Among the advantages cloud computing brings to enterprises, the ability to leverage multiple clouds -- and potentially shift workloads between them as needed -- is particularly compelling. The possibilities range from two or more public clouds, a public and private cloud, or even multiple private clouds.
IDC predicts that more than 60% of enterprise IT organizations will have committed to multi-cloud architectures, driving up the rate and pace of change in IT organizations. OpenStack's most recent user survey finds close to half of its mainly private cloud user base, 48 percent, also interact with other clouds -- up from 38 percent a year ago, with the main additional cloud being Amazon Web Services (AWS).
The rise of multi-cloud environments demands a rethinking of how things should be managed. For starters, a survey released by BMC finds 40 percent of IT decision makers do not know how much they are spending on cloud services. The survey even finds that artificial intelligence is being considered, with 78 percent indicating that their companies are looking for ways to apply AI as part of their multi-cloud management strategies.
While a multi-cloud strategy provides for more flexibility, resiliency and reduced dependence on vendors or data sites, there are also risks -- namely, sprawl, which cloud computing was supposed to fix in the first place. These issues were discussed by Tim Crawford, CIO of AVOA, in a recent podcast with Dana Gardner of InterArbor Solutions. With multiple cloud adoption, much of which may be occurring outside the purview of IT, everyone is now becoming a cloud manager, Crawford says. 'It’s not as simple as it has been in the past where we look to the IT organization as the end-all, be-all for all things technology. We are democratizing technology to the point where everyone can use it, and therefore everyone does use it, and they begin to get more comfortable with technology. Now, businesses may be more familiar outside of the IT organization with certain technologies. Cloud is something that is consumed by IT organizations. It’s consumed by different lines of business, too. It’s consumed even by end-consumers of the products and services."
Cloud may have made everyone their own CIO, but there is too much cloud adoption for cloud's sake taking place, Crawford observes. "A great example of this -- and it’s something that just kind of raises the hair on the back of my neck -- is when I hear that boards of directors of publicly traded companies are giving mandates to their organization to 'go cloud,'" he illustrates. "The board should be very business-focused and instead they're dictating specific technology -- whether it’s the right technology or not. Another example is folks that try and go all-in on cloud but aren’t necessarily thinking about what’s the right use of cloud – in all forms, public, private, software as a service. What’s the right combination to use for any given application? It’s not a one-size-fits-all answer."
To address the risks of multicloud sprawl, Crawford offers two important pieces of advice:
First, investigate and ask questions. Find out why people in the enterprise are using cloud, and what they're getting out of it. "At the end of the day, you have to ask a very simple but important question: 'Why?' 'Why are you using public cloud? Why are you using three different forms of public cloud? Why are you using private cloud and public cloud together?'
Second, approach cloud acquisition, integration and adoption as a team, bringing in constituents from across the enterprise -- the business unit, IT, security and all others who wll benefit from a more united approach. "This is a team sport," says Crawford. "In any organization that I’ve worked with, across the industry it’s a team sport. It’s not just one group."
Third, recognize the business economics at play with cloud. "Let’s not kid ourselves. IT organizations haven’t exactly been the best at economics in the past," Crawford explains, adding that "if you tie [cloud] back to a business outcome, it will provide greater clarity on the sourcing decisions you should make. You have to understand what the true cost is and whether there’s sufficient value."
