Multicloud (also written as multi-cloud or multi cloud) is a term with varying interpretations, generally referring to a system using multiple cloud computing providers. According to
ISO
The International Organization for Standardization (ISO ; ; ) is an independent, non-governmental, international standard development organization composed of representatives from the national standards organizations of member countries.
Me ...
/IEC 22123-1: "multi-cloud is a cloud deployment model in which a customer uses public cloud services provided by two or more cloud service providers". Multi-cloud can involve various deployment models, including public, private, and hybrid clouds, and multiple service models, such as
Infrastructure as a Service
Infrastructure as a service (IaaS) is a cloud computing service model where a cloud services vendor provides computing resources such as storage, network, servers, and virtualization (which emulates computer hardware). This service frees users fr ...
(IaaS),
Platform as a Service
Platform as a service (PaaS) or application platform as a service (aPaaS) or platform-based service is a cloud computing service model where users provision, instantiate, run and manage a modular bundle of a computing platform and applications, w ...
(PaaS), and
Software as a Service
Software as a service (SaaS ) is a cloud computing service model where the provider offers use of application software to a client and manages all needed physical and software resources. SaaS is usually accessed via a web application. Unlike o ...
(SaaS). Multicloud incorporates workload, data, traffic and workflow
portability options, exhibiting differing implementation complexities.
When effectively implemented, multicloud solutions can enhance architectural resilience, reduce dependence on a single vendor, and improve flexibility by leveraging services from different providers. However, multicloud strategies also present challenges, including increased operational complexity, security risks, higher costs, and integration difficulties.
According to the 2024 State of the Cloud Report by
Flexera
Flexera is an American computer software company based in Itasca, Illinois. It is a business-focused organization which works in software asset management and cloud management.
History
On 1 April 2008, Macrovision sold its software divisi ...
, multi-cloud adoption has continued to rise in 2024. Enterprises increasingly silo applications into specific clouds and select best-fit services. Key use cases include data analysis in separate clouds and cross-cloud disaster recovery.
Advantages and challenges
There are several advantages to using a multicloud approach, including the ability to negotiate better pricing with cloud providers, the ability to quickly switch to another provider if needed, and the ability to avoid vendor lock-in. Multicloud can also be a good way to hedge against the risks of obsolescence, as it allows you to rely on multiple vendors and open standards, which can prolong the life of your systems.
Additional benefits of the multicloud architecture include adherence to local policies that require certain data to be physically present within the area/country, geographical distribution of processing requests from physically closer cloud unit which in turn reduces latency and protect against disasters.
Difference between multicloud and hybrid cloud
Multicloud differs from hybrid cloud
Cloud computing is "a paradigm for enabling network access to a scalable and elastic pool of shareable physical or virtual resources with self-service provisioning and administration on-demand," according to ISO.
Essential characteristics ...
in that it refers to multiple cloud services from different vendors rather than multiple deployment modes (on-premises hardware, and public and private, cloud hosting).
See also
* Cloud computing
Cloud computing is "a paradigm for enabling network access to a scalable and elastic pool of shareable physical or virtual resources with self-service provisioning and administration on-demand," according to International Organization for ...
* Serverless computing
Serverless computing is "a cloud service category in which the customer can use different cloud capability types without the customer having to provision, deploy and manage either hardware or software resources, other than providing customer appli ...
References
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Cloud computing