We Need to Talk About Multi-cloud

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We Need to Talk About Multi-cloud

By Special Guest
Luke Norris, CEO and Founder, Faction, Inc.
  |  August 11, 2016

Over the past several months, there have been whispers and murmurs surrounding hybrid and multi-cloud IT reality. Recently, though, those murmurs have gotten louder. In fact, in IDC’s (News - Alert) Cloud FutureScape 2016 Predictions report, the analyst firm asserts that more than 80 percent of enterprise IT organizations will commit to hybrid cloud technology by 2017. I, along with my expert team of engineers at Faction, want to embrace this movement. What it means is that businesses will require multi-cloud-friendly solutions that will allow them to take full advantage of the cloud’s value proposition, while also benefiting from the best-of-breed features by working with multiple cloud providers. So, it’s time to ask, if we are living in a connected world, shouldn’t our clouds be connected too?

What is multi-cloud? Simply, it is a cloud-to-cloud peering network and serves as a useful tool for customers with hybrid or multi-cloud provider platforms looking for a variety of offerings, such as remote storage, across many network footprints. As different clouds leverage different services, meaning connectivity will extend beyond cloud-to-cloud, but also to cloud-to-cloud-to-cloud-to-cloud to… well, you get the idea. With multi-cloud, customers can tap into the best aspects of each cloud to address their specific needs and requirements, meaning there is no more fear of missing or unavailable resources or features from a vendor. That situation is overcome thanks to a  peering-like landscape, where clouds can borrow services from other clouds, thus vastly optimizing service offerings, while still providing seamless connectivity.

For cloud vendors, multi-cloud has the potential to reinvent the cloud computing space, allowing for strategic partnerships and business opportunities within the industry. Multi-cloud begins with cloud providers that are interconnected with multiple carriers and other cloud providers, across low latency dedicated circuits. Since every cloud provider has its own set of unique differentiators, as well as its own set of limitations, end users operating in a multi-cloud environment will live in the best of both cloud worlds.

So far, this multi-cloud architecture is proving very beneficial for customers. Firstly, the increased flexibility within an interconnected ecosystem allows businesses to develop new offerings faster and with little interruption to their networks. Also, as data demands continue to increase, the agility harnessed from a multi-cloud solution allows enterprises to scale quickly, securely and with added storage to better support unexpected demands. Multi-cloud architectures are also easy to use and reduce infrastructure management requirements. Finally, multi-cloud solutions are cost-effective, as customers pay only for what they use.

Multi-cloud peering enables customers to take advantage of any number of services from any number of cloud providers and establish the best possible IT structucture. What’s more, because of multi-cloud’s flexibility, cloud users can tap into various services that reside on different clouds, seamlessly.

The cloud is relying more and more on a community mentality. Not all cloud service providers are created equal – each cloud has its own unique service offerings, benefits and downsides. By mixing and matching cloud providers, customers can take advantage of not just one best-in-breed solution, but multiple solutions, with optimal economics for each application.

Multi-cloud solutions are vast but also largely untapped. The market has to adapt, so service providers can reap all of the benefits of the cloud and foster endless business opportunities. Multi-cloud interchanges, such as Faction Internetwork Exchange (FIX) and others currently available, are the glue holding this multi-cloud strategy together, via complete virtual interconnect services that enable customers to access thousands of enterprises and service providers, all while vastly expanding their network footprint, through dedicated Layer 2 connections

In a world where choices and connectivity are imperative, it’s time to embrace multi-cloud and open yourself up to a vast ecosystem of cloud solutions, specially customized to suit your unique needs. 




Edited by Alicia Young
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