“Cloud” or “cloud computing” is the delivery of on-demand computer system resources, especially data storage (cloud storage) and computing power, typically over the internet and on a pay-as-you-go basis. Instead of owning their own computing infrastructure or data centers, companies can rent access to anything from applications to storage from a cloud service provider.

The advantage of the cloud is that users can access information or the solution itself on any device with an Internet connection and a web browser. It also eliminates the substantial capital expense of buying hardware and software and setting up/running on-site data centers

Some examples of cloud services include Google Drive, Apple iCloud, Netflix, Yahoo Mail, Dropbox and Microsoft OneDrive. Cloud computing architecture typically falls into one of four categories:

Public Cloud

Gartner defines public cloud computing as a style of computing where scalable and elastic IT-enabled capabilities are provided as a service to external customers using Internet technologies. In other words, public clouds are owned and operated by a third-party cloud service providers. Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud and Amazon Web Services are all examples of public clouds. 

Private Cloud

A private cloud refers to a computing model that offers a proprietary environment dedicated to a single business entity. As a single-tenant environment, the organization using it does not share resources with other entities. A much larger market than public cloud providers, examples of private cloud providers are Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE), VMware, Oracle and Red Hat Cloud Suite.

Hybrid cloud

Hybrid cloud refers to a mixed computing, storage, and services environment made up of on-premises infrastructure, private cloud services, and a public cloud. Hybrid cloud solutions use proprietary software to orchestrate communication between each distinct service. VMware, AWS Hybrid Cloud Solutions, IBM Hybrid Cloud Solutions are all examples of hybrid cloud solution providers. 

Multi-Cloud

A subset of hybrid cloud, multi-cloud refers to the use of two or more public (or sometimes private) cloud platforms. While a hybrid cloud strategy incorporates different types of cloud services, usually a mix of public and private, a multi-cloud strategy must use two or more of the same type of cloud platform.

According to Flexera’s 2021 State of the Cloud Report, 92% of enterprises have a multi-cloud strategy. This is because multi-cloud environments often provide a bigger bang for the buck - more computing power for less money.

In addition, multi-cloud environments can provide different clouds for different tasks. For example, the marketing team might want to use a public cloud provider with machine learning and predictive analytics capabilities. On the other hand, the accounting team might require a separate, highly secure cloud that satisfies specific regulatory compliance requirements.

Last but not least, a multi-cloud approach increases organizational resilience. If one cloud goes down (as they tend to do from time to time) the other providers can serve as backups. It also enables companies to avoid lock-ins with one single vendor. 

What is a Cloud Strategy?

Cutting edge technology including, but certainly not limited to, artificial intelligence (AI), IoT, intelligent automation and advanced analytics require more than just the use of cloud solutions, they require a comprehensive and well-considered multi-cloud strategy.

As Gartner puts it, “a cloud strategy is a concise point of view on the role of cloud within the organization. It is a living document, designed to bridge between a high-level corporate strategy and a cloud implementation/adoption/migration plan. A cloud strategy is different from a cloud adoption or migration plan.”

Furthermore, though multi-cloud environments offer benefits like increased agility and affordability, they’re not without their downsides. If not properly thought out, multi-cloud can turn into a storm of system complexity, security vulnerabilities and runaway costs. 

Though cloud strategies vary wildly from organization to organization depending on their unique computing needs, most successful cloud strategies include:

• Talent & staffing needs
• Technology & platform strategy
• Reliability and disaster recovery
• Security and compliance 
• A multi-cloud operating model
• Operations strategy & stack

*Chart sourced from "What’s Your Multicloud Strategy?" https://www.bcg.com/publications/2021/navigating-multicloud-strategy 

Keys Considerations for Establishing a Successful Cloud Strategy

Managing Cloud Sprawl

When an organization lacks control over and visibility into its cloud computing resources, the result is known as cloud sprawl. Defined by TechTarget as “the uncontrolled proliferation of an organization's cloud instances, services or providers,” cloud sprawl is essentially a subset of shadow IT. 

Cloud sprawl not only results in oversized infrastructure, duplicate systems and soaring licensing costs, it also inhibits enterprise data science. If high value data is spread across various disparate systems, generating the volume and quality of data at the velocity needed to sustain advanced analytics and applied AI projects will be impossible.  

To prevent the proliferation of cloud use and spending across departments as well as ensure that data moves freely between different cloud providers, businesses must build an enterprise cloud strategy that includes clear policies on using and managing the cloud, migrations, and user controls and access. 

Serverless Computing vs. Containers

Containers are a lightweight virtualization architecture that enable the deployment of individual applications inside portable, isolated environments. Very generally speaking, containers are the ideal choice in situations that require high levels of agility or legacy system migrations. 

On the other hand, serverless computing is an execution architecture in which application code is run on demand. The major advantage of serverless is that it allows users to execute code whenever they need, without having to maintain a host environment on an ongoing basis. This can help to save money, particularly in cases where you need to execute resource-intensive code.

Though serverless computing and containers differ in how they work, both can be used to reduce overhead for cloud-hosted web applications. However, when and where to use each one does require careful planning. 

Ensuring Security and Compliance 

Cultivating an effective multi-cloud strategy is similar to building a puzzle - all of the pieces must fit together to create one, holistic cloud strategy. One of the key pieces that cannot be overlooked is regulatory compliance and security.

By increasing systems complexity, multi-cloud does run the risk of increasing the likelihood of a data breach or regulatory infrastructure if business departments are left to their own devices. For example, while all cloud vendors have some sort of protections in place (i.e.  Network Security Groups, Firewalls, etc.), not a single one of them have built-in mechanisms that offer a comprehensive, holistic, security story to protect the whole environment. As a result, most organizations opt for a 3rd party multi-cloud security and governance provider. 

Successful multi-cloud security approaches combine three elements: a centralized governance model, centralized security tooling and automation capabilities. Given the growing rate of cyber attacks, NIST is developing a new standards to govern cloud security automation. The first version of these new guidelines, OSCAL: the Open Security Controls Assessment Language, was released on June 7, 2021. Two of the main 4 priorities of this new framework are:

• assessing control implementations across multiple components 
• supporting multiple regulatory frameworks simultaneously

Embrace Cloud Co-Innovation

It’s no longer up to IT alone to develop cloud strategies. Increasingly CEOs, CFOs, CMOs and other functional leaders are beginning to understand both the value and pitfalls of multi-cloud strategies. As a result, the time has come for business units to play a larger role in determining and being held accountable for cloud-related decisions.

Successful IT business alignment is possible but requires close collaboration and communication. While the business can educate IT on its needs, objectives and regulatory compliance requirements, it’s up to IT to ensure new cloud solutions fit into its overall enterprise strategy and avoid any redundancies of surface. 

In addition to internal collaboration, many organizations are partnering with cloud providers to build bespoke cloud services. Though perhaps more resource-intensive, co-creation ensures that the new solution fits perfectly into an organization’s existing digital infrastructure and fully supports the organization’s key objectives. 

For example, Land O'Lakes recently partnered with Microsoft to “build cloud, edge computing, sensors and AI solutions to improve services for farmers and dairy producers, propel sustainability initiatives and boost broadband connectivity in a rural America starving for high-speed internet access.” 

Instead of co-innovating with established cloud players, other organizations are developing strategic partnerships with startups and smaller organizations to co-develop new cloud solutions. For example, everyone from Nike to McDonald's has acquired cloud-based startups in an effort to accelerate the development of new, strategically aligned cloud applications. 

Multi-Cloud Solutions

The goal of multi-cloud solutions is to unify the various clouds leveraged by a single enterprise. They offer developers a self-service interface to consume services and deploy apps to different cloud platforms while also providing a centralized hub for monitoring cloud service usage, costs, security and governance.

Most major cloud providers such as AWS, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud Platform, offer multi-cloud services. Additional vendors include:

• ServiceNow Cloud Monitoring provisions on-demand cloud services, accelerating service delivery while providing consistent, nonintrusive governance guardrails that prevent uncontrolled cloud spend. It directly leverages native cloud provisioning capabilities—for example, AWS CloudFormation templates—so you have unrestricted access to the full power of each cloud vendor. And it works seamlessly with ServiceNow IT Service Management, creating a unified operating model across your cloud and non-cloud estate.

• Flexera Cloud Management Platform (CMP) provides a rich set of capabilities for discovery, template-based provisioning, orchestration, and automation; operational monitoring and management; governance; and cost optimization across multiple public and private clouds as well as virtual and bare-metal servers.

• Scalr is a Cloud Management Platform that provides the capability to manage cloud infrastructure across all the major cloud platforms. Scalr’s core capabilities are as follows.
• Cloud agnostic definition of infrastructure enabling single application configurations to be used across multiple cloud platforms. Configure once, Deploy Many.
• Capability to centralise and delegate policy administration through Software Defined Cloud Governance to ensure consistent implementation of Security and Compliance policies across all cloud deployments.

• Commander® is a cloud management platform that enables cloud automation by integrating seamlessly with your public and private clouds, and on-premise infrastructure. Commander orchestrates hybrid cloud provisioning and provides governance and cost optimization for both cloud-native and legacy application

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