*By Gustavo Leite
To say that enterprise cloud computing has gone mainstream is an understatement. In fact, the data analysis company statist estimates that, this year, the amount of corporate data stored in the cloud will exceed, for the first time, the amount of corporate data allocated to physical infrastructures. And not by a negligible margin – 60% of corporate data will be in the cloud by 2022.
And according to the GartnerBy 2025, spending on cloud computing in the application software, infrastructure software, business process services, and systems infrastructure technology segments will exceed spending on traditional IT solutions in the same categories.
Much of this transition to the cloud involves a concept called multicloud.
The evolution to multicloud
Enterprise cloud computing itself is a simple concept: delivery of services such as applications (Software-as-a-Service or SaaS), databases (Platform-as-a-Service or PaaS), storage (Infrastructure- as-a-Service or IaaS), etc.—over the Internet (also known as the cloud) rather than an organization that physically hosts them on-premises on local computers or in an on-premises datacenter.
Benefits can include flexibility, including scalability and mobility; efficiency, accessibility and speed in the market; and costs, plus pay-as-you-go models and elimination of hardware expenses.
From there, it gets a little more complicated because the conversation shifts from what companies implement to how they do it.
While it is theoretically possible to migrate 100% to the cloud (even more so for small and medium sized organizations), in most cases it is not practical, especially for large enterprises. There will almost always be a reason to keep at least some computing resources on-premises, whether related to cost, security, compliance, etc.
This leads to the concept of a hybrid cloud, moving some computing resources to the cloud, and leaving others physical. In its most basic form, the hybrid cloud model uses a single public cloud service provider. In a perfect world, this public cloud service provider could provide the best SaaS, PaaS and IaaS at a reasonable cost.
But we don't live in a perfect world.
Type: multi-cloud. The multi-cloud approach to enterprise cloud computing adopts the hybrid cloud model and features multiple public cloud service providers to meet various needs. A subcategory of multicloud is polycloud, which implies the same level of care and scrutiny when deciding which computing resources to host in the cloud versus those left in physical infrastructure is applied to choosing which public cloud service providers to use for individual services based on their specialization, security, cost, etc.
The multicloud data management challenges
Even at a multi-cloud level of accuracy, managing data in a multi-cloud infrastructure is much more difficult than an on-premises or basic hybrid cloud environment. Add to this that the move to multi-cloud is often, at least in part, done without this standard of precision – the IT department can rely on carefully orchestrated primary public cloud service providers, but individual business units request randomly or if self-integrate (also known as shadow IT) additional public cloud service providers based on your micro needs.
So, for all its benefits and necessity, the multi-cloud approach can create new data management challenges, including:
- Complexity: Many companies think they are buying an outcome when they move to the cloud. In reality, they are simply buying infrastructure. In essence, the servers may not be yours, but the data and ultimate responsibility for them still is. Managing one workload and its data in one cloud environment might be simple, but managing dozens across multiple cloud environments with different management tools is not.” And as the complexity increases, so does the difficulty of ensuring that the proper data governance and compliance protections are in place for each cloud environment.
- Cost: While one of the key benefits of enterprise cloud computing is potential cost savings, improper data management in multi-cloud environments can quickly lead to escalating costs. Turning once more to the Gartner, the analytics firm says organizations often end up spending more on cloud services up to 70% without getting the value they expected from it. Data backup and recovery and archiving solutions not built for multi-cloud infrastructures are part of this.
- Vulnerability: As complexity increases, so does the number of potential holes in the attack surface, creating a greater risk of data breaches such as ransomware. Not only that, but recovering from an attack becomes more difficult.
Adopting multi-cloud without compromising data management
The dilemma is that multicloud is in many ways the ideal approach to enterprise cloud computing, but how do organizations overcome the data management challenges it creates?
First, you must consolidate data management. Having end-to-end visibility and control of your entire data asset – from your on-premises resources to all your public cloud service providers – through a single dashboard is critical to reducing the complexity of multi-cloud environments. However, the reality is that most of today's data management technologies are not ideal for operating in multi-cloud environments. Instead, implement cloud-optimized, scaled data management that applies web-scale technologies to provide more cost-effective, efficient, and secure data management from edge to core to cloud(s) .
Second, automate data management. It's difficult enough for IT teams to keep up with data management needs in today's multi-cloud environments, and the challenge will only get more difficult as the number of cloud services companies rely on increases, ransomware attacks and other threats increase. data integrity multiply and data privacy regulations tighten. Using automation, artificial intelligence and machine learning to your advantage for data management will be critical. AI-driven technology will help manage, self-provision, self-heal data autonomously, making all the difference especially when working with large amounts of data in multi-cloud environments.
Just as it is an understatement to say that enterprise cloud computing has become popular, it is also an understatement to say that multi-cloud is the present and future of enterprise cloud computing implementation. Overcome the challenges it creates with unified, autonomous data management.
*Gustavo Leite is Vice President Latin America at Veritas Technologies for Brazil
Notice: The opinion presented in this article is the responsibility of its author and not of ABES - Brazilian Association of Software Companies
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