The Difference Between Multi-Cloud and Hybrid Cloud
In this article, we’ll review the concept of hybrid and multi-cloud so that you can make better decisions about your clients’ cloud needs.
We’ll with differentiating between the two options.
Hybrid Cloud
A hybrid cloud is where a private cloud is mixed with with a public cloud — in theory, to get the best of both worlds. Critical applications are typically run on the private cloud, while the public cloud is optimized for the organization’s distributed workloads.
A hybrid cloud will generally be made up of many different parts from different providers. It can combine multiple applications, storage, and even networking services.
Customers often choose a hybrid cloud architecture because:
- Lower latency when running applications.
- Protection from cyberattacks on the public cloud (although the customer takes on responsibility of securing their own private cloud, so this isn’t always a positive).
- It can be easier to meet regulatory requirements and stay in compliance when using a third-party cloud provider.
- Economy of scale and cost savings by reducing capital expenses.
Multi-Cloud
Multi-Cloud (or multicloud) refers to using several cloud providers to accomplish your IT goals. An example might be when a company uses both AWS and Microsoft Azure.
Making Sense of Multi Cloud as a Consumer
The term hybrid cloud is often used by vendors who are selling their cloud services. They know that organizations often need to use resources from a variety of different cloud-based vendors and developers.
Multi-cloud is commonplace for several reasons:
- Vendors like Technolify can help MSP clients meet their current and future needs with ease. Even MSPs who aren’t well versed in cloud or how it applies specifically to industries are able to leverage the expertise of Technolify to deploy the best multicloud option.
- Strong providers have created purpose-built cloud solutions and work hard to make sure they stay current and competitive.
- A third-party provider can help MSPs with a low-touch approach for onboarding clients and offloading risk from project work. Lower costs and fewer risks mean a higher profit margin overall with cloud clients.
What Is a Multicloud Provider?
A multi-cloud provider is largely focused on providing a single cloud platform to meet your MSP’s needs. They should also be committed to providing support with clients and help with integrating them across multiple cloud platforms. Those who offer their own solutions rather than using big-box cloud providers like AWS will usually offer considerable savings on services.
Multi-cloud providers also support hybrid cloud capabilities, and can play a role in managing an entire IT stack.
Benefits of a Multi Cloud Provider
There are many benefits to choosing an MSP focused multi-cloud provider over a high-cost public cloud or an on-premises solution. Because providers like Technolify can support a range of cloud platforms, they eliminate the need for customers to run their own in-house data centers and manage IT services locally. MSP resellers help these clients focus on their business while taking on very little additional workload.
Multi-cloud providers can give your clients the flexibility to manage their entire IT stack and deploy their applications in whichever clouds or environments they choose. They do this while providing a level of convenience and comfort that most MSPs struggle to provide on their own. A multi-cloud provider should be able to give you the features you need for competitive resale.
That convenience is key when you’re trying to grow your MSP. Having a cloud provider automatically serves up new compute resources and maintenance configured to meet your needs for failover and uptime. Most multi-cloud providers can support unlimited, dynamic resources. This provides dynamic resource management to meet customer usage.
Overall, the advantages of third-party cloud providers far outweigh any shortcomings. Because of the trend in enterprise IT to move toward a more flexible, multi-cloud architecture, MSPs need a reliable way to address the cloud needs of their clients and prospects.
