Introduction to Multi-Cloud

Multi-cloud is a hot topic with companies. Most companies are already multi-cloud, sometimes even without realizing it. They have Software as a Service (SaaS) such as Office 365 from Microsoft and Salesforce, for instance, next to applications that they host in a public cloud such as Amazon Web Services (AWS) or Google Cloud Platform (GCP). It’s all part of the digital transformation that companies are going through, that is, creating business agility by adopting cloud services where companies develop a best-of-breed strategy: picking the right cloud service for specific business functions. The answer might be multi-cloud, rather than going for a single cloud provider.

The main goal of this chapter is to develop a foundational understanding of what multi-cloud is and why companies have a multi-cloud strategy. We will focus on the main public cloud platforms of Microsoft Azure, AWS, and GCP, next to the different on-premises variants of these platforms, such as Azure Stack, AWS Outposts, Google Anthos, and some emerging players.

The most important thing before starting the transformation to multi-cloud is gathering requirements, making sure a company is doing the right thing and making the right choices. Concepts such as The Open Group Architecture Framework (TOGAF) and Quality Function Deployment (QFD) will be discussed as tools to capture the voice of the customer (VOC). Lastly, you will learn that any transformation starts with people. The final section discusses the changes to the organization itself needed to execute the digital transformation.

In this chapter, we’re going to cover the following main topics:

• Understanding multi-cloud concepts
• Multi-cloud—more than just public and private
• Setting out a real strategy for multi-cloud
• Introducing the main players in the field
• Evaluating cloud service models
• Gathering requirements for multi-cloud
• Understanding the business challenges of multi-cloud