Navigating Multicloud Complexity With Cloud Implementation Services

Managing a single cloud environment has its challenges, but add in a second or third cloud provider, and you’ve leveled up the complexity of your cloud environment exponentially. This is where a cloud implementation services partner who understands multicloud—and all the complexities that come with it—can become a game changer. Such a partner can work with your organization to understand your business and technical requirements so you can find the right solution to meet your needs and gain a competitive advantage.

Cloud implementation refers to adopting and integrating cloud technologies and services into your IT infrastructure and business operations. This process typically includes migrating data, applications, and other elements of your IT environment to cloud platforms to increase and enhance efficiency, scalability, and flexibility.

Below are five key focus areas of cloud implementation services you can leverage for better business outcomes

1. Strategy and Architecture
   Make informed decisions on where to deploy workloads and which cloud products or services to leverage.
   
   The impacts of these decisions are far-reaching and have implications for the overall efficiency, security and scalability of an organization's cloud environment. An experienced cloud partner will help you pick the right cloud for your workloads based on your technical requirements and can tailor a solution to meet your short- and long-term business and operations goals. This includes assessing each cloud provider to determine the best fit to create a secure, reliable and robust architecture. An overall strategy will also include automation, management and continued optimization to enable and enhance competitiveness, agility, and innovation.
   
   
2.  Security
   Ensure your cloud environments are secured using cloud posture management tooling and security frameworks like CIS, PCI, HIPAA and NIST. 
   
   Each cloud vendor has their own tooling that provides security insights into the workloads running in their cloud. A cloud implementation services partner who knows how to manage multicloud environments will help you navigate these tools. They can also help you understand the pros and cons of separate tooling versus third-party solutions that can monitor and report across multiple clouds. Most importantly, a partner can help you leverage best practices to configure security settings, remediate problems, rapidly respond to security incidents, and safeguard your digital assets.
   
   
3. Cost Management
   Know how much a workload is going to cost to run in various clouds.   
   
   A  cloud implementation services partner who understands multicloud environments will look at the big picture. More than just the cost of running a virtual machine (VM) or deploying a service, these cloud experts look at the full architecture and how workloads integrate with existing services to determine how to achieve the best cost-effective outcome. Most workloads have many interconnected dependencies that make up a stack, so just selecting the least expensive, per-hour service cost in one cloud for a virtual machine may not be the right answer. This is especially true if that VM has dependencies on other VM's or services in another cloud. In addition, cloud implementation services can help you understand the different pricing structures for each cloud provider, how discounts are applied, and where you can optimize spend.
   
   
4. Migration and Deployment
   Migrate and deploy workloads with peace of mind.
   
   Once the strategy, architecture, security and costs have been defined and documented, you’re ready to start migrating workloads or deploying new resources. A cloud implementation services partner has the expertise to guide you through the migration and deployment of these workloads, and can perform the actual migration and deployments or work with your team to build expertise. Such a partner can simplify the complexities of trying to coordinate migrations efforts that need resources in multiple clouds by ensuring seamless coordination between engineers and developers across each cloud.
   
   
5. Automation and Management
   Navigate the complexities of automation.
   
   Each cloud provider has their own preferred tooling and methods for automation and management.  Standing alone in their cloud, they are best-of breed tools capable of doing amazing things in their space. But what happens when you have a multicloud environment? The tools for one environment may not work in your other clouds environment. Cloud implementation service providers can help you navigate the complexities of automation and management of your workloads across multiple clouds. They can help you to understand when the tools native to one cloud provider are the best fit, or when you need to look at other cloud products to get the job done.

As organizations increasingly embrace the advantages of multicloud environments, partnering with a cloud implementation services expert becomes not just a necessity but a strategic advantage. Their ability to navigate complexity, align solutions with specific organizational needs, and optimize the entire multicloud journey positions them as pivotal catalysts for success in the ever-evolving landscape of cloud computing. If you are considering a multicloud strategy or have already started down the path of multicloud, a cloud implementation service partner can help you carry the load.