. With the right managed services provider, you can optimise performance, ensure streamlined operations across your entire multi-cloud landscape, and ensure your cloud orchestration tools seamlessly integrate across all platforms. A managed service provider will also give you regular reviews and undertake regular optimisation to ensure your multi-cloud consistently evolves to meet your business needs. 

Ensuring your business benefits from multi-cloud is akin to a doctor becoming a conductor. Your business is the patient, prescribed the perfect cloud solution to resolve its challenges and achieve its true potential. Your multi-cloud service provider is the conductor who ensures that your crucial workloads are strategically placed across the most appropriate cloud OEMs to effectively manage resources, performance and costs across your diverse cloud platforms with comprehensive visibility, thus achieving a balanced, optimised deployment.

Achieving multi-cloud value isn’t plug-and-play, but with the right partners and approaches, it delivers immense long-term value to the organisation.