When you make use of two and more cloud computing services, you need a multi cloud strategy. In the deployment of multiple clouds, you can implement different kinds of software like Platform as a service (PaaS), IaaS and SaaS. Now however, multi cloud refers to the deployment of a mix of IaaS environments like the AWS and Azure. Earlier businesses would seek a multi cloud strategy because there were not confident about reliability of the cloud. So, they preferred having multiple clouds as they felt this would prevent data loss instances and possibilities of downtimes. Moreover, to avoid the chances of vendor lock-ins, a multi cloud strategy was considered appropriate.

With the steady increase in the numbers of businesses adopting the multi cloud strategy, experts feel that almost all enterprises will have multi cloud capabilities soon. While the providers of multi cloud strategy have been making a wide variety of offers as far as cloud solutions go, there are some providers like Amazon Web Services which have tried to expand their services in storage areas mainly to stay ahead in the rat race. When you wish to run apps which operate in a Windows setting, it is better to opt for Azure.

Key features in a multi cloud strategy:

- If you cannot view the whole system with multi cloud functions as one unit, you should not seek a multi cloud strategy in the first place. So, users must be able to employ one login console for accessing many clouds. They should not have to shuttle between multiple processes within a cloud. So, if there is a single interface, it will ensure that the multiple clouds can be managed effectively regardless of their individual applications.

- When there is a single login access to run many clouds, it also helps to enhance user efficiency. So, before you deploy a multi cloud plan, you must make an in-depth analysis of all applications and expectations from the various cloud services. Following this, the workloads need to be analyzed and the IT set-up must also be reviewed.

- Users may often not be willing to find out the cloud services responsible for running their applications. So, it is important to have platform-oriented knowledge of which applications run best in which clouds and this would help to simplify the IT operations in totality. Using this expertise, they would be able to create, manage and set up different workloads suitable for different clouds.

- The members of the IT team should also possess ample know-how and technical proficiency in the services that they are using. So, it becomes very important to train the staff instead of getting staff from outside or third-party providers.

- Rather than depending on the data protection provisions in every platform, it is necessary to have compliant regulatory policies as far as backups, data restoration and data security goes. This also means that the staff should be very well-versed with security policies belonging to every cloud hosting provider to make sure there can be no intrusion by cyber thieves.

- The best way to handle many cloud services offering their distinctive functions is to have a single interface for management. And the easiest way to get this done it to create an environment which is controlled by well researched policies and software defined systems. For this, you will also need intercommunications and quick data transfers between the multiple cloud vendors. So, services offered by Microsoft Azure, AWS etc must be integrated. With proper software-defined strategies this intercommunication can be achieved. This will also help in data mirroring and remote replication of data; it can address problems of application failover between the clouds.

- Finally, to have a smoothly working multi-cloud setting, you must have a robust foundation. For this you need a practical and rational multi-cloud approach. You can use the multi cloud approach to your benefit by using the SDS software supported by strong policies which offer rules about behaviors of all individual parts and of the whole system. A multi cloud environment ought to have guidelines for adopting the best cloud solutions which will enable users to choose specific deployment needs. Such an approach will help users enjoy a platform which lets them choose the most workable cloud model. So, you need a good idea of the architectural design to compare services offered by various cloud hosting providers both in terms of prices and performance.

You will find many reputed cloud providers today that offer features of monitoring using one console so that users can get to access and view all information about every distinct service. This will let business track the CPU usage, utilization of disk space and benefit from real-time metrics. When you use a multi-cloud strategy successfully, you can optimize your business costs. When you can analyze the utilization patters of different cloud computing solutions, you are better able to fine-tune service allotments in keeping with the requirements of the infrastructure.

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