“Which one would you take, Neo?”
“The red one brings you the ultimate truth and opens your eyes about the multi-cloud solutions. The blue one keeps you in your cozy web development field with infinite coffee refills.”
We all know how the story goes.
So what does this multi-cloud solution rabbit hole hide, how do you manage it, and can you recreate it into something better?
Those questions bothered Neo too. Let’s jump right into it and find out!
What are multi-cloud solutions – short 101 lesson
Welcome to the multi-cloud solutions 101 class! Today’s topic — multi-cloud computing explained from A to Z.
Here’s the tech definition: Multi-cloud solutions represent the use of cloud computing from different providers for supporting your app or software workload. It’s all about using different cloud providers for different parts of your app. Instead of running your entire application on a single cloud solution, you’re diversifying your app functions onto several little cloud spaces.
The main perks of taking this approach are:
- High resilience — If one cloud crashes or experiences downtime, it doesn’t pull the entire application down. If that happens, different parts and key functions of your app stay functioning, keeping the service available 24/7 .
- FBI-level security and compliance — Different cloud providers offer multiple built-in security features. Hacking your app would be Mission Impossible for the attacker. Many providers have strict compliance norms making them a power to be reckoned with.
- A new level of flexibility — Gone are the days when you needed to move entire software infrastructures from one cloud provider to another. Using multi-cloud solutions and switching back and forth according to your app needs has never been easier.
- Everything’s pennies on the dollar — Spreading your application workload across multiple cloud providers is like being in the dollar store. Juicy provider pricing benefits everywhere! Which software dev business wouldn’t like that?
Think of multi-cloud solutions as a giant buffet of cloud services. Pick, choose, swap, and return any dish you want. But keep those that best fit your app’s needs!
A how-to guide for making multi-cloud solutions for applications
Multi-cloud solutions have some eye-catching perks. But how do you turn cloud computing theory lectures into practice and have your application flourish in the real world?
Building a multi-cloud solution is like building a complex luxury building. To fully function and for your tenant (your app, that is) to enjoy their stay, you need to consider these factors:
- App architecture
- Data management
- Networking
- Cost management
- Security and compliance
Application architecture
Without the right architecture, a multi-cloud solution stays in the blueprint, soon-to-be-built zone. Forever!
For every app architecture to last, it MUST possess three features/characteristics – interoperability, support for microservices, and built upon cloud-native technologies.
Interoperability is an app virtue of swiftly moving data and workload from one cloud provider to another seamlessly and without interruptions. It’s like being a skillful cloud ninja. Nobody will even notice the change while your performance remains untouched.
Microservices are like app LEGO blocks, each of which focuses on one core task or feature. Breaking your application into these smaller independent container pieces, each running on separate clouds, prevents the infamous cloud vendor lock-in.
Building cloud-app architecture without cloud-native technologies is like baking a cake without flour. It just doesn’t work. Containers, serverless computing, and managed services are all the cloud-native tech that fuels your architecture. It makes app deployment across multiple-cloud services a piece of cake.
Data management
Managing data across multiple-cloud solutions sometimes feels like Sisyphus struggles. The truth is that it can feel that way if you don’t have proper data backup, recovery, transfer, and replication protocols in place.
That’s just the beginning of the rabbit hole. Data storage and access between providers is a cloud-computing wonderland filled with dangers at every step.
Amazon S3, Google Cloud Backup and Recovery, and Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics are some of the tools available for better data management of your multi-cloud solution.
Networking
Networking between multiple cloud providers and independent app containers is like finding your way through a dense maze. Connections fail, requests get lost, and errors start screaming on your screen. A pure connection-hell!
Avoiding this nightmare is done by placing five unbeatable pillars of networking: network management, traffic management, security, compliance, and connectivity.
VPNs, direct connections, firewalls, SSL/TLS certificates, and third-party tools like SolarWinds, Cisco ASA, HAProxy, and Amazon AWS Identity are tools and features that add strength to your multi-cloud network.
Cost management
The main game of multi-cloud solutions is getting the most computing value for your investment.
Four factors influence how the cost affects your multi-cloud solution. They are:
- Cloud resource usage
- Cost optimization strategies
- Cloud provider pricing offers
- Cost tracking and reporting
Looking through a broader lens of these 4 factors gets you the most bang for your buck.
Security and compliance
Security and compliance measures protect your multi-cloud solution like a life jacket: they keep you afloat and protected in these dangerous waters of cloud computing.
There are special characteristics your multi-cloud life jacket needs to possess for such a stressful task. They are fine-grained access control with authorization, data encryption, compliance with HIPAA, DSS, or SOC2 regulations, threat detection and response, and doomsday recovery. With those in place, your multi-cloud solution will be more secure than Fort Knox.
2 weak points every multi-cloud solutions face
Behind every successfully implemented solution lies app-grinding challenges. Multi-cloud solutions have two very common ones:
- Integration
- Complexity
Is it possible to overcome them?
Integration isn’t a task for the lighthearted. It requires God-like levels of planning and coordination for seamless data exchange and interoperability. Overcoming the rigidity of integration is done by adopting a more flexible and modular approach with APIs or middleware.
Complexity in multi-cloud solutions is a recipe for disaster. The more complex it gets, the likelihood of something going wrong increases. Automation with configuration management, centralized monitoring, and establishing clear governance policies with resources allocation and management rewrite that recipe.
Multi-cloud solutions for applications – A life boat in the computing storm
Communication, data management, security protocols, and complexity are all everyday head-scratching problems app developers deal with in cloud computing.
It’s like trying to pedal a lifeboat with a spoon in the storm of user requests, data overflow and error reports.
That’s why multi-cloud solutions are so helpful. Providing great flexibility, down-time resilience, supreme security, and compliance with HIPAA, DSS, or SOC2 regulations, these solutions are every app developer’s dream come true. Days of moving whole software systems from one cloud to another and being in the infamous cloud vendor lock-in are extinct.
Now, the new era begins. The era of multi-cloud solutions!
