Whether those goals are best met with one cloud, a hybrid model, or a multicloud model will depend on your unique situation, dependencies, budget, and available resources. We’ll cover the difference between multicloud and hybrid cloud so you can make an informed next step.

Public Cloud vs Private Cloud?

Hybrid environments combine public and private clouds. And in the case of hybrid IT, it can also include non-cloud environments. Generally, the choice between public and private cloud will come down to how much control businesses want over resources compared to the amount of flexibility they need.

Public cloud providers, such as AWS and Azure, rent out resources to companies in predetermined amounts at a discount, or on a model where you pay for what you use. Businesses have the flexibility to scale up or down their resources on-demand. However, they must navigate and configure the security settings and tools provided by the public cloud provider to ensure optimal security.

Private cloud can run on-premises or offsite with a data center provider. Organizations have significantly more control over configurations and security settings in a private cloud environment. However, scaling resources can be more challenging, and the infrastructure is often more expensive compared to public cloud options. This control and security, combined with the challenges of scalability and cost, make hybrid cloud solutions an attractive option for many businesses.

What is the Difference Between Multicloud and Hybrid Cloud Computing?

In cloud computing, we often hear the terms “multicloud” and hybrid cloud. While both terms sound similar, there are a few key differences organizations tend to overlook. Understanding the differences between these two cloud approaches is essential for organizations that are striving to ensure cloud optimization and meet business needs.

Architecture

A hybrid cloud is the combination of cloud and on-premises infrastructure in a unified framework. It could include public cloud (Microsoft Azure, AWS, etc.) and private cloud infrastructure. Hybrid cloud adoption has increased over the past few years due to its many benefits, which we’ll be covering shortly.

Multicloud computing is the use of multiple public cloud platforms to support business functions. Multicloud deployments can be part of an overall hybrid cloud environment. A hybrid cloud strategy may include multiple clouds, but a multicloud strategy isn’t necessarily hybrid.

Intercloud Workloads

In a multicloud environment, workloads are deployed across different public clouds and often require additional processes and tools for interoperability. Similarly, hybrid cloud environments can include these workloads but also involve movement between cloud and on-premises infrastructures. This flexibility is often necessary for legacy systems with numerous dependencies that cannot be easily migrated to the cloud.

Vendor Lock-in

Vendor lock-in happens when a business feels overly reliant on one cloud provider and finds it difficult to switch to a new provider without significant investment and resources to do so. While both formats may introduce vendor lock-in, this may be more common in hybrid cloud environments where businesses are only using one public cloud provider. In a multicloud configuration, organizations may have more flexibility to move workloads to different public cloud environments.

Pricing

This flexibility in options within a multicloud environment can lead to more competitive pricing for businesses. Public cloud resources can be purchased in discounted packages for predictable workloads, while pay-as-you-go pricing is available for variable workloads.

Availability

With hybrid cloud, availability depends on both the public cloud provider and the on-premises infrastructure in use. In contrast, a multicloud environment can offer higher availability since data and workloads are distributed across multiple public clouds, reducing the risk of downtime.

Data Storage

Data storage has some similarities and differences between cloud environments. In hybrid cloud storage, on-premises storage (private cloud) is combined with public cloud resources. This provides greater control for sensitive data stored on the private cloud, but also requires tools to move data between environments that may be harder to set up compared to multicloud environments. Hybrid cloud can be ideal for businesses that have a mix of sensitive and non-sensitive data, and for those that want greater control over their core infrastructure.

With multicloud storage, data is stored across public cloud providers, which offers greater flexibility and scalability. Although multicloud storage can also be complex to manage, it reduces the risk of vendor lock-in by providing businesses the option to choose between different public cloud providers based on their specific needs and cost considerations. Multicloud is well-suited for businesses that want more scalability and flexibility, and don’t have as many data residency regulation concerns.

Security

In comparing multicloud and hybrid cloud environments, security plays a crucial role. Hybrid cloud setups allow organizations to implement tailored security measures across both public and on-premises infrastructures, providing greater control over sensitive data. In contrast, multicloud environments, which rely on multiple public cloud providers, often have less room for customization. While this can present challenges for specific compliance needs, many public cloud providers still meet essential standards such as GDPR and HIPAA. Ultimately, the choice between the two depends on an organization’s specific security requirements and regulatory obligations.

Flexibility

In terms of flexibility, hybrid cloud environments offer organizations the ability to seamlessly integrate on-premises and public cloud resources. This allows businesses to choose where to host specific workloads based on factors like cost, performance, and compliance. On the other hand, multicloud environments provide flexibility through the use of multiple public cloud providers, enabling organizations to select the best services from each provider.

While both approaches enhance adaptability, hybrid clouds excel in integrating legacy systems, whereas multicloud setups offer diverse options and avoid vendor lock-in, allowing businesses to respond more dynamically to changing needs.

How is Hybrid Cloud Similar to Multicloud?

Despite these differences, hybrid cloud and multicloud share many similarities. They can both be solid frameworks to store sensitive data when configured well, but they can come with common challenges, such as cloud complexity.

Infrastructure Security

Both hybrid and multicloud environments operate on a shared responsibility model, where the level of infrastructure security responsibility may vary. Cloud providers are responsible for securing the underlying infrastructure, while customers must secure their applications, data, and access controls within that infrastructure.

Key responsibilities for businesses include identity and access management (IAM), data encryption, and vulnerability management. Users should have access only to the resources necessary for their roles, whether in public or private clouds. Data must be protected both at rest and in transit, so organizations need to implement proper encryption measures. Regularly scanning for vulnerabilities and applying patches is essential to mitigate risks associated with security weaknesses, including zero-day attacks. By actively managing these responsibilities, organizations can enhance their overall security posture in any cloud environment.

Storing Sensitive Data

Even though public cloud providers offer fewer security customizations for businesses, both hybrid and multicloud environments can be suitable for storing sensitive data. Hybrid cloud gives organizations the power to place their most sensitive information on private infrastructure, whereas multicloud infrastructure allows for redundancy across multiple public cloud providers, mitigating risks from outages and data breaches.

Managing Data

In both multicloud and hybrid cloud, businesses must determine how to manage data across different platforms without compromising accessibility or performance. Hybrid clouds require tools and processes to facilitate data movement between public and private environments. While multicloud setups can simplify data management by leveraging multiple public clouds, they may still necessitate additional configuration to ensure effective data movement between those clouds.

Regulatory Compliance

Different businesses and industries are subject to different regulatory requirements, such as HIPAA, GDPR, CCPA, and PCI-DSS. Most public cloud providers are certified to meet common compliance standards, but if you have very specific needs, you may need to talk with the provider to confirm they can meet your compliance capabilities. Hybrid cloud offers more control over regulatory compliance, allowing businesses to store sensitive data on-premises or in an offsite private cloud.

Cloud Complexity

Cloud complexity is an issue for hybrid and multicloud environments, but what is being managed is where the difference resides. Hybrid cloud involves managing public and private cloud infrastructure. Multicloud involves managing different public cloud provider platforms, APIs, and security settings.

Can a Hybrid Cloud be a Multicloud?

A hybrid cloud can incorporate multicloud elements if it includes multiple cloud environments, such as a combination of public and private clouds. However, multicloud specifically refers to the use of multiple public cloud services from different providers, so it is not accurate to consider all multiclouds as hybrid clouds. While a hybrid cloud may include public clouds, it is distinguished by the integration of on-premises or private cloud resources.

Why Do Companies Use Multicloud?

Companies use multicloud to escape vendor lock-in and improve flexibility and performance across cloud environments. This isn’t a great fit for companies that have legacy frameworks they can’t easily move to the cloud. However, for businesses looking to innovate, multicloud can be a great option.

Why Do Companies Use Hybrid Cloud?

Companies tend to use hybrid cloud when they are either not completely ready to move all of their workloads to the cloud, or when moving some workloads would require more effort than it is worth, but they still want to leverage the benefits of the cloud. Hybrid cloud can serve as a happy medium or a long-term solution for digital transformation in a company, allowing for more innovation and flexibility compared to on-premises frameworks.

Find the Right Cloud Strategy For You with Cloud Experts

Choosing between hybrid cloud and multicloud hinges on your unique business needs. Data sensitivity, scalability, compliance requirements, and budgetary limitations will determine the optimal solution. Need guidance in figuring out what configuration will work best for you? TierPoint’s cloud experts can help you choose the right mix of cloud platforms that will help you reach and exceed your digital transformation goals while keeping your financial constraints and regulatory requirements in mind.

Part of adopting the cloud is convincing your leadership that it’s time to modernize your IT infrastructure. The drivers could be network performance, on-premises data center costs, and more. Read our complimentary eBook to learn how to have those conversations.

In fact, nearly three-quarters of organizations have implemented or are planning to implement a hybrid IT environment, according to 451 Research. 

How the cloud and the hybrid IT model are evolving is the topic of TierPoint’s webinar, Why Hybrid IT Environments are a must in 2022 and Beyond, moderated by TierPoint’s senior director of product research Dave McKenny. 

McKenny, along with Tara Kovaleski, a TierPoint solution architect, and Bryan O’Neal, director of product management for cloud solutions at TierPoint, shared their insights into the challenges in hybrid IT and what enterprise customers are looking for in cloud services. 

Priorities for enterprise cloud customers

Flexibility is a top priority of enterprise customers, they noted. 

“Enterprises are looking for solutions that combine some type of multi-tenant, public, SaaS [software-as-a-service], as well as dedicated and private solutions,” said Kovaleski. 

She noted that customers frequently need greater flexibility with their hybrid environments to meet a growing range of IT and business needs. 

“Different applications fit better in different environments. A very static type of application might fit better in a private, dedicated environment, whereas a dynamic, fluid application works well in the cloud,” she said. 

What is hybrid IT?

Traditionally, a hybrid IT environment might include public cloud services, often from multiple cloud providers, along with non-cloud on-premises infrastructure or co-located systems, and a hosted or on-premises private cloud. Different environments serve the different needs of the applications and the organization. 

The public cloud uses a multitenant cloud platform so that cloud resources are pooled and shared across multiple customers. A multitenant structure optimizes the usage of resources improves the cost-effectiveness for customers. The public cloud is also well suited for dynamic or highly distributed applications, however, the shared infrastructure can occasionally cause performance issues. 

Alternatively, private clouds provide a single-tenant platform dedicated to one customer. Private clouds give more control to the customer, who is also responsible for the full cost and maintenance of the infrastructure. Customers with higher performance requirements or who must meet stringent data privacy and security laws often prefer a dedicated cloud infrastructure. 

However, private and public are no longer the only types of cloud. The development of new cloud models and technologies provides more options for IT organizations seeking to move applications to the cloud and achieve greater flexibility with a multicloud or hybrid infrastructure. 

Cloud innovation driving hybrid cloud environment flexibility

In the webcast, O’Neal, McKinney, and Kovaleski highlighted four developments in cloud computing that provide greater flexibility in hybrid environments. 

Edge computing maximizes performance

For example, edge computing is a new model in cloud computing for moving content and data closer to the end-users and applications that need it. Media companies, for example, move video and other content to edge cloud locations closest to different geographical markets to reduce latency and use less bandwidth. 

IT organizations are leveraging edge computing in a variety of use cases, not just for media and video content. For example, companies can use the edge model to create local networks of smart devices in offices or create ecommerce systems specific to different international markets. 

“The edge is a key part of an organization’s success in expanding globally,” noted O’Neal. 

Public and private clouds merge

Major cloud providers such as Amazon and Google now offer software and services for creating public cloud infrastructure within their own data centers. Solutions such as VMWare’s vSphere, Amazon’s AWS Outpost, and Microsoft’s Azure Stack are examples of software aimed at bringing the advantages of the multi-tenant public cloud model to on-premises data centers. Azure Stack is a portfolio of products that extend Azure services and capabilities to other environments, such as a private data center, edge locations, or remote branch offices. 

“A statistic from Gartner predicts that, by 2023, more than 10% of large enterprises will be using on-premises public cloud infrastructures within their own private data centers,” said McKinney. “That’s up from less than 1% in 2019.” 

Similarly, TierPoint has a multitenant hosted private cloud that gives customers the security and performance of dedicated infrastructure but a multitenant structure to share IT resources (and costs) across a customer’s enterprise. 

Cloud expands to hardware

A growing percentage of IT shops are purchasing new technology through subscriptions, rather than making large investments in new hardware. 

“The subscription model is appealing for hardware as you don’t have to make a large capital purchase at the start of your five-year plan,” said Kovaleski. “Instead, you can focus on a much shorter window, and expand your hardware as needed.”

There are several options. The first cloud model to address hardware was the infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) model. IaaS provides access to a provider’s cloud-based infrastructure resources like storage and computing. However, IaaS is a packaged service that limits a customer’s control over the hardware. 

Bare metal cloud services is another hardware services model that caters to customers who want a dedicated infrastructure they alone control. Bare-metal cloud services provide dedicated hardware resources via subscription. As the term implies, bare-metal hardware services come without any installed operating systems or virtualization infrastructure. Bare metal subscriptions spare customers the burden of maintaining and replacing old hardware. 

The rise of software-defined infrastructure—software-defined networking, storage, etc.—provides even more flexibility in selecting and configuring hardware. A software-defined infrastructure, whether in the cloud or at an on-premises data center, is a virtual infrastructure with compute, storage, networking, and other infrastructure elements. 

More workloads made for the cloud

Several factors are increasing the range of workloads that can run in the cloud. For starters, the pandemic created a huge demand for online work applications that could be quickly implemented and easily scaled. Online collaboration tools, video conferencing, and virtual desktops became ubiquitous. 

Rising ransomware and other cyber-attacks, as well as concern over climate disasters–such as the fires in California—have driven up demand for cloud-based storage and disaster-recovery-as-a-service (DRaaS). Also, more developers are creating cloud-native applications as well as cloud-enabling legacy applications. There are fewer IT systems that can’t operate on cloud infrastructure, whether public or private. 

“There are many more workloads today that are no-brainer candidates for the cloud, whether they’re software-as-a-service or mission-critical workloads,” said O’Neal. “This is a wake-up call to customers who’ve been entrenched in the on-premises world that there are many benefits to the cloud delivery model.” 

Learn more about hybrid IT

You can listen to the entire webinar here to learn more about what’s trending in today’s hybrid IT world and how the cloud can help you achieve your hybrid IT goals. 

Cloud technologies are everywhere. A Deloitte report predicts cloud services revenues will grow at or above 30% annually through 2025. Surveyed executives cited innovation, cost savings, and organizational agility as their top three motivations.  

Unfortunately, many cloud migration strategies fail to achieve their goals. A Unisys survey of more than 1,000 IT and business leaders revealed that 37% of American businesses have failed to realize major benefits from cloud adoption. However, of those companies who made cloud adoption a major or core part of their business strategy, 77% reported tangible business benefits.

Only 23% of companies that made cloud adoption a minor aspect of their strategy achieved benefits. Clearly, to achieve success with the cloud, it must be a central component of an organization’s competitive strategy. 

At the same time, however, 41% of business leaders were extremely or very concerned about their competitors innovating faster, with 30% saying that their organization had already been impacted by a competitor’s cloud innovations. One-third said they were afraid this competition might even put their companies out of business. 

Reasons why cloud adoptions fail

One common reason for failure is the lack of a pre-planned cloud adoption strategy. This ad hoc approach means different departments and workgroups may subscribe to their own cloud application or storage service, with or without IT’s knowledge. These impromptu deployments (especially those who proceed without building a business case) often lead to major headaches for IT and complicate efforts to achieve an integrated, cross-enterprise cloud infrastructure. 

Another common mistake is neglecting the interdependencies between the various applications and data sources, especially in multicloud and hybrid environments. A single migration project may involve multiple cloud platforms, services, and providers, all selected based on the unique needs of an application and its users. However, IT managers must migrate interdependent applications that share data or processes at the same time, while ensuring they’re integrated and able to interoperate in the new cloud environment. 

The Unisys reports hints at a third major reason for failure: 59% of respondents handled their cloud adoption internally. This often means they did it without sufficient expertise to manage the critical details of cloud selection, workload sizing, deployment, security, or management. 

An unsuccessful or underachieving migration not only wastes resources but may discourage a company from pursuing future cloud development, thus inhibiting its ability to innovate and compete. A thorough cloud migration strategy can help ensure that your cloud adoption efforts succeed and achieve the company’s goals. 

Six key components of an effective cloud migration strategy

We’ve covered the many decisions that need to be made before a cloud migration. Here are six components needed for your cloud migration strategy: 

1. Selecting the right cloud environment

Because IT environments are complex, no single cloud environment or deployment model fits every need. A cloud migration strategy requires careful selection of the cloud platforms, deployment models, and platforms. 

There are three basic cloud environments: public, private, and hosted multitenant (a  privately hosted environment with a public cloud’s multitenant architecture). 

Most companies today have multicloud or hybrid IT environments. Multicloud includes a mix of public cloud services and, possibly, private cloud or multitenant hosted cloud. A hybrid environment is usually a mix of multicloud and non-cloud applications. Hybrid environments allow each application to have a setting that will optimize performance and best meet end-user needs.  

When deciding on a cloud environment and model of deployment, an IT manager may consider factors such as regulatory requirements, licensing issues, scalability, accessibility for distributed workers, the computing needs of the workloads, or a desire to keep existing investments in hardware or software. 

With a private cloud, you own the hardware and software, whether you manage it in-house or have a hosting company manage it for you. The private cloud’s single-tenant architecture usually provides more reliable and consistent performance because the company doesn’t have to share the IT resources with others. 

A private environment is a good choice for high-performance and high-security applications or legacy systems that aren’t suited for the public cloud. However, while you have full control over the hardware, software, security, etc., you also shoulder the entire cost of the environment, which can be very expensive.  

Public clouds use a multitenant architecture that customers share, along with the cost. It’s cheaper than building your own private cloud infrastructure. One of the most common reasons to move to a public cloud is to reduce capital expenses in favor of operating expenses. Using a public cloud also gives you greater cloud scalability to sudden changes in demand for compute power, memory, or storage. 

Also read: Six Tips for Controlling Cloud Spend in a Migration 

Because public cloud services are paid by subscription, the expense is more predictable and affordable than upfront capital investments for private cloud or on-premises legacy applications. Finally, the public cloud offers accessibility to remote workers and branch offices, a huge benefit during the COVID-19 pandemic. Avoid these legacy application migration pitfalls during your cloud migration. 

Public cloud service models

When buying public cloud services, you also must decide how much infrastructure support you want from the provider. There are three basic public cloud services models to choose from: software as a service (SaaS), infrastructure as a service (IaaS), and platform as a service (PaaS). 

2. The cloud readiness assessment

First take stock of your existing IT environment and resources, as well as your company’s goals for the migration by conducting a readiness assessment. A readiness assessment will include an inventory of a company’s software, hardware, data repositories, security solutions, cloud services, and IT employee skillsets. 

The assessment will also spell out an organization’s current IT needs and future goals. Understanding your organization’s IT assets, resources, and goals will greatly reduce problems during the migration. 

A readiness assessment may also include the security requirements for cloud and non-cloud applications, projected workload needs, and a map of the dependencies between applications. The plan will also include a migration plan with options for different cloud platforms or possible hybrid deployments. 

Many managed services providers offer pre-migration evaluations. TierPoint’s Cloud Readiness Assessment, for example, provides customers with a customized cloud roadmap, an estimated TCO and ROI, and a phased migration plan based on IT dependencies. 

3. Metrics

What do you hope to achieve from a cloud migration? Will it improve response times for remote users or reduce IT operating costs? 

Metrics or key performance indicators (KPIs) help measure progress from the migration. KPIs can also help prove the need for cloud migration to upper management and gain support and resources for the project. 

Some metrics that may be used to measure migration progress include: 

• network throughput 
• network latency
• application response rates and availability 
• error rates 
• memory usage rates 
• CPU usage 
• storage costs 
• monthly downtime 

The key is to select metrics that are most important to your business, and which best illustrate the need for, and value of, cloud adoption. There are many cloud migration tools available, such as automated discovery tools for quickly identifying IT assets, application dependency mapping tools, and cloud sizing tools. Those can help you evaluate your environment and identify the right metrics to measure success. 

4. Cloud migration team

If you plan to rely on in-house staff for your migration, you’ll want a team with experience in cloud services, cloud development, cybersecurity, and cloud deployment. Key migration team roles include: 

• A migration architect: Oversee the planning of the migration and development of the cloud infrastructure. refactoring of applications, and application deployment. A cloud architect will ensure project goals are translated into a migration plan, keep track of resources, oversee the integration of applications into the cloud, and interact with cloud specialists and business stakeholders. 
• Executive leadership, such as the CIO, CTO, or COO: Support from the top-level executives is critical to attaining company buy-in and resources. 
• IT security and compliance specialists:  Ensure that cloud data and applications are protected and in compliance with government regulations. Hybrid IT and multi-cloud security can be complex, so you’ll need someone with security expertise in the platforms planned for your future IT environment. 
• Stakeholders: Department managers or others who represent the interest of end-users are important team members. They ensure that the needs of business users are met. 
• Outside experts: To fill in gaps in your own staff expertise, consider seeking out experts at your cloud services provider for help in planning, deployment, and management of the migration. 

Also read:  How to Assemble Your Cloud Strategy Team 

5. Migration strategies

When migrating an application to the cloud, there are typically three basic options: re-hosting, re-platforming, or refactoring. 

• Re-hosting: For legacy applications, the lift-and-shift or re-hosting model is most common. Re-hosting may require few or no changes to the code – it just needs to run on a cloud version of its operating system. 
• Re-platforming: This involves adapting the application to the chosen cloud platform. While it doesn’t require you to re-architect and re-write the application, it does mean changing elements of the code to make use of some common cloud services, such as load balancing. 
• Re-factoring: Also called re-architecting, this process involves rewriting and containerizing the application so it can interact with the full range of cloud services. For instance, Microsoft’s Azure cloud services include mobile development tools, content delivery services, digital rights protection, disaster recovery, and AI services for developing AI-based applications. 

6. Managed services providers (MSPs)

To reduce the strain on in-house IT departments, companies often get help from an MSP (or cloud provider) that offers data center and managed services–to help with the migration. An MSP such as TierPoint will conduct a cloud readiness assessment, provide cloud migration and platform options, develop a migration plan or roadmap, and help with the implementation. 

MSPs can also help manage customer portfolios of cloud services and platforms. Just as internal IT systems are managed as an interdependent environment, so cloud services should be managed as a single environment. 

Because MSPs typically partner with other cloud technology companies, they can offer an array of cloud services and technologies, including multiple networking options and cloud platforms. TierPoint, for instance, has partnerships with Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, Nutanix, VMware, Zerto, and many other leading technology companies. Partnerships broaden the number of cloud solutions and types of expert services available to customers.   

Cloud migration can be a complicated undertaking, so it’s important to plan carefully and seek outside expertise. A well-planned migration will ensure the maximum availability of applications and minimize the impact on employee productivity. 

Your Journey to the Cloud starts here

Migrating to the cloud is tough. It requires businesses to build a business case, choose the best platforms for migration, and then conduct the migration. Many businesses do not have the internal expertise to conduct a cloud migration from end to end. Choosing the right cloud migration partner and undergoing a Cloud Readiness Assessment is a great place to start. 

At TierPoint, we can help with your digital transformation needs, whether you’re adopting the cloud for the first time or looking to migrate more to the cloud. Reach out to us  for more information. 

Read our Journey to the Cloud eBook to understand what else you should consider before a cloud migration

What is causing this acceleration?

Social distancing and hygiene requirements forced hospitals and other providers to speed up their adoption of transformative technologies, including cloud services, electronic records, virtual offices, telemedicine, and artificial intelligence (AI). Are You Keeping Up with Healthcare Transformation Tech Trends?

Healthcare leaders ramped up their deployment of e-health or telehealth applications. This allows patients could see their doctors remotely and added or upgraded self-service portals to give patients easier access to health services and to their personal records. Team collaboration tools and software-as-a-service applications helped physicians, researchers, pharmacists, and other healthcare professionals share information and insights.

Most if not all modern healthcare technologies will depend on the cloud, from virtual urgent care applications and cloud data storage to secure file sharing.

The healthcare cloud computing market will likely surpass $66.3 billion by 2030, from $26.5 billion in 2020 according to Fatpos Global consulting firm, while McKinsey estimates that up to $250 billion of U.S. healthcare spending may be on virtual healthcare products and services.

Cloud computing is popular in most industries to help reduce IT costs and increase the efficient use of IT resources. Cloud enabled digital transformation allows companies to easily scale up their cloud resources, as needed, and then release those resources when no longer required.

Top drivers for cloud adoption in healthcare

In addition to those benefits, health systems have additional motivations for adopting cloud computing. Those are:

Demand for remote patient care delivery

When Covid-19 struck, consumer demand for digital healthcare services rose sharply. Virtual patient visits rose from 15% in 2019 to 28% in April 2020, and 80% of patients say they’ll continue using virtual visits even after the pandemic is over, according to Deloitte.

In addition to virtual doctor’s visits, consumer use of healthcare portals rose substantially and will continue to grow. According to IDC, two in three patients will access healthcare through a portal or other “digital front door” by 2023.

The overall spending on telehealth technologies. IDC has projected that digitally-enabled remote care and clinical trials will drive 70% growth in spending on connected health technologies by 2023. It is up to the healthcare providers to continue to offer quality care, despite the shift from in-person visits.

Securing medical records and vital patient data

A report by Accenture noted that security in the public cloud requires end users and applications to be explicitly granted permission for access. The default is to refuse access. Public cloud providers today are also secured by multiple, advanced technologies including encryption, identity, and access control, intrusion prevention and detection, real-time security intelligence feeds, and threat management. A good cloud security services provider will have experience in both the healthcare industry and cloud security, and certification in government regulations and industry best practices.

Blockchain is gaining adoption in healthcare. Blockchain is a digital ledger that records, encrypts, and time-stamps records into an inter-locked chain that makes it impossible to modify any one record without unraveling the chain.

The global healthcare blockchain market is forecast to top US $3 billion by the end of 2026—an annual growth rate of over 62%. Blockchain has the potential in verifying smart contracts, securing electronic health records, and ensuring the integrity of products in the supply chain, including drugs and medical supplies. Blockchain might help hospitals avoid counterfeit products, such as occurred with some shipments of N95 masks.

Growth in big data and analytics

Hospitals manage tons of data, from supply inventories and insurance data to patient medical charts, research, doctor’s notes, and diagnostic images. Hospitals produce 50 petabytes of data per year, according to the World Economic Forum.

This volume of data includes operational and patient data. The amount of healthcare-related data is constantly increasing. This mass of healthcare data is both a blessing and a curse for healthcare organizations.

On the positive side, data generated data from diagnostic equipment, patient monitors, medical images, electronic health records (EHR), and Internet-of-things (IoT) devices help hospitals to improve patient diagnosis and treatment outcomes. For example, leading makers of wrist-worn devices have developed algorithms to detect early signs of infectious diseases, including COVID-19 and the flu. The global Internet of Things (IoT) healthcare market is projected to reach $188.2 billion in 2025.

Analytics and AI-based diagnostic tools enable doctors and scientists to uncover valuable insights from data. For instance, researchers developed an AI algorithm that can mine EHR data for optimal treatment strategies for patients. At the University of Washington, researchers use machine learning  to check a patient’s pulse and heart rate via real-time video feed over a mobile phone. IDC projects that, by 2026, 65% of medical imaging workflows will use AI to detect underlying diseases.

The less positive side to data growth is the cost and time involved in managing huge volumes of data. Cloud-based storage is a cost-effective solution for storing and backing up petabytes of data, and many cloud providers offer data management services. Likewise, cloud-based content management and electronic health records (EHR) applications enable hospitals to store volumes of patient data without the expense of new hardware.

The flow of data between platforms and APIs

The cloud provides a cost-effective platform for sharing data between healthcare providers. Hospitals, clinics, pharmacies, and insurers can share data and files over a common cloud platform using healthcare interoperability standards and APIs – a capability that isn’t possible with legacy EHR systems. Cloud-based electronic records applications and healthcare exchanges also enable data sharing between disparate cloud healthcare applications.

In addition, many leading cloud platforms–including Microsoft’s Azure for Health and the Google Cloud—have APIs based on healthcare open standards for data exchange. These include the Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine (DICOM) for diagnostic images and the Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR) for describing data formats and an API for exchanging electronic health records.

Cloud is key to successful digital strategies in healthcare

Facilitating data flow and cost-effective storage and security, the cloud has become the standard platform for modernizing healthcare IT systems.

Are you looking to use cloud services to better deliver health outcomes for your patients? Cloud services providers offer a range of services for data interoperability, data security, cloud migration, and cloud connectivity options to help healthcare companies be more innovative and competitive. Learn more about our healthcare IT solutions for businesses.

Originally published in September 2019, this post was updated on June 15, 2021, to reflect changes in stats and to add more context around trends impacting the healthcare industry.

The pandemic spurred a number of new IT trends and sped up the adoption of others. Many of these trends will be with us in the post-pandemic future. TierPoint identified three major cloud trends that took hold in 2020 and will continue to grow over the next two to three years.

Cloud trend #1: Increased cloud usage in healthcare

For several years now, the healthcare industry has gradually adopted digital technologies such as electronic healthcare records, online prescriptions, and telehealth appointments. But the COVID-19 pandemic increased the demand for these healthcare technologies.

Patients were wary of in-person appointments. Physicians treating COVID-19 victims needed to share information with colleagues at other healthcare providers. According to a June 2020 survey by McKinsey, healthcare providers at that time were conducting 50 to 175 times their usual number of telehealth appointments. For many patients and doctors, it was their first foray into video conferencing; by mid-2020, three in four patients used telehealth technologies, compared to 11% in 2019.

Cloud computing is now helping physicians and specialists to securely share patient data and collaborate on treatment plans. The adoption of cloud services (public and private cloud) is also helping hospitals and insurers reduce administrative and IT costs. This digital revolution in healthcare will continue, and McKinsey predicts that as much as $250 billion of current U.S. healthcare spending could be virtualized.

Also read: 6 Ways 2020 Accelerated Cloud Computing in Healthcare

Cloud trend #2: Serverless computing

One of the newer trends in cloud computing is serverless computing, sometimes called Function as a Service (FaaS). Serverless computing is a cloud-native model of application deployment aimed at making app development and deployment faster and cheaper.

According to Forrester’s Predictions 2021: Cloud Computing, the adoption of serverless computing is part of a general spike in the usage of cloud-native technologies, such as containers. A Forrester predicts that an estimated 25% of developers will be using serverless on a regular basis by the end of 2021.

Unlike Infrastructure as a Service, serverless computing is an event-driven execution model for delivering backend computing services to applications as needed, when triggered by user input or some other event. Applications can use pre-written services for functions like processing file uploads, connecting to data sources, running a batch process, or tracking changes to a database.

Developers can quickly create applications by writing just the front-end logic for a cloud application and making use of the provider’s prewritten backend services. The serverless provider dynamically manages server allocation and provisioning for the customer.

Serverless computing is already in wide usage, with at least a dozen vendors providing serverless services. Some of the big names in serverless computing include:

• Amazon’s AWS Lambda 
• Microsoft’s Azure Functions
• Google Cloud Functions
• IBM Cloud Functions (based on Apache Open Whisk) 

Key advantages of serverless computing include greater flexibility and scalability in application development and can reduce application deployment time to a fraction of the weeks or months required for traditional deployments. In addition, customers pay only for the computing services used, not by the server or number of users. That saves them from paying for the cost of unused CPU power or idle servers. And, of course, they avoid the investment and maintenance costs of running their own data center.

Cloud trend #3: Cloud Disaster Recovery

2020 was a wake-up call to IT managers to consider disaster recovery (DR) and business continuity planning. First, there was the pandemic. IT faced the challenge of connecting and provisioning remote employees with access to enterprise systems – a major problem for organizations with traditional, non-cloud IT systems.

Then came the sudden spike in cybercrime, especially ransomware attacks, which targeted home-based employees with inadequate security as well as city and state governments, healthcare organizations, and many small businesses.

Natural disasters also wreaked havoc in 2020. Wildfires, typhoons, earthquakes, derecho winds, tornados, and floods devastated many areas of the world. Before the end of August 2020, the U.S. had 22 billion-dollar natural disasters, a new annual record.

All these events motivated IT organizations to invest in better disaster recovery to ensure they could survive a cyberattack or other disaster. An increasingly popular option is cloud Disaster Recovery as a Service (DRaaS), a cloud-based Disaster Recovery solution that is hosted and managed by third-party providers. DRaaS providers typically offer multiple DR options, including advanced DR services such as automated failover and recovery, continuous data replication to the cloud, and access to specialists in cloud DR, cloud security, and cloud development.

DRaaS can include access to both management services and technical expertise. Few companies these days can afford to have DR experts on staff. DRaaS enables IT organizations to have a more effective, and affordable, DR solution.

In addition to cost savings, DRaaS can be accessed from any location, making it a great answer for companies with remote IT staff and businesses in high-risk locations (due to natural disasters).

As the cloud becomes the de-facto platform of choice for businesses, new cloud services and computing models will continue to emerge to support business problems. Cloud solutions save companies on infrastructure costs, while managed services providers are stepping forward to fill the skills gaps in small and mid-sized IT organizations.

Get ahead of the cloud trends with a trusted partner

Cloud trends are a great way to start a conversation about cloud adoption. Is your organization:

• Deploying a multicloud environment or working towards a hybrid cloud strategy?
• Determining the best cloud platform for a certain workload or application?
• Looking for a resilient solution to protect vital business applications and customer data?

A managed cloud services provider can help you find the best strategy and solutions for your business. At TierPoint, we offer comprehensive cloud, disaster recovery, and cybersecurity solutions to help organizations effectively manage their cloud infrastructure.

Download the complimentary Forrester report on Cloud Predictions for 2021 to learn more about some of the big cloud trends coming in the next few years.

There is growing evidence that 2020 may have broken the log jam of resistance that kept some organizations from whole-hearted cloud adoption. Deloitte predicts that revenue growth in the cloud market will continue to grow at a CAGR of greater than 30% for 2021 through 2025 as companies move more workloads to the cloud to save money, increase organizational agility, and drive innovation.

The outcome of your move to the cloud can have a significant impact on the organization and business strategy. A smooth, properly configured migration can put the organization in the position to achieve its business objectives and give them a competitive advantage over the competition. A poorly planned or executed migration can negatively affect the cost savings associated with the cloud, drive down revenues, and expose the company to security and litigation risks. IT leaders are understandably focused on assembling the best migration team they can.

Planning a cloud migration in 2021? Download our new eBook: Journey to the Cloud: Maximize the Benefits and Minimize the Risks

As skilled as your cloud migration team may be, they may not have the right skill sets or the bandwidth to manage your cloud environment. Furthermore, the team you assemble to manage your cloud environments will have just as much impact on your ability to achieve your objectives and minimize your risks as your migration team.

Skill sets required to execute a successful cloud strategy

If you host your own cloud, a greater percentage of the on-going management responsibilities fall on your shoulders. Some providers offer remote monitoring services, but generally speaking, those with on-prem data centers tend to be self-managed.

Also read: Our Strategic Guide to Cloud Computing

When you migrate workloads to a hosted cloud, whether private or public, there needs to be a clear division of labor between your internal staff and the cloud provider. Drawing up the responsibilities requires understanding your skills and limitations and choosing a provider that can fill in the gaps. Here are a few of the skill sets required for an effective cloud approach:

Cloud platform experts

Hybrid clouds are the norm. In late 2019, Carl Lehman, principal analyst at 451 Research, predicted 39% of enterprises will be running the bulk of their workloads in public clouds by 2020, while 35% will be running workloads in a combination of hosted and on-premises private clouds. The skill sets required to configure and manage each of these cloud technologies are often very different, so just having “cloud experts” on the team isn’t enough. You need experts for each platform you choose.

Cloud security and compliance experts

It’s tempting to assign cloud security and compliance responsibilities to your cloud platform experts, but that may not be the best idea. Yes, cloud platform experts need to be involved in the discussion, but IT security and regulatory compliance require FTEs (Full Time Experts) focused on the many different elements of each challenge.

Given the difficulties many IT leaders have in finding, developing, and retaining these individuals – and the risks involved in the cloud – cloud security and compliance is one of the most common areas outsourced to organizations like TierPoint.

Cloud performance and reliability experts

With so many employees working from home, many organizations are starting to recognize the role cloud performance plays in user satisfaction and productivity. Your cloud performance experts may not need to be an FTE, but someone must be accountable for cloud performance, including not just uptime, but also cloud responsiveness.

There are cloud performance management tools that can assist with cloud performance and reliability, but if you don’t have an expert that can interpret the results, they’re of little use. Once again, outsourcing to a provider with the right expertise can help.

Disaster recovery and business continuity experts

Disaster recovery is the IT component of a comprehensive business continuity plan. You’ll need an expert who can design – and manage – a disaster recovery strategy to meet the organization’s recovery objectives.

Disaster recovery is one of those areas where bandwidth is as much of an issue as skill set. Once they design a cloud strategy that they believe will meet their recovery objectives, they find they lack the bandwidth to test and maintain it. Disaster Recovery as a Service, or DRaaS, is an increasingly common offering used by organizations concerned with uptime and business continuity.

Facilities experts

If your cloud data center is owned and operated by your organization, you’ll also need staff well-versed in data center facilities management. Skill sets include physical security, power management, cooling systems, and connectivity. If you lack the skill sets or bandwidth to manage your own data center facilities (but decide you still need to own the hardware), colocation is a good option, where you can house your hardware in a facility owned and managed by a third party data center provider.

Hardware experts

Even though your data is in the cloud, it still resides on hardware somewhere. You can offload a significant amount of this responsibility by working with a hosted cloud provider. But, if you decide to host your cloud applications yourself, the responsibility for maintaining this equipment rests on your shoulders.

One final note on skill sets. We’re not using the term “expert” lightly in the list above. Given the importance of your cloud strategy to your overall business goals, you can’t afford to have anything less than expert go-to resources covering each of these areas.

Does your team have the resources to execute a cloud strategy?

Even though a strong majority of businesses say they lack some of the skills needed to execute their cloud strategy, bandwidth can be just as much of an issue as talent. These days, a lot of businesses operate 24/7, but even if yours doesn’t, your systems may be available around the clock. Someone needs to be monitoring them the entire time.

As already noted, there are cloud management applications that can help monitor your systems, but even with advancements in self-healing technologies, they can only do so much. With downtime as expensive as it is, waking someone up from a deep slumber to drive in and fix a network problem just isn’t an option. And addressing security breaches after the fact isn’t nearly as cost-effective as setting up a 24/7 security perimeter that leverages both human and artificial intelligence.

There’s also the nuts and bolts of executing your cloud strategy to consider. Automation is increasing, but many cloud management processes still include manual steps. We noted this above when we talked about executing your disaster recovery strategy, but this also applies to more mundane IT tasks like managing the help desk for your cloud users and ensuring patches are reviewed and installed promptly.

Your next step in your journey to the cloud

We developed a guide to help businesses start identifying what they need in order to successfully move to the cloud. Whether you’re building your own cloud, moving your cloud to a third-party colocation data center, or going with a fully-managed cloud provider, our guide will help you identify what you need to consider.

We can help you get there

TierPoint provides secure, reliable, connected private and public solutions as well as a deep portfolio of managed services. Reach out to us for more information on how we can help smooth your journey to the cloud and help you maximize the benefits of your cloud environments while minimizing the risks.

In this post, I’ll summarize some of the findings from the study, including how and why many cloud strategies are missing the mark and what some business leaders are doing about it.

How and why cloud strategies fall short

It should be noted that 90% of respondents to the Forrester study claimed their cloud strategies are successful. Over half said that the cloud helped them be more flexible as a business (55%) and deploy applications faster (53%).

The areas where respondents felt their strategies fell short had less to do with the results achieved in the cloud as to with their ability to focus resources and manage costs. Cost optimization of their cloud was the top challenge, but many businesses had also fallen behind on their plan to migrate additional workloads to the cloud.

The top 5 challenges experienced by these enterprises were:

1. Budget restraints
2. Inability to migrate to the cloud for business reasons
3. Lack of internal skills to influence change
4. Inability to migrate workloads for technical reasons
5. Lack of top management commitment

To address these issues, the overwhelming majority are turning to cloud service providers. In the Forrester study, 88% had already partnered with a cloud service provider, and another 11% planned to do so. If you do the math, that leaves a mere 1% of enterprises intent on doing everything in-house.

Also read: Six Tips for Controlling Cloud Spend in a Migration

What can a cloud service provider do for you?

The objectives that led respondents to partner with a cloud service provider varied widely, but the two most common were the ability to implement changes faster (53%) and the ability to optimize costs (51%). Perhaps more interesting are the benefits these organizations actually achieved:

• 56% increased IT skills/talent.
• 50% are able to migrate workloads to the cloud more quickly.
• 47% achieve a faster time-to-value for their cloud investments.
• 41% are now able to be proactive about cost optimization.

So, are these enterprises happy with their cloud partners? Well, 88% of respondents said they were either likely or very likely to invest in or increase their investment in cloud service partners over the next year.

That’s good news, but is it good enough?

The Forrester report paints a positive picture of how cloud service providers can help enterprises achieve their cloud objectives. And, remember, 90% of enterprise said their cloud strategies were a success, so evidently, cloud service providers are providing significant value.

But the real question that needs to be asked is: Does your cloud service provider help you achieve your cloud goals? More specifically:

• Are you able to optimize costs?
• Are you able to migrate workloads to the cloud according to plan?
• Are you readily achieving value for your investments?
• Do you have all your bases covered, e.g., disaster recovery, security, compliance, etc.?
• Are you able to deploy applications quickly and monitor their performance?

Clearly, not everyone is achieving all of their objectives through their current cloud service provider. For example, a better cost structure is one of the primary reasons enterprises move workloads to the cloud. Yet, respondents mentioned cloud cost optimization as their top challenge, and only 41% said they were able to be proactive when it came to cloud cost management.

Also read: The Four Pillars of Provider Multicloud Management

Now is not the time to settle

As I’m sure you’ve noticed, there are a lot of cloud service providers in the market, from small, local service firms to hyperscale providers. With 40 data centers across the U.S., TierPoint fits somewhere in the middle. We have the capacity to help our clients scale quickly, but we also offer the personalized services our clients need to create a cloud strategy that helps them reach their unique goals.

If your current provider hasn’t delivered on their promises or their business model no longer fits your goals, now is not the time to be complacent. For many enterprises, the cloud is the cornerstone of their business strategy, helping them serve customers better, drive down costs, and create a sustainable competitive advantage. You can’t afford to let the competition pass you by. Contact us today.

Nevertheless, moving to the cloud is not without its own set of difficulties. Recently, Bryan O’Neal, TierPoint director of product management, and Alvaro Gonzalez, TierPoint AVP partner strategy and enablement, teamed up with Kong Yang, Nutanix senior solutions marketing manager, to discuss strategies for finding business success in the cloud.

The top 6 cloud success strategies

Throughout the webinar, these experts shared numerous strategy ideas. Our team culled the list down to the top six and added a few of our own thoughts.

#1 Don’t predefine the answer

Many of the clients we work with start out with a destination as their goal. For example, they come to us with the idea that they want to “migrate workloads to AWS.” That’s like wanting to go to a vacation destination because it’s the most popular one on the internet, regardless of whether it offers the kinds of activities you like to do. (Or your kids like to do, which may be more important if you’re going as a family!)

Instead, our experts suggest starting with your business context (budgets, skill sets, etc.) and the outcomes you want to achieve. This will help your team choose the right solution, regardless of what’s most popular at the moment.

#2 Do focus on business transformation, not digital transformation

Many organizations define the goal of their IT initiatives as “digital transformation” as though that were an end in itself. Instead, set specific business reasons/targets for your digital transformation initiatives.

For example, your reason for migrating workloads to the cloud might be to close down your on-prem data center by 2022. Or you might have a shorter-term goal such as eliminating hardware maintenance costs or reducing monthly unplanned downtime by a certain percentage.

Defining a business reason for a digital transformation initiative not only helps you realize a return on your investment, but it also it provides your team with resume worthy accomplishments, creates metrics and results that show their value to the organization.

#3 Do set specific targets to avoid scope creep

An additional benefit of setting specific targets for your digital transformation initiatives is that it helps you avoid scope creep. For example, if you define your objective as “modernizing your IT infrastructure,” every member of your transformation team is likely to have a different definition of what that means. That may be fine for your initial project scoping meetings, but eventually, you’ll need to define and document specific goals or risk an ever-expanding project with no clear milestones or timeline.

#4 Don’t skimp on the TCO analysis

When migrating to the cloud, it’s not uncommon to do a TCO (total cost of ownership) analysis for the many solution options. While you’re focused on analyzing the cost of your proposed cloud solution, this is a good time to refresh the TCO analysis for your on-prem infrastructure so you can get a complete picture.

For example, sometimes business leaders focus on the cost of software and hardware but forget to factor in the related costs that the cloud can help eliminate, such as the cost of power, power distribution and cooling needed to run that infrastructure in an on-prem data center.  Additionally, they often overlook the benefits of the highly redundant design that underpins enterprise data centers to ensure uptime.

Also read: 6 Tips for Controlling Cloud Spend in a Migration

#5 Don’t underestimate your internal skills gap

In 2019, a 451 Research study found that 86% of respondents said they could identify some kind of skills gap associated with implementing cloud. Most often (46%), the noted gap involved cloud platform expertise, but specific skill set such as cybersecurity, cloud-native tools, and IT integration were frequently mentioned as well.

Just as you want to ensure you do a thorough TCO analysis, you’ll also want to do a detailed review of your team’s talent and skills. For example, your organization may lack business continuity and disaster recovery expertise. You could leverage a service provider’s talent and expertise to ensure that your organization will have business continuity in the face of any disaster or disruption.

One of the reasons so many businesses choose a hosted cloud from TierPoint is that it can help them more easily address skills issues. We can keep an eye on their cloud environments as a whole, ensuring performance and reliability, while filling any expertise gaps with additional services such as managing their next-gen firewalls.

#6 Do analyze results holistically

One mistake we often see with large organizations is that they look at their IT infrastructure in silos. For example, we worked with one organization that was spending millions of dollars every month on AWS. The total was comprised of many, many small monthly line items of a few thousand dollars. Only when these costs were rolled up did the magnitude of their AWS spend become apparent, but so long as the individual budget managers didn’t exceed their monthly budgets, no one raised a red flag.

More success strategies

To learn more, be sure to watch Delivering Successful Business Outcomes with Cloud. TierPoint delivers secure, reliable, connected IT infrastructure solutions through a nationwide network of 40 world-class data centers and a broad menu of managed services. Wherever you are in your digital transformation journey; wherever you want to go, we can help. Contact us today to learn how.

Yet despite the pervasiveness of multicloud computing, many IT and business executives have major misconceptions about what multicloud means and how they can create a multicloud strategy. One of the biggest misconceptions is that multicloud and hybrid computing are interchangeable terms. In fact, there are significant differences.

A hybrid computing environment has one or more cloud services and non-cloud applications. It’s the most diverse computing environment and may include everything from legacy on-premise apps and on-premise private clouds to hosted private clouds, collocation, and public cloud services from multiple cloud providers.

Multicloud is a subset of hybrid computing that excludes non-cloud environments. Multicloud strategies include private and public cloud environments, multiple cloud providers, and technologies such as edge computing, IoT, hyperconverged, and multitenant computing.

Also read: Hybrid Cloud vs. Multicloud – What’s the Difference?

A multicloud strategy might involve combining public cloud platform services such as Amazon Web Services (AWS) or Microsoft Azure, native cloud applications developed by the customer, and cloud-based software-as-a-service (SaaS) applications such as Salesforce or Microsoft Office 365.

Two other “urban legends” that frequently confuse IT managers and hinder their ability to develop successful multicloud strategies are that multicloud security and management are difficult to achieve. Both are false. Here’s why:

Myth #1: Multicloud strategies create major security gaps

Fact: Multicloud environments require a different approach to security but can be just as secure as any other environment. One major security mistake IT departments make with multicloud is in how they configure their cloud environments. Vulnerabilities in configuration and code development may leave loopholes for hackers to enter. According to McAfee’s Cloud Adoption & Risk Report enterprises have an average of 14 misconfigured cloud infrastructure and platform instances running at any one time.

An IT security team can close those loopholes by properly learning the environment as well as the different security approaches of each cloud platform or provider and being alert to new security updates. Investing in end-user training also improves security. The McAfee report found that end-user sharing of sensitive data through an open, publicly accessible link has increased by 23% over the past two years.

Also read: Intelligent Data Security for a Multicloud World

For organizations that need assistance with cloud security, managed security services providers (MSSPs) and security as a service applications can help. Forrester’s report Empower Your IT Teams with Security as a Service Offerings found that nearly half of the IT executives consider application and data security to be a major challenge, leading many to adopt managed security services and security as a service. MSSPs can also guide an IT department in developing its multicloud strategy to ensure security is “baked in” from the start.

Another solution is a cloud access security broker (CASB). CASBs are specifically designed to be security gateways between multiple cloud services and to identify and protect data regardless of where it is stored. They provide a single place to administer an organization’s security policies across multiple cloud services and to monitor how users handle sensitive data.

Myth #2: Multiple cloud platforms cannot be effectively integrated

Fact: While multicloud environments consist of various disconnected cloud platforms, it doesn’t mean they can’t be properly managed and integrated. In fact, just as there are ways to secure a multicloud environment, there are multiple options for managing a multicloud environment.

One solution is to use a cloud management platform. These are designed to provide better visibility, control, automation, and process orchestration across disparate cloud services and providers. IT can use the cloud manager’s central console and policy engine to configure, integrate, monitor, and otherwise administer multicloud and hybrid environments. IBM, Nutanix, and VMware all offer cloud management platforms, as do many other vendors. In addition, cloud services providers often have tools to help customers manage multicloud environments.

Cloud providers can also provide centralized management and connectivity through their partnerships and connections with multiple cloud platforms. Providers with enough connections and geographic coverage—such as TierPoint’s 40-plus regional data centers–can serve as central management hubs for multicloud environments.

For example, TierPoint provides access to several cloud platforms and providers–including Microsoft Azure, Microsoft Office, and Amazon—as well as its partnership with Connect Point, a marketplace hub for connecting with network providers, cloud services providers, and managed services. TierPoint also offers cross-cloud management tools and services such as backup, security, and disaster recovery to make multicloud security and management easier.

Unfortunately, many IT and business executives are either unaware of these options or unsure of how to take advantage of them. The IBM survey discovered that only 41% of the executives who plan to have a multicloud environment by 2021 have a multicloud strategy. Further, only 38% have the tools and procedures needed to manage a multicloud environment.

What does your multicloud strategy look like?

A multicloud strategy is critical to avoiding pitfalls in cloud security and management. A successful strategy will start by listing your company’s key business goals and IT requirements, and then explain how different cloud services and environments will support those goals. Once you know your goals and how the cloud environment will support them, you’re in a much better position to tackle security and management issues.

TierPoint can help businesses develop a multicloud management strategy the ensures sound security and unified management across disparate cloud environments. Start your journey to multicloud with a complimentary cloud strategy workshop today.

Cloud strategies and platforms are growing increasingly complex

A 2019 survey found that 84% of enterprises have a multicloud strategy, and 69% use at least one public and one private cloud. However, multicloud computing is a complex undertaking.

Migrating multiple applications, and their data to disparate cloud environments requires in-depth expertise and familiarity with the range of cloud providers and options. It involves wrestling with complex questions: Are my shrinking budget and IT staff ready for complex cloud migration? Do we have the time to conduct a proper migration ourselves? What type of cloud environment is best—public or private, software-as-a-service, platform-as-a-service or infrastructure services? What are the performance and storage requirements for the different applications? There are also considerations for data privacy and cybersecurity, connection costs, scalability, application compatibility, and customization requirements.

In addition, cloud technologies and their potential use cases are evolving rapidly. An innovative idea can become a mainstream business model within a year or two. That makes cloud migration strategy, execution and maintenance much more challenging. Cloud environments are constantly changing. IT staff may be asked to incorporate a transformative new technology into an already-planned migration or be ready to extend a completed migration for a new use case.

Without an in-house experienced staff (and the time to dedicate your staff to a cloud migration), an organization risks an unsuccessful migration. A 2017 study by Dimensional Research found that almost half of all cloud migrations take longer, and cost more than expected. More than six in ten companies surveyed said their cloud migration projects were harder than expected, and nearly three in four were taking more than a year to complete, with 43% taking longer than two years.

Some turn to the professionals for cloud migration strategy

The culprit is most often a lack of knowledge and experience, which is why more organizations are seeking help from consulting services providers that offer cloud migration services. Companies are increasingly taking advantage of professional cloud services: The cloud migration services market is projected to reach $9.6 billion in 2023— a healthy 22% annual growth rate.

Consulting services providers are equipped with tools such as standardized processes and templates for dealing with common issues and are familiar with many different cloud providers and platforms. All that accumulated knowledge can ensure a faster, more successful migration.

Providers offer services like:

Cloud readiness assessments

Assessing your organization’s current and future needs is vital to understanding what applications and data can be migrated to the cloud. The cloud readiness assessment looks at your existing IT infrastructure, security and compliance requirements, new and existing workloads, your team’s ability to manage a cloud, and IT budgets and costs. This step is key to a successful cloud migration.

Hosting strategy and the cloud migration

As complex IT environments are shifted to the cloud, integration and interoperability become critical, as well as more complex. Cloud platforms and services can be evaluated on multiple factors, from location and cost to network connections, platforms, and disaster recovery capabilities. This evaluation will require in-depth knowledge of integration and cloud technologies as well as experience with the specific applications and cloud platforms. A consulting services provider will help you select the right cloud platform for your business’s workloads, based on their knowledge and your cloud assessment results. They will also implement the migration project based on your migration plan.

Also read: How to Migrate to the Cloud without the Headaches

Long-term support & additional managed services

A consulting services provider can also provide ongoing support beyond a cloud migration. Providers will support the environment with monitoring and management of performance. Providers can also offer additional services beyond the actual cloud migration to address your environment’s needs, like cybersecurity monitoring, disaster recovery and business continuity planning and testing, managed application management, and help desk services.

How does your cloud migration strategy look?

Consulting services providers have people on staff with diverse experience, and they have the resources to keep in front of new innovations. TierPoint IT Consulting Services supports all types of cloud migrations, including from on-premise to the cloud, from one cloud to another, and to multiple clouds, public or private.

From assessment to design and from implementation to long-term support and management, TierPoint can help make a cloud migration faster, easier, and less costly. Contact us today to learn more.