Defining Multicloud Networking vs. Multiple Clouds
As companies race to experience the benefits of cloud solutions, the benefits of multicloud networking, such as scalability, speed, and agility, can be surprisingly elusive. Instead, companies may struggle with challenges such as limited visibility, spiraling complexity, and unexpected costs.
After hearing about all the advantages of multicloud networking, some companies wonder how they can improve their multicloud experience.
The Misunderstanding: It’s a common misconception that when a company subscribes to multiple clouds, they are now considered to be operating a multicloud environment. And the misconception often is courtesy of the vendor, offering what they call multicloud networking that fails to connect the company to the cloud provider completely.
The result is a failure to apply a consistent and repeatable multicloud networking strategy, which prevents companies from experiencing all of the benefits of a highly-integrated, coordinated multicloud strategy. It offers lackluster results in network security, visibility, automation, and troubleshooting.
The situation can be visualized by thinking of a two-family home purchased by a single owner who would like to use the entire property as a single-family dwelling. The building is purchased, but no walls are knocked down – and to use different parts of the building, family members must keep going out the front door on one side and into the front door on the other. The space and features are there, but they aren’t working as one cohesive, efficient unit.
Best Practices for Defining Multicloud Networking: A company can determine whether they are operating with a multicloud networking approach by these principles:
- It is an on-demand service instead of an in-house network built out of the on-site data center.
- It offers comprehensive network connectivity across workloads, applications, cloud, and cloud services, as well as on-premise data centers and edge networks.
- It offers end-to-end governance and visibility.
- There is no restriction to a particular cloud provider, enabling secure connectivity for edge locations and multiple clouds.
- It provides a fully-integrated network and security approach with easy provisioning for third-party services.
Companies interested in operating an efficient multicloud networking solution that offers benefits like scalability and cost savings will introduce a single front-end solution with one dashboard allowing for the management of workloads and services. This allows for the repeatability of introducing new cloud services with one console for management and efficiency.
A consistency-driven approach to multicloud networking allows all of the anticipated benefits of multicloud to come to fruition without the complexity and limited visibility that often plagues companies beginning to access cloud solutions.
To learn more about the options for multicloud networking management solutions, contact us at One Connect. We can help you optimize your cloud management approach to gain all the advantages of a multicloud environment.