Top Benefits and Best Practices for a Multi-Cloud Environment

Recent estimates suggest that as many as 95% of organizations are moving fast to adopt multi-cloud as a strategic priority in 2022, but security remains a top concern and a strategic hindrance. 62% of organizations are already making use of multi-cloud, and 84% that aren’t on multi-cloud expect to make use of it within two years. But 76% of respondents also said that security in multi-cloud is underinvested. IT leaders are well-aware of the situation with more than half (51%) of IT leaders surveyed saying that they resisted moving to multiple cloud platforms due to added security complexities, even though 92% of them are acutely aware that at some point business growth will demand it. That may be the reason why as much as 83% of companies are committing additional and significant budgets to multi-cloud security in 2022. In this article we will talk about the top benefits of multi-cloud environments and best practices to ensure security. For the most optimum multi cloud strategy and multi cloud solutions  for your business, please contact Cloud Services Vancouver.Multi-cloud environments can go a long way in securing a company’s critical business applications and data thanks to redundant backup and recovery capabilities that more or less make business continuity a given irrespective of the scale or the nature of the emergency. This means that just adding multi-cloud to your disaster recovery strategy can enable organizations to unlock a high degree of reliability and security and much needed peace of mind when it comes to business continuity and resuming operations without service interruptions.Organizations stand to gain a lot from the stiff competition among multi cloud providers. Companies stand to benefit not just from optimal and highly competitive pricing but also enhanced value addition to the services provided by multi-cloud platforms. Companies can literally pick and choose from a vast range of high quality multi-cloud offerings and get the most optimal rates based on their own unique IT needs. Given that companies are no longer limited by any single cloud provider’s terms, they can afford to make a best value judgment based on a host of parameters such as payment flexibility, adjustable contracts, customizable capacity and more.As always, security remains the concern of the cloud service provider such as IT Outsourcing Vancouver. Given the current climate of threats and cyberattacks at every turn, this can actually turn out to be a huge burden off the shoulder of companies. Cloud providers guarantee the security of their own infrastructures, as well as the privacy, integrity and security of all client data.  However, it is up to the client (company) to understand how all the entities in their cloud environment are compatible with their cloud applications. Also, it is always a good idea to regularly assess the security of the company network to accommodate for all infrastructure and software changes over time.As is true for any IT environment, security should also be a top concern in multi-cloud environments. In fact, it is a good idea for companies to incorporate security at the very heart of a multi-cloud strategy. Primary attention should be given to all connective areas between the clouds. The system must be capable of securely authenticating users, conducting proper change management and logging, enabling multi-factor authentication, and managing all login requests through role-based access controls. A smart way of managing this could be through using an identity provider platform with built-in multi-factor authentication that is also capable of supporting integration with the multi-cloud and on-premises environments. This enables companies to centralize the implementation of identity and access management to a large extent. You could also think of adding in conditional access policies to further strengthen your company’s security posture.The best way to improve efficiency and save on valuable time, resources and costs down the line is to incorporate automation wherever possible. Managing the most tedious aspects of cloud management such as patching, vulnerability scanning and networking will help your internal IT teams save a lot of headache and effort. Automation can unleash a new lease of life into such routine and cumbersome processes by speeding them up and reducing the scope of errors to a dizzying extent. The best part is that it frees up valuable productivity hours for your IT teams to focus on tasks that actually impact your growth and bottom line. The challenge, however, will be to get your teams used to automation approach infrastructure, or IaC. Most cloud providers offer their own scripting tools for code or IaC, but it may be worth your while to consider using third-party options like Terraform and use source control with IaC. For organizations working in greenfield environments, it may be worthwhile to invest in server less or container technologies that can be a life-saver when attempting to move workloads between clouds as all applications are self-contained and mobile.Comprehensive multi-cloud management is a result of selecting the right tool for integrating your environments into a centralized dashboard. This makes overall management much simpler and streamlined, with real-time monitoring and orchestration. If you are working with vendors like Microsoft and IBM, they provide quite a few third-party multi-cloud management tools. Deploying the right interface can also help companies maintain control over performance and costs as complexities grow in multi-cloud deployments.Managed IT Services Vancouver says the easiest way to avoid stress over regulatory requirements is to know them thoroughly in the first place. Always take the steps to fully understand all relevant compliance frameworks that apply to the kind of data you store, the industry and geography you operate in and more and ensure that you meet them all in your multi-cloud environments.