Guides on migrating to multi-cloud services
Are you considering moving to the multi-cloud journey? Then it is not too late to learn how to consume cloud services. Cloud has become common these days in the decision-making process during project execution. It ensures that your business goals are flexible, it provides agility to IT managers, DevOps and CIOs. The multi-cloud strategy can provide your enterprise with a better outcome as compared to the past. With multi-cloud, the business can avoid lock-ins by the vendors as each server solve different problems in different applications. Therefore, you can be able to choose the best fitting solution freely. How should you approach the multi-cloud services? Here are a few useful tips to help you determine when you should consider the multi-cloud services.
Do not limit yourself to one service provider.
Enterprises are approaching the multi-cloud to reduce the dependency on a single cloud service vendor. Before the multi-cloud deployment, business would transfer the entire operations and data into a cloud server hosted by one vendor to create a public or a private cloud. Even the hybrid cloud chose the single solution for the public or private cloud. The disadvantage of relying on a single vendor is that an enterprise will be caught up in the outages and disruptions. With Multi-cloud deployment, the organization does not have to depend on a single cloud vendor or server anymore.
Act as per your needs.
Different cloud providers deliver service differently as per the needs of the user. Some specialize in providing services under e-commerce hosting while countable providers offer plain metal high-end results. A single cloud provider might not be able to provide all of your IT solutions. Your enterprise might need an application on the public internet facing web. Hence you will need the IBM Softlayer while for storage services you will have to choose the AWS services.
Compare multi clouds to determine that fits you best.
Try different cloud providers so as you can determine the best ones for your needs. Despite the simplicity in the process of adopting cloud, the DevOps still require to put more effort and time in the evaluation of the cloud solution. Before you commit to a vendor solution fully, you may want to determine how well the other clouds services are offering their solutions.
So what factors are you going to consider when evaluating the different clouds for your enterprise? We have reviewed five metrics you should use to compare the multi-clouds.
Factors to consider when comparing multi clouds
You do not just need to evaluate cost only to determine the best cloud provider as most cloud users do. There is more to it since many vendors provide their services at low prices.
Scalability
This is the variation in disk size, configuration and the resource size that the enterprise is already using. When selecting a cloud provider, you should be able to scale the cloud environment as per the enterprise’s needs and your needs too without affecting the business and customers. Check the cloud provider if they support horizontal or vertical scaling and the combination of offerings.
Latency
Latency denotes the measure of time between submission of a single data packet and the arrival of the data packet to its designated point. Latency is almost same as the response time but differs when it comes to the network being used and data traffic. When selecting a cloud provider, for your enterprise, check if the provider support network from multiple closure regions to your customer. Also, check if they support private network.
Response time
Response time refers to the measure of time between arrivals of the customer’s request to the time when the server responds to the request. For quicker responses, the server deployment of the data center should be in the same region as the customer. Check if the cloud service provider has their data centers in the same area as to where your customers access your server.
Reliability
Reliability in this sense means the percentage of availability of the response and uptime over a period. When selecting a cloud provider, you should be aware of the status and downtime history of the cloud providers before you hosting or deploying on the cloud. That way, you will avoid losses that are caused by too much server downtime.
Security
Cloud security or cloud computing security is the technologies and policies put down to protect applications data and information related to the cloud computing. Before you deploying a cloud service provider, ensure that the cloud provider supports security features including private networking, Security Groups, and Firewalls so as you can avoid problems such as data loss.
Things to remember before migrating to multi-cloud services.
While migrating to the multi-cloud services, there are mistakes that you should avoid. Migration is a complicated process that every enterprise should be cautious to avoid incurring losses.
- Cloud providers are different witch each having features. The various cloud solves a different problem.
- Study each provider in detail to determine what the vendor needs and their security policies to make sure that you can meet all the requirements.
- Avoid depending merely on the cloud migration experts because they can fail to understand your needs completely. You should participate too in the migration process to make sure that everything you need is taken care of.
- Migrate moderately, phase by phase. Start with the batch processing systems, low impact web applications or the collaborative tools so as you can know the hidden migration problems before making the huge step.
- Assess compatibility issues to avoid problems that may arise the moment you start migrating web applications. Asses by understanding the structure of your applications and the required customization before relocating to the new servers. In-house applications should have same computing system on the cloud.
To conclude with, the process of migrating to Multi-cloud services is demanding in every aspect, but the benefits outweigh the challenges. You should plan and assess risks to implement the cloud services successfully.
