Multi-Cloud Strategy: Benefits and Challenges

Look, I’ve been working in IT for over a decade, and I’ve seen plenty of buzzwords come and go. But multi-cloud? This one’s actually sticking around for good reason.

Last month, I watched a client’s entire business grind to a halt because their single cloud provider had a massive outage. Three hours of downtime cost them six figures in lost revenue. That’s the moment when the CEO finally grasped why we had been advocating for multi-cloud solutions. 

So, what the heck does it actually mean to spread your infrastructure across multiple cloud vendors? Let me provide perspective from the mud.

Forget the fancy definitions you’ll find in vendor whitepapers. Multi-cloud just means you are not just putting all of your digital eggs in one basket. Instead of just running everything on AWS, Google Cloud, or Microsoft Azure, you are using two or more providers.

I’ve got clients running their core databases on AWS because it’s rock-solid reliable, while their machine learning workloads live on Google Cloud because, frankly, Google’s AI tools are just better. Meanwhile, their Microsoft Office integration happens on Azure because it makes sense.

This isn’t about being trendy. It’s about being smart with your infrastructure decisions.

Here’s something nobody talks about enough: cloud providers can be bullies. I had a client whose AWS bill jumped 40% overnight because of a “pricing restructure.” When you’re locked into one provider, you smile and pay up.

With multi-cloud, you’ve got leverage. When Microsoft tried to force an expensive licensing change on another client, we simply moved those workloads to AWS. Problem solved. The negotiating power alone is worth the extra complexity.

Remember the big AWS outage in 2021? Half the internet went dark. Netflix, Spotify, even parts of Amazon’s own website were down. But my multi-cloud clients? They barely noticed.

I’m not saying outages don’t happen with multi-cloud setups – they do. But when your critical systems are spread across different providers, you’re not sitting around waiting for one company to fix their mess. Your business keeps running.

This is where multi-cloud gets interesting. Google Cloud’s BigQuery is phenomenal for data analytics – I’ve never seen anything quite like it. But their general compute services? AWS still has them beat on price and reliability.

Azure’s integration with existing Microsoft infrastructure is seamless if you’re already in that ecosystem. But their machine learning tools can’t compete with Google’s TensorFlow capabilities.

With multi-cloud, you don’t have to choose. Use the best tool for each job.

Data sovereignty rules are getting stricter every year. GDPR in Europe, specific banking regulations in different countries – it’s a nightmare if you’re stuck with one provider’s geographic limitations.

I worked with a financial services company that needed to keep European customer data in Europe, but wanted to use advanced analytics tools only available in US data centers. Multi-cloud let them comply with regulations while still accessing the tools they needed.

Let’s be honest – managing multiple cloud environments is like juggling chainsaws. Each provider has different dashboards, different APIs, different ways of handling security. Your team needs to become experts in multiple platforms simultaneously.

I’ve seen companies spend more on training and hiring specialized talent than they saved on their cloud bills. The learning curve is steep, and mistakes are expensive.

More clouds mean more potential security holes. Each provider handles identity management differently. Data moving between clouds creates new attack vectors. You have to be on top of your security and compliance across multiple platforms all the time. Just last year I watched a company get breached because they misconfigured their security when engendering data from AWS to Azure.

Cloud providers love to advertise cheap storage and compute costs. What they don’t advertise is how much it costs to move data between clouds. Those “egress fees” can add up faster than you think.

I’ve seen companies get sticker shock when they realize their multi-cloud data synchronization is costing thousands per month. You really need to plan your data architecture carefully.

Good luck finding engineers who are genuinely skilled across multiple cloud platforms. Most people specialize in one, maybe two providers. Finding someone who can architect and maintain complex multi-cloud environments? You’ll pay premium salaries or expensive consulting fees.

You absolutely need unified management platforms. If you think you can dispense with multiple clouds by simply using the separate dashboards from each vendor, you will hit a major road bump. Tools such as HashiCorp Terraform, Kubernetes or a cloud management platform, provide you with one view of everything. Automation is not optional at this point. Manually managing multi-cloud environments will create configuration drift, security gaps, and unnecessary expensive mistakes.

Don’t bolt security on as an afterthought. Rolling out workloads is a great time to focus on your identity and access management to ensure your security policies are effective across multiple platforms. 

Security audits become critical with multi-cloud environments, as you need to check that your security posture is consistent across your deployment and that the data is protected while traversing clouds.

Not everything belongs everywhere. Some workloads benefit from multi-cloud deployment, others don’t. Applications with tight coupling between components might perform better on a single platform.

In working with multi-cloud approaches, I usually suggest you start with lower criticality workloads and gain some experience with non-production systems before working with production workloads on mission-critical applications.

Multi-cloud isn’t for everyone. If you are a small business with simple requirements, it is probably not worth the effort. If you have compliance requirements, require 100% uptime, or would prefer to avoid vendor lock-in it is worth it. What you should take away from this is to be realistic about the effort. To do multi-cloud right, requires the right people, the right tooling, and constant attention. To do it poorly will create far more problems than it solves.

My advice? Start small. Pick one specific use case where multi-cloud makes obvious sense – maybe disaster recovery or a specific compliance requirement. Learn from the experience you have before reaching out more tri-cloud strategies. 

The cloud landscape is evolving rapidly, with increasing vendor lock-in risk. Multi-cloud strategies provide flexibility and options, but try to align your expectations in terms of potential complexity.

Are you considering multi-cloud for your organization?  Let’s have a real discussion about whether it is worthwhile for your specific situation. Our team can help you understand the potential benefits and challenges, without the vendor’s sales pitch. We’ll design a strategy that actually works for your business, not just looks good on paper.