Multi-Cloud vs. Hybrid Cloud: Choosing the Right Architecture

The domain of cloud computing is increasing by leaps and bounds. According to Gartner, end user spending on public cloud services will reach $600 billion in 2023, with expenditures growing at about 20% a year.

What exactly is cloud computing? Basically, it is a technology that enables businesses to leverage any computing service (e.g., servers, software, intelligence) through the internet from anywhere.

From SaaS (Software as a Service) to PaaS (Platform as a Service) and IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service), cloud computing technology is not only sprawling in terms of its usage percentage but also in terms of its business applications. However, to unleash the full efficiency of it for your enterprise, you must first know about the pros and cons of the various cloud deployment models.

For example, many organizations use the terms hybrid cloud and multi-cloud interchangeably, but there are key differences that you need to know to craft the cloud strategy most suitable for your organization’s growth.

This article covers the differences between multi-cloud and hybrid cloud. If that’s something you are interested in learning, read ahead.

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What Is a Hybrid Cloud?

To understand what is a hybrid cloud, you must first understand these two terms:

Private Cloud: A cloud used by one particular organization is called a “private cloud”. This virtual infrastructure serves just one organization and does not require sharing its computing resources around the web. Private clouds might be built and hosted by the organization itself, or they could be hosted and managed by an external vendor. Either way, the private cloud hosts data for just one organization.

Public Cloud: A public cloud is shared among various organizations so that multiple companies share the cloud storage space to host their data. It utilizes an authentication process to enforce data security and only authenticated users can access their own applications and data files. Without logging in with the correct username and password, a user cannot access another company’s data and applications.

So, how do private and public clouds relate to hybrid cloud technology?

Hybrid Cloud architecture uses one or more public clouds and one or more private clouds to create a cloud infrastructure. This complex architecture allows enterprises to better customize their IT infrastructures and to tailor their cloud deployments to fit their unique business needs.
 

What Is a Multi-Cloud?

Multi-cloud computing blends multiple public clouds to use them for various purposes. For example, you may reserve one cloud for your business files, another as your database, and one more to store applications for fast, real-time data retrieval. These clouds might be managed by multiple cloud service providers.

Unlike hybrid clouds, multi-cloud solutions work in isolation and do not interact with other types of clouds.
 

Hybrid-Cloud Vs. Multi-Cloud Architecture: What Are the Differences?

Can A Hybrid Cloud Also Be a Multi-cloud or Vice-Versa?

Yes, the terms hybrid cloud and multi-cloud are not mutually exclusive — cloud implementations could be both at the same time. When a hybrid cloud blends multiple public clouds, it is considered a multi-cloud implementation.

Similarly, in a more complex multi-cloud architecture, your multi-cloud might also include on-premises physical data centers or supplemental private clouds. In this case, your multi-cloud is also a hybrid cloud.

What Are The Factors To Consider While Choosing A Cloud Strategy?

For businesses planning to use cloud platform(s), the benefits of cloud computing are numerous. However, to unlock multi- or hybrid cloud benefits, you must develop an overall cloud strategy. Here are the factors to consider:

• Cloud-first vs. Multi-Cloud: A cloud-first approach requires moving all enterprise data and applications to a cloud at once, which is expensive and time-consuming. On the other hand, a multi-cloud setup can include cloud storage supplemented with physical data centers. This deployment can be done gradually, based on your timeline and budget, while choosing what will be on the cloud and what will not.

• Migration Effort, Cost, and Duration: Migration is a time-consuming task that requires a lot of effort. For enterprises that plan to digitize their operations and data and migrate to the cloud simultaneously, effort and cost will be even higher. So, before finalizing a cloud strategy, you must make sure that its migration time and cost are something you can afford.

• Workload Audit: Right now, you might not be aware of your enterprise’s workload and bandwidth requirements. Before moving to the cloud, monitor these metrics over time to establish a baseline. It will help you pick the right subscription plan and cloud deployment strategy in the end.

• Training Needs: Depending upon your team’s technical excellence and the complexity of your setup, you may need to learn how to use a multi-cloud platform and train employees to maintain the new implementation. In that case, your service provider must provide training to your administrators and other users.

• Security: The hybrid or multi-cloud security arrangements of one service provider may differ from those of another. Before selecting a service provider, whether they provide a hybrid or multi-cloud architecture, revisit your expectations and review the services they offer to choose a suitable service company and plan for your enterprise.

How Do Data Centers Work for Businesses?

Cloud computing technology requires remote servers in various locations to function. It hosts data and applications for various users in these server locations, i.e., data centers. This way, businesses can eliminate the limitations related to physical space for keeping the storage devices.

Real-World Examples 

Hybrid and Multi-clouds can be customized and applied to various business scenarios, such as:

• To fulfill high-performance needs: 

Video-based applications, such as cloud gaming and streaming services, must perform flawlessly in real-time. Similarly, financial applications related to transactions, such as secure OTP (one-time passwords) or payment gateway redirection mechanisms, have to operate seamlessly and reliably. Because failures and delays are unacceptable in payment processing software, using a separate high-performance cloud for these applications is critical.

• To meet high-security needs

When your organization needs to store highly confidential internal data on the cloud, you might prefer a dedicated private cloud for this data and one or more public clouds for other usages with more relaxed security needs. In the banking and finance sector, this type of hybrid cloud setup is common.

• For hosting the database

For a large database that receives varying traffic, it is wise to use hybrid or multi-cloud architectures to store the database separately from other applications. This ensures that the bandwidth use is spread across multiple clouds, preventing anyone cloud from becoming overwhelmed. Organizations may keep the DB in the same cloud with other data and applications for low-traffic sites that don’t require constant communication with their database.

• For load-balancing

For operations that need extra servers at times of peak usage, you can deploy more than one public and or private server as needed to balance costs. For example, for low-bandwidth or infrequent operations, you may opt for low-cost or small plans.

• To enjoy best of all facilities

You may like the hybrid cloud storage capacity of one managed cloud service provider and the performance of another. With hybrid and multi-cloud deployments, you can choose different operators and cloud types and get the best facilities for your business with full cost efficiency.

Hybrid Cloud vs. Multi-Cloud — What’s Right For Your Business?

Both multi- and hybrid cloud deployments are reliable, flexible, and offer advantages to businesses. There are so many variations of data center cloud architectures, and no one size fits all. As workloads are moving to the cloud, however, businesses are realizing that there is a clear need in the market for a flexible cloud that can be rapidly adapted to specific needs.

No single cloud architecture offers consistently great application performance for all users. For some application owners, it’s about where the data resides. For others, it’s about governance and regulations.

And for applications with strict response time requirements — such as mobile banking, smart automotion, and robotic manufacturing — it’s the latency and throughput which cannot be effectively supported by a large public cloud if it is located many miles away.

Ridge’s Flexible Data Center Architecture

Ridge, the world’s most flexible cloud, addresses the challenge with a distributed architecture that empowers developers to customize a cloud strategy that best fits their business needs.

Ridge has a massive network of data centers running in local cloud environments distributed all over the world. Through its network it is able to offer a full cloud experience across all dedicated and shared environments, basically on any infrastructure in any location. Users can thus be cloud-native anywhere on the planet, with the ease of use of the public cloud and the performance of localized infrastructure.

Ridge transforms heterogeneous infrastructure into a homogeneous cloud computing platform, which can support the delivery of cloud-native services in proximity to end-users. It is designed to be interoperable with any private, hybrid cloud, or multi-cloud architecture.

Because it sits on existing infrastructure, it doesn’t require any additional capital expenditure. Resources are shared so multiple users can run at same time, just like with the public cloud.

Users get all the capabilities of the public cloud and interact with Ridge through modern APIs, Terraform providers and easy to use UX. Using Ridge’s managed web services — managed Kubernetes, containers, and object storage — developers enjoy the ease of use of the public cloud together with superior performance, high throughput, and full data control of localized infrastructure.

There’s no need to provision machines or be concerned with Day Two operations. In short, the experience is the same as if they are working with a hyperscaler.

Want to learn more about Ridge’s unique cloud solution?  Book a demo.

FAQs About Multi-Cloud Vs. Hybrid Cloud

What are the pros of a hybrid cloud strategy?

Because of the hybrid cloud’s flexibility, companies with varying workloads or changing bandwidth needs for their different operations benefit from hybrid solutions. By doing so, organizations can save costs while achieving the desired performance.

What is a multi-cloud?

Multi-cloud essentially means multiple public clouds. This cloud computing implementation uses multiple clouds from the same or multiple service providers for various purposes.

The purpose of using different clouds for different operations and purposes is to meet both the performance and budget goals of an organization. For example, a business may use a high-security cloud for its internal data and client data, while a comparatively low-cost and low-security plan for hosting its less business-critical website code.

What is the difference between multi-cloud and hybrid cloud?

In the case of multi-cloud, clouds of one type are grouped and assigned with different scopes. These clouds are then used by one organization, but they do not interact heavily in terms of operations. On the other hand, hybrid clouds utilize private cloud(s) alongside the public clouds to work interconnectedly.

What is a hybrid multi-cloud platform?

A platform that has one or more private or physical clouds alongside multiple public clouds is a hybrid multi-cloud platform. It uses both private and public clouds, making it hybrid and includes various public clouds, making it multi-cloud.