The myriad benefits of multi-cloud are also saddled by complexities and inefficiencies. Here is one expert’s view on doing multi-cloud right.

As businesses transition to virtual off-premise workspaces requiring fast and efficient access to varied applications in the Work-from-Anywhere era, the appetite for solutions that improve efficiency has risen significantly, requiring companies to host several cloud technologies at once.

Whereas a single cloud provider can provide for specific uses such as email or videoconferencing, using several cloud technologies — commonly called multi-cloud — allows businesses to pick and choose the services required to optimize their workplace, ensuring that all the diverse needs of that business are met via a flexible infrastructure.

Such multi cloud paradigms are now part of the toolkit of modern businesses, with global studies finding organizations deploying at least 10 clouds platforms from a growing number of vendors. However, to date, only 25% have multi cloud management strategies in place. Is this good or bad?

Managing multi cloud is tricky

According to a recent IDC survey among multi cloud adopters, 55% of respondents found a lack of unified management and monitoring, and an inability to drive a single security policy across different cloud providers, to be the key issues when implementing multi cloud. This figure rose to 58% when building a common workflow. In Thailand, this has been a pain point for cloud service providers on top of existing national policies that go against cloud practices.

As companies continue to deal with the pandemic and a distributed workforce, ad hoc multi-cloud adoption puts pressure on IT infrastructures due to fragmented data management, challenges around end-to-end security, and full network visibility.

Multi-cloud increases complexity of management network infrastructures due to the inherent complexity of providing available, reliable, and secure connectivity to applications distributed across not just on-premises data centers but also private clouds and multiple public clouds. To optimize multi-cloud infrastructure, success hinges on the security, performance and understanding of this kind of networking.

With ASEAN moving forward with cloud and multicloud adoption, data security is among the top concerns. To monitor and protect data for users in the region the ASEAN Framework on Personal Data Protection was launched as a set of principles to guide the implementation of measures at national and regional levels to promote and strengthen personal data protection for the region.

Integrating DNS, DHCP and IPAM

The required solution to meet multicloud complexities and security risks head on can be found in DDI technology: it provides a unified framework for DNS-DHCP-IPAM and network configurations.

Staying on top of public, private, and hybrid cloud infrastructures, DDI provides scalability, security, and availability of applications and services. How?

• IP address management — based on a unified source of IP data — is fundamental to keeping applications functioning, as well as ensuring processes are not prone to errors and lag. IP address management must therefore happen at the foundational level of the application orchestration workflow.
• Centralized management allows workplaces to overcome network complexity with control and consistency across the various cloud infrastructures. Single-viewpoint control and enhanced visibility help businesses understand and control their networks and stay abreast in the face of new digital infrastructure, thereby saving time and money.
• End-to-end automation is provided through a centralized IP data repository and valuable metadata, and it is key for a successful shift to the Cloud. It also results in significant time savings.
• DDI technologies also ensure that multi-cloud can be deployed rapidly, allowing companies to roll out new scalable services more efficiently. Faster time-to-market is key to the success of a business. With time savings on IT infrastructure management and deployment, teams can spend more time on product development, serving their customers in the best way.

With a unified DDI solution, multi-cloud security risks can be resolved as it ensures that security policies are enforced across the entire infrastructure. Some advanced DDI solutions are also capable of enhancing protection against data theft, by analyzing DNS traffic and user behavior to detect exfiltration attempts via the DNS.

As reliance on multi cloud increases, it is critical that architecture is simple, secure, and scalable to add real value to cater to an increasingly distributed workforce. Overlooking this can have serious consequences, such as application downtime. With DDI, businesses are poised to benefit from the new era of collaborative technology, especially with multi cloud as a successful and crucial part of their lives as everyone returns to work.