Multicloud Strategy: 10 Best Examples + Pros & Cons

Cloud technology has revolutionised the way organisations utilise their digital resources and systems. The ability to access vast computing power, data storage, and resources on-demand enables organisations to become more agile, scalable, and competitive in today's dynamic market.

However, implementing these strategies brings inherent complexity and challenges that organisations must navigate carefully. With organisations rapidly embracing cloud solutions and expanding their investment in cloud application development, a critical question occurs: should your organisation develop a multicloud strategy? This comprehensive blog post explores multicloud approaches in depth, examining the key benefits and potential drawbacks of a multicloud strategy, while providing actionable insights on how to effectively implement these solutions within your organisation.

What is a multicloud strategy?

While cloud computing involves using on-demand computing or storage services through the internet, multicloud expands on this foundational concept. Instead of obtaining these services from a single provider, a multicloud strategy leverages two or more cloud platforms simultaneously. Yet this apparent simplicity conceals significant operational and strategic complexity beneath the surface.

The adoption of multicloud approaches has become mainstream among enterprises. According to Flexera's 2024 State of the Cloud report, 61% of large enterprises use multicloud security, and 57% use multicloud FinOps cost optimisation tools. This widespread adoption reflects two primary strategic drivers: capitalising on specialised provider capabilities and building operational resilience through redundancy.

Understanding multicloud vs. hybrid cloud

Multicloud describes an organisation using multiple public cloud computing services simultaneously from different providers like AWS, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud Platform. This differs from hybrid cloud strategies, which combine private infrastructure with public cloud services from typically one provider. A key advantage of multicloud approaches is enabling organisations to adopt cloud agnostic solutions - applications and services designed to run seamlessly across different cloud platforms without vendor lock-in.

Read next: Cloud Agnostic Development: Essentials, Pros & Cons and Best Practices 

Real-world multicloud implementation

Consider a global financial services firm managing real-time trading data and customer transactions worldwide. Given the mission-critical nature of these operations, where the average cost of a single hour of downtime now exceeds $300,000 for over 90% of mid-size and large enterprises, implementing a robust multicloud strategy becomes essential.

The multicloud architecture provides instant failover capabilities - if AWS experiences an outage, critical trading functions automatically shift to backup systems on Azure, ensuring continuous operations. Additionally, the firm optimises costs by storing frequently accessed trading data in AWS's high-performance storage, while archiving historical records in Google Cloud's more cost-effective long-term storage solutions.

Key distinctions:

• Multicloud strategy: Multiple public cloud providers for optimisation and redundancy
• Hybrid cloud: Public cloud + private infrastructure for control and compliance
• Combined approach: Many enterprises use both strategies simultaneously, creating hybrid multicloud architectures

Organisations can - and often do - combine both approaches, utiliсing multiple public cloud providers while maintaining private infrastructure for sensitive workloads or regulatory requirements. This hybrid multicloud strategy offers maximum flexibility but requires sophisticated management tools and expertise to execute effectively.

Key distinctions:

Multicloud strategy:

• Uses multiple public cloud providers simultaneously
• Focuses on avoiding vendor lock-in and optimising each provider's strengths
• Primary benefits: redundancy, specialised capabilities, cost optimisation

Hybrid cloud strategy:

• Combines public cloud with private infrastructure
• Emphasises control, security, and regulatory compliance
• Primary benefits: data sovereignty, customised security, workload flexibility

What are the key elements of hybrid multicloud strategy?

Application compatibility assessment

Not all applications are suitable for hybrid multicloud environments, particularly legacy systems developed before these architectures became mainstream. More than 70% of enterprises identify managing a multicloud environment as one of their top challenges, with compatibility issues being a primary concern.

Legacy applications, too, may experience inconsistent performance, with some components functioning normally while others struggle behind load balancers or face integration challenges. Before migration, conduct thorough compatibility assessments with your application vendors to identify:

Read next: Migrating Legacy Applications to the Cloud: 7 Success Strategies

What are the key elements of hybrid multicloud strategy?

Network infrastructure readiness

Hybrid multicloud strategies significantly increase network demands as data flows between multiple providers and infrastructure types. With unplanned downtime now averaging $14,056 per minute, rising to $23,750 for large enterprises, network performance becomes mission-critical.

Key infrastructure considerations include:

• Latency optimisation: Implement content delivery networks and edge computing to minimise delays
• Bandwidth capacity: Ensure sufficient capacity for cross-cloud data transfers
• Network security: Deploy consistent security protocols across all connection points
• Redundancy planning: Build multiple pathways to prevent single points of failure

Conduct comprehensive testing to identify bottlenecks and upgrade requirements before full deployment.

Strategic storage optimisation

Storage architecture represents both a major opportunity and potential pitfall in hybrid multicloud implementations. Organisations often fail to optimise storage across providers, leading to unnecessary costs and performance issues.

Develop a tiered storage strategy that leverages each provider's strengths:

• Hot storage: Frequently accessed data on high-performance, low-latency platforms
• Warm storage: Moderately accessed data on cost-balanced solutions
• Cold storage: Archive data on the most economical long-term storage options
• Edge storage: Localised data for improved user experience and compliance

Consider data sovereignty requirements and implement automated lifecycle policies to optimise costs continuously.

Component-level application placement

Rather than treating applications as monolithic units, successful hybrid multicloud strategies optimise individual component placement. This microservices approach enables organisations to match each component's specific requirements with the most suitable cloud service.

Strategic placement considerations:

• Performance requirements: Place latency-sensitive components on the fastest available infrastructure
• Cost optimisation: Deploy less critical components on more economical platforms
• Compliance needs: Ensure data-sensitive components meet regulatory requirements
• Integration dependencies: Minimise cross-cloud communication for tightly coupled services

Work closely with application teams and vendors to map component requirements and dependencies before deployment.

Why organisations choose a multicloud strategy?

Considering all the elements organisations need to consider when executing a multicloud strategy well, what benefits offset those costs?

The business advantages of a multicloud strategy

Multicloud storage

Cloud storage is an amazing tool. It enables organisations to pay for only the storage they need, especially if those needs are highly volatile. Investing in the physical servers necessary to have such storage internally, on the other hand, can be prohibitively expensive. Multicloud storage builds on the advantages offered by cloud storage to offer further optimisations.

For example, you might have some application components use the fastest storage options to optimise for performance. Meanwhile, other components might be fine using slower, less expensive storage. Having more variety in your storage options by working with multiple providers means you can fine tune your architecture to best fit your business needs and minimise cost.

Multicloud management

There are two main components to multicloud management. The first is the process of ensuring your various applications are capable of moving between cloud services without causing issues. The second is the actual management of those services, including data tracking and monitoring.

In an ideal world, your IT professionals will be able to set up a single interface capable of managing your entire multicloud setup. So the challenges of multicloud management are extensive because the process is complex and can be technically tricky. In other cases, you may use custom cloud application development and management services to streamline setup and management.

But the benefits for businesses are great. Here, all of your applications can move seamlessly between cloud services and you’re able to monitor and control everything from a single interface. This enables IT to easily optimise your entire system for both performance and cost.

Multicloud security

As we’ll discuss below, multicloud environments create greater risks due to their complexity. Each additional step and provider introduces more opportunities for security failures. However, there are ways to mitigate these risks and still create a highly secure environment.

Getting there requires looking closely at the various native security features offered by your cloud providers. By leveraging them while also integrating third-party security features, you can create layers of protection against outages and malicious actors alike.

Advantages of multicloud strategy

Aside from the three elements listed above, you can really boil down the advantages of a multicloud strategy to three things. The first is flexibility, as you simply have more options to craft an ideal cloud solution for your needs. The second is performance. That flexibility enables you to fine-tune how you use cloud services to find the ideal balance of performance and cost.

Finally, there’s the lowered risk of outages. Used well, a multicloud strategy can ensure that even if a catastrophic outage occurs in one service, you can continue work without interruption. For a business’ most important cloud-based services, that added security is a game changer.

Disadvantages of multicloud strategy

It should be clear by now that even the advantages of a multicloud strategy are deeply intertwined with its disadvantages. But to really understand and alleviate the potential drawbacks, you have to take a closer look at those disadvantages.

The complexity

While it’s true that the complexity of multicloud strategies is what enables their flexibility, it also has real drawbacks. For example, while a fairly low-level IT professional can likely manage a basic cloud setup without much trouble, that’s not the case here.

Managing a complex multicloud setup will likely require a team of highly-skilled IT professionals. So while you can better optimise cost with a multicloud setup, you also need to consider the additional labor costs connected to managing it as well.

Read Next: AI Cloud Setup vs On-Premise vs Hybrid: Pros and Cons

It’s also worth pointing out that even for experienced IT teams, these systems are tricky to manage well. So while you may be able to find some impactful optimisations, keeping them requires ongoing attention and work. Without this, costs can rise, issues can proliferate, and performance can drop.

Lastly, this complication also applies to managing access. Relying on users to navigate different access rules across the cloud services can easily cause major issues. This is why it can be a good idea to opt for a identity and access management solution specifically tailored to multicloud strategies.

Other multicloud-related challenges

We've discusses how the majority of companies already utilises multiple cloud providers. However, multicloud architectures can lead to a variety of challenges. The infographic below illustrates how for 57% of companies, multicloud strategy causes siloed apps on different clouds as well as failover between clouds (49%). Other notable challenges include data integration problems, experienced by almost half of the companies (45%) and workload mobility problems between cloud platforms.

Partner with Dreamix for your multicloud journey

Navigating the complexities of multicloud implementation requires more than just technical expertise - it demands a deep understanding of business strategy, cloud architecture, and emerging technologies. As an experienced software development company with extensive cloud expertise, Dreamix serves as a trusted partner that businesses can rely on to make the right strategic decisions for their unique needs.

Our team combines years of hands-on experience across AWS, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud Platform, and other leading providers with a proven track record of successful multicloud implementations. We understand that every organisation's cloud journey is different, which is why we take a consultative approach to help you evaluate whether a multicloud strategy aligns with your business objectives, technical requirements, and long-term growth plans.

Deciding between a single-cloud or multicloud strategy

With so many advantages and disadvantages to consider, how should you approach making this decision?

As with any similar choice, the first step should be to get a deep understanding of your current and future needs. Look at historical data and future projects to understand all the ways you use cloud services and what the associated costs are. Talk to your IT department to get their input and try to understand how your usage needs might change in the future.

Armed with this information, you can begin looking at multicloud options. The challenge here is that you’re not simply comparing one option to others but searching for the right combination of options. So you may want to consider creating a short list of options and then comparing all the various combinations individually.

At this stage it comes down to a cost-benefit analysis. Consider the benefits you reasonably think you can access in terms of storage, security, cost-reduction, computing power, etc. Then look at the associated costs, including labor, setup costs, and any additional management tools you might require.

Lastly, look at those projections and consider how well single-cloud and multicloud strategies might be able to adapt to your future needs. Based on these factors, you should be able to determine the optimal solution for your unique business needs.

Multicloud strategies and digital transformation

One of the most powerful trends in business today is the speed at which change is occurring. To keep up with these changes, more and more businesses are investing in digital transformation services. 

Read Next: Digital Transformation Consulting: The What, Why, and How

Instead of viewing change as something that occurs once and is finished, digital transformation sees change as ongoing and integral to how the organisation functions. By leveraging technology, teams are able to harness data and adapt to change like never before.

Multicloud strategies are a great example of this. These strategies enable digital transformation by enabling more effective use of data and improving the organisation’s flexibility. So if you’re looking at integrating digital transformation into your organisation’s long-term vision, it’s worth thinking about how multicloud strategies can fit into that vision.

The future isn't just cloud - it's multicloud

At the end of the day, the complex nature of multicloud strategies can be intimidating. However, it’s worth considering just how much flexibility and adaptability are crucial for success in today’s business environment. Going for a simpler single-cloud strategy may not give you the competitive advantage you need. 

Looking to the future, however, multicloud strategies are likely to become more popular. As the tools and processes needed to manage these strategies become more accessible and capable, more organisations will turn to multicloud strategies.

With that future in mind, it’s worth thinking about the advantage of being ahead of the curve. By developing the internal skills and processes needed to effectively manage a multicloud strategy today, you’re building a competitive advantage for the future. So as you think about your ideal cloud strategy, be sure to think not just about today, but about the years to come.

Whether you're exploring your first multicloud implementation or optimising an existing strategy, Dreamix provides the expertise, tools, and ongoing support needed to maximise your cloud investment while minimising risks. Let us help you build the competitive advantage that comes from making informed, strategic cloud decisions today that will benefit your organisation for years to come.