多雲端相較於混合雲端 – 有什麼差別？

Hybrid cloud and multicloud are often used interchangeably, however, there are several significant key differences. A hybrid cloud network is when a private cloud network connects with a public cloud network in such a way they begin to act as one network. Whereas, multicloud architectures are when two or more public cloud networks connect together and operate as a single unit. If a hybrid cloud network (connecting public and private cloud networks) becomes attached to a second public cloud network, then the network has both hybrid and multicloud characteristics.

Hybrid clouds work to utilize diverse configurations in private networks to secure proprietary data and software while relying on abundant cloud resources to run the day-to-day business.

Multicloud configuration can be used for redundancy measures, or for edge to cloud infrastructure services, by duplicating data at several locations, users can access it with greater speed and reliability. Even if one cloud in a multicloud setup goes down, the others can take on the workload until repairs are completed.

Hybrid clouds are network infrastructure configurations that combine at least one linkage between public and private cloud networks. These configurations are managed using software-defined networking technologies that meld these disparate networks under a single application of control. Users of the hybrid cloud interact with it as if it were one seamlessly unified network.

Hybrid clouds are different from multicloud configurations by always including at least one private network, whereas multicloud combine multiple public cloud services, which themselves may be part of a hybrid cloud.

Hybrid clouds enable organizations to reduce the costly inefficiencies of maintaining their own infrastructure. Additionally, hybrid clouds help companies address scaling concerns, and offer security features.

Multicloud and hybrid cloud architecture have several of the same key benefits.

• Innovation and Expertise — Reaching into the cloud for new capabilities is an effective way for businesses to tap into innovation and expertise that would be too costly in both dollars and time to do on their own. Beneficially, new services are introduced to the cloud constantly, allowing organizations to focus on their core value generation.
• Vendor Flexibility — Competitive contracts and the plethora of vendors available in the markets help buffer companies from vendor lock-in. Multicloud configurations let companies choose which vendors they want to work with and allow them to configure their infrastructure to suit their needs without the fear that those configurations won’t hinder business growth.
• Security — Often the first concern is how good is the vendor’s security? It should be asked, and the vendor should be able to demonstrate that, for their part, the cloud service they provide is secure. However, the end-user/organization is not absolved from responsibility, as both the vendor and end-user work under a shared responsibility model, where each must ensure their end is secure. This typically means instituting Identity and Access Management (IAM) and its best practices.
• Cost Savings — Along with granting access to flexible public cloud resources, multicloud has tremendous cost flexibility because businesses can easily choose from a menu of cloud services. This allows them to ramp them up when needed, or pare them down when not, allowing them to tighten expenditures around actual productive use and demand. Also, cloud resources can be physically closer to end users which will reduce the latency that is critical in many industries.

Determining between implementing a multicloud or hybrid cloud strategy requires considering many factors, but ultimately answering a single question, will the organization be utilizing an on-premise private network as a significant piece of their IT infrastructure? If yes, then implement a hybrid cloud, if not then implement a multicloud. After deciding, follow Gartner’s six steps for IT leaders to build and implement cloud strategies.

• Develop a cloud-first and multicloud strategy — Technical considerations are important, but organizations must focus on business impacts and the advantages that either hybrid cloud or multicloud offer.
• Continuously practice workload placement analysis — Agility and flexibility of services are some key cloud advantages. Organizations must continuously understand how their systems are handling workloads, and how new services in the cloud can evolve their processes.
• Plan for cloud adoption maturity — Continuous skills development and process improvements help bring products to maturity.
• Establish multicloud governance and management processes — Complicating technical challenges is organization’s obligations to government regulations and compliance. Technology is helping them address these burdens, by automating many protocols and management processes that improve accountability by making systems more visible.
• Develop a multicloud management tooling strategy — Choose cloud resources based on fit-for-purpose and costs.
• Evaluate multicloud SaaS integration requirements — In addition to choosing the best cloud infrastructure for their business model and goals, organizations should also continuously evaluate their software as a service (SaaS) options.

There are many cloud services to choose from, such as Salesforce, Quicken, or Workday. Enterprise-level cloud providers include AWS, Azure, IBM, or Google. With a plethora of household names, sometimes their offerings can be overwhelming. When choosing which one to go with, for small and medium businesses, cloud offerings can fall into three fundamental cloud categories.

• Software as a Service (SaaS) — The most popular style of cloud service, SaaS solutions offer cloud-based applications for companies that are accessible via a web or mobile app. Slack, Salesforce, and Workday are all examples of this type of service. The main benefit is that the app is always current, there are no updates required. Secondly, integrations are popular, and often at the click of a button if integrating with other well-known products, which allows companies to leverage their data in many applications. Overall, employing SaaS typically grants companies huge cost savings, reduces IT overhead, and normally offloads much of the IT administrative tasks to the cloud service.
• Platform as a Service (PaaS) — PaaS solutions are for development engineers who use virtual cloud environments to develop and test their own custom apps. This is an exceptional benefit for developers who no longer need to maintain their programming environments, including the infrastructure supporting them such as network, compute, and storage devices. PaaS solutions are typically used by larger organizations that rely on developing their own custom applications. However, low-code and no-code PaaS solutions are putting simple to complex development in the hands of non-programmers who can critically think about business processes, and now develop apps around those processes.
• Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) — IaaS solutions are virtual machines that give users access to all the resources of that environment, such as compute and storage, so they can install and run their preferred OS and applications. These are virtual machines that run on top of the hypervisor. Contrastingly, a bare metal cloud gives users access to the machines underneath. These machines are dedicated, and the user does not share them with other tenants.