Today’s business requires you to be available 24x7x365, no matter where you are. Examples include live chat support, order processing, and server hosting. It can cause operational difficulties or disruptions even if one of these systems goes down for only a few hours.
Since cloud-based SaaS, IaaS, and PaaS solutions are more collaborative, accessible, and less likely to fail, businesses have migrated to the cloud to meet these growing demands. It has only been accelerated further by the Covid-19 pandemic and the resulting shift to remote working. Up to 81 percent of companies are using two or more cloud providers, according to a recent Gartner survey.
It is time to frame a multi-cloud strategy for your business since SaaS, IaaS, and PaaS solutions are becoming ubiquitous across every aspect of business, right from project management to sales management. Your business acquires the right services, gets the most from them, and does not reduce employee productivity or invest in unnecessary solutions.
Developing a multicloud monitoring strategy
Multi-clouding refers to the use of several cloud-based service providers to complete core and supplementary business processes. This differs from the hybrid cloud model, where companies use on-premises, private clouds, and public clouds to manage and perform computing tasks.
With a multi-cloud strategy, your business can take advantage of SaaS, IaaS, and PaaS solutions tailored to its specific requirements. Let’s take a look at the steps involved in building a multi-cloud strategy for your business.
ExtNoc’s Managed Cloud Services and cybersecurity solutions provide organizations with holistic views of their infrastructure, whether it’s a single AWS deployment, a multi-cloud environment, or a hybrid cloud plan. These devices would allow security teams to monitor their connected assets and manage known vulnerabilities.
1. Review your technology stack and your business needs:
As with every good plan, you should begin by assessing your current situation. Identify processes and tasks for each function. Evaluate the effectiveness of the current technology stack for your business areas where cloud-based services have already been deployed. Score them based on factors such as ROI, speed, ease of use, interoperability and integration, automation features, service level agreements, security and compliance features, and lock-in period.
Determine which tasks and processes could be simplified or enhanced using cloud solutions but are not currently being used. Compile the information collected to find gaps in your existing strategy, determine what needs to be changed, and determine your network, security, and compliance needs and requirements.
2. Your cloud strategy should have clear objectives:
It is not necessary to acquire all the best cloud services available to build an effective multi-cloud strategy. It is possible for a SaaS application to work for another organization but not necessarily for yours. Every industry, business, and target audience is different. Just look at how data management practices, compliance requirements, attack vectors, and workflows differ from company to company. Therefore, your multi-cloud strategy should be tailored to meet the needs, demands, priorities, and vision of your organization.
The objective of your multi-cloud strategy could be anything, from specifics like GDPR compliance and code-free deployment to broader ones like improving data protection, reducing overall costs, and enhancing automation as a whole. Finally, clear objectives help decision-makers understand the overall picture and what needs to be prioritized.
3. Guidelines for selecting multi-cloud network vendors:
Consistency is imperative when selecting vendors. Your company may face a variety of IT needs. Develop an evaluation method for all of them. Consider categorizing features according to their importance, inessentiality, and optionality.
The categorization can help answer questions such as: whether to go with standalone applications or bundles and suites, which integrations are vital, how many licenses are needed, and if any add-on services should be acquired.
You should select multi-cloud network solutions that offer high levels of interoperability, integration support, automation options, as well as security that meet your business requirements. Additionally, it reduces cloud sprawl, compatibility issues, unforeseen errors, budget overruns, and data management and compliance issues.
4. Plan your budget:
According to a recent study, worldwide cloud spending is expected to reach US$ 1.3 trillion by 2025. It is vital for businesses to carefully budget for post-pandemic spending since this spending is only going to increase. Getting carried away can easily lead to overspending.
Therefore, a budgeting policy should specify everything from the number of seats or licenses that can be acquired, subscription fee limits, identifying idle instances, billing preferences, and expense monitoring mechanisms.
5. You should prepare your organization’s network:
Your staff must be prepared for the multi-cloud strategy implementation before it can be implemented. Educate your employees on the nuances of cloud solutions and how they differ from on-premise applications. Make sure they are familiar with security, data management, and disaster recovery practices.
For multiple reasons, this is an important step. Due to compliance regulations such as GDPR, HIPAA, and CCPA, it’s more important than ever to take customer data processing and data management seriously.
Additionally, cyberattacks are on the rise. There was a 125 percent increase in cyberattacks from 2020-21. Data loss and cyberattacks could cause unexpected business disruptions if you don’t have defense mechanisms in place.
Your team should have everything they need to securely access and utilize the solutions, regardless of whether they are working remotely or in the office. It includes everything from secure workstations, encrypted network connections, to network monitoring and patch management. Additionally, you will need to set up a dedicated cloud team to monitor and manage the cloud-based solutions.
A final thought on multi-cloud network monitoring
There is no longer an option for not having a multi-cloud strategy. Even if you do not consider the productivity gains and operational efficiencies it could bring to your business, it is still essential from a data management, compliance, and cyber threat perspective.
