When seeking flexible and scalable cloud models, companies often con­tem­plate whether to adopt a multi cloud or hybrid cloud approach. While both models involve the uti­liza­tion of multiple clouds, they differ in terms of their de­ploy­ment. A multi cloud combines various clouds of the same type, whereas a hybrid cloud in­te­grates multiple cloud types within a single in­fra­struc­ture.

Ex­pla­na­tion of different cloud models

The cloud serves as a foun­da­tion for stream­lin­ing processes in numerous companies, par­tic­u­lar­ly in the areas of pro­cess­ing customer data and de­liv­er­ing services. When im­ple­ment­ing cloud computing into business op­er­a­tions, various cloud models are available to choose from. These models differ based on factors such as computing power, scal­a­bil­i­ty, and data security. The four commonly rec­og­nized cloud types are:

  • Private Cloud: As a dedicated cloud en­vi­ron­ment, resources and services are available ex­clu­sive­ly to internal users in the form of an intranet or servers and data centers.

  • Public Cloud: Third-party providers offer cloud hosting services, making resources and services available to multiple users (e.g. Google Cloud, iCloud, Amazon Web Services, Dropbox or Microsoft Azure).

  • Multi Cloud: This cloud model also uses a dis­trib­uted cloud in­fra­struc­ture composed of a single cloud type (private or public cloud) from different third party providers.

  • Hybrid Cloud: This combines external cloud resources (public cloud) with internal cloud in­fra­struc­ture (private cloud).

By their nature of cloud de­ploy­ment, both multi clouds and hybrid clouds support the three most common de­ploy­ment models in cloud computing. These models can be formed by using one or a com­bi­na­tion of the following de­ploy­ment types:

  • IaaS (In­fra­struc­ture-as-a-Service): Scalable IT resources and clouds are virtually available im­me­di­ate­ly.
  • PaaS (Platform-as-a-Service): Various hardware and software tools hosted by third-party vendors and made available for software or project de­vel­op­ment.
  • SaaS (Software-as-a-Service): Third-party services provide software services, ap­pli­ca­tions and IT in­fra­struc­ture via the cloud as a service in cus­tomized models or all-in-one plans.
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What is a multi cloud?

As the name implies, a multi-cloud solution utilizes multiple cloud platforms in com­bi­na­tion. These platforms can be sourced from different providers while remaining within the same type of cloud. In the case of multi-cloud, this typically involves employing at least two public clouds from different providers. The com­bi­na­tion of several private clouds is rather rare in this context, as the purpose of a private cloud is the ho­mo­ge­neous, closed en­vi­ron­ment.

If cloud models are mixed, then it no longer referred to as multi cloud computing. Companies thus outsource tasks, services and resources to cloud providers such as Google, Apple, Microsoft or IONOS.

The com­plex­i­ty of a multi-cloud en­vi­ron­ment can vary based on the specific re­quire­ments of a company. It can range from rel­a­tive­ly man­age­able setups with two or four cloud platforms to more intricate cloud in­fra­struc­tures. For instance, companies may choose to host their workloads on the IaaS principle on a provider’s public cloud. Si­mul­ta­ne­ous­ly, they can leverage the public cloud services of other providers to implement pro­pri­etary ap­pli­ca­tions and access ad­di­tion­al features such as de­vel­op­ment tools, cost al­lo­ca­tion tools, or analytics ca­pa­bil­i­ties within their cloud en­vi­ron­ment.

What is a hybrid cloud?

Hybrid clouds combine the benefits of scal­a­bil­i­ty and flex­i­bil­i­ty offered by public clouds with the dedicated en­vi­ron­ment of a private cloud. This is achieved by utilizing the local cloud in­fra­struc­ture, including internal servers and data centers, for data storage and business processes. Si­mul­ta­ne­ous­ly, workloads and other processes are out­sourced to the public cloud struc­tures provided by external vendors. This approach allows or­ga­ni­za­tions to combine the ad­van­tages of a private cloud, such as enhanced cloud security and a con­trolled en­vi­ron­ment, with the flexible scal­a­bil­i­ty and cost-saving resources provided by public cloud computing.

What dis­tin­guish­es the hybrid cloud is the con­cur­rent but separate uti­liza­tion of different cloud models. This requires in­ter­op­er­abil­i­ty of the het­ero­ge­neous en­vi­ron­ment through different touch­points such as common software services and cloud man­age­ment tools. When ex­chang­ing or migrating workloads and resources, secure and encrypted in­ter­faces (APIs) are employed. This ensures that even in multi-cloud scenarios where multiple public clouds from different providers are combined, a closed private cloud can be connected for business-critical workloads, pre­vent­ing sensitive data from being leaked to the public cloud.

Sim­i­lar­i­ties and dif­fer­ences between the multi cloud and hybrid cloud

Both cloud solutions share important sim­i­lar­i­ties but also have distinct dif­fer­ences that are sig­nif­i­cant for companies.

Sim­i­lar­i­ties

  • Both require the im­ple­men­ta­tion of a public cloud solution to ef­fec­tive­ly be con­sid­ered a multi cloud or hybrid cloud.
  • Both offer on-demand flex­i­bil­i­ty and scal­a­bil­i­ty by of­fload­ing workloads and resources to public cloud capacity.
  • Both reduce the cost of in-house on-premises in­fra­struc­ture, including main­te­nance, by drawing on external resources.
  • One-time large capital ex­pen­di­tures (capex) for an own IT in­fra­struc­ture can be trans­formed into regular, smaller and pre­dictable operating ex­pen­di­tures (opex) for public cloud solutions.
  • Both solutions can reduce de­pen­den­cy on in­di­vid­ual providers.

Dif­fer­ences

  • Multi clouds combine public clouds (as IaaS, PaaS and/or SaaS) from different providers (rarely also private clouds), while hybrid clouds are a com­bi­na­tion of private and public cloud.
  • Multi clouds usually use public clouds sep­a­rate­ly and apart from each other, while hybrid clouds usually provide a unified en­vi­ron­ment with in­ter­faces between different cloud solutions.
  • Hybrid clouds can include a multi cloud, but not the other way around.
  • Multi cloud in­fra­struc­tures are based on out­sourc­ing workloads to external cloud providers, while hybrid clouds combine business-critical internal private cloud security with external scal­a­bil­i­ty of public clouds.

The ad­van­tages and dis­ad­van­tages of a multi cloud

Pros Cons
Improved needs-based scal­a­bil­i­ty and fail-safety thanks to ex­pand­able cloud in­fra­struc­ture including backups and data pro­tec­tion Higher security re­quire­ments for pro­tect­ing business-critical data due to parallel use of clouds from different providers (pos­si­bil­i­ty of more security gaps)
Cost reduction, as external resources don’t require main­te­nance, support and in­vest­ment in on-premises hardware Multiple au­then­ti­ca­tion methods, en­cryp­tion and security con­fig­u­ra­tions may be required per cloud provider
Spe­cial­ized public cloud services can be combined as IaaS, SaaS and PaaS as required, e.g. for hosting workloads sep­a­rate­ly and using cloud services for developer apps or machine learning services Higher com­pli­ance and GDPR re­quire­ments, es­pe­cial­ly when dealing with different providers outside the EU. Since tasks and resources are dis­trib­uted across multiple providers, the sus­cep­ti­bil­i­ty to dis­rup­tions can increase
With domestic managed public cloud solutions, cloud security and adherence to data pro­tec­tion, GDPR and com­pli­ance re­quire­ments can be managed with reliable cloud providers
Small and medium-sized en­ter­pris­es benefit from state-of-the-art, ex­pand­able tech­nolo­gies, optimal resource al­lo­ca­tion even with high workloads, and pro­fes­sion­al server man­age­ment

The ad­van­tages and dis­ad­van­tages of a hybrid cloud

Pros Cons
Business-critical data is reliably protected with internal private cloud, while connected public clouds provide scal­a­bil­i­ty and flex­i­bil­i­ty A unified en­vi­ron­ment for a het­ero­ge­neous hybrid cloud requires time for technical in­te­gra­tion and con­nec­tion of the in­ter­faces
A hybrid en­vi­ron­ment of private and public cloud makes it easier to migrate workloads, tasks and services on demand via secure in­ter­faces Higher costs due to on-premises private cloud, internal server man­age­ment and hybrid cloud main­te­nance, support and policies
Com­pli­ance, security re­quire­ments and GDPR can be easily met by the private cloud en­vi­ron­ment despite connected but separate public clouds Com­bi­na­tion of different cloud in­fra­struc­tures can lead to com­pat­i­bil­i­ty problems and security gaps
High scal­a­bil­i­ty of public clouds, es­pe­cial­ly in case of fluc­tu­at­ing data traffic with per­for­mance peaks Reliant on wide area network (WAN) con­nec­tiv­i­ty and thus dependent on trouble-free coupling of systems and clouds
Com­pet­i­tive ad­van­tages thanks to flexible in­fra­struc­ture for test en­vi­ron­ments, data pro­cess­ing and eval­u­a­tion, and coping with parallel workloads

Possible ap­pli­ca­tions for both cloud models

Multi cloud

A multi cloud solution is suitable for both small and large-scale de­ploy­ments. The com­plex­i­ty of a multi-cloud en­vi­ron­ment depends primarily on the required resources. Im­ple­ment­ing a multi cloud strategy is ben­e­fi­cial for op­ti­miz­ing per­for­mance and reducing IT costs by lever­ag­ing the robust IT resources provided by external cloud providers. It is par­tic­u­lar­ly ad­van­ta­geous when specific services and ap­pli­ca­tions from different providers are needed. For instance, workloads can be out­sourced to a public cloud of one provider for improved uti­liza­tion, while si­mul­ta­ne­ous­ly utilizing storage instances, virtual machines, pro­duc­tiv­i­ty ap­pli­ca­tions, or AI features from other providers.

Hybrid cloud

A hybrid cloud is utilized when hosting business-critical processes and data on a private cloud is necessary, while also requiring ad­di­tion­al resources as needed. By sep­a­rat­ing and ensuring in­ter­op­er­abil­i­ty between private and public clouds, a hybrid cloud combines the security and re­li­a­bil­i­ty of on-premises IT with the flex­i­bil­i­ty and scal­a­bil­i­ty of external cloud in­fra­struc­tures. This approach enables the man­age­ment of day-to-day business processes through on-premises servers, while si­mul­ta­ne­ous­ly of­fload­ing security backups, general business data, or workloads to external resources during peak demand.

Multi cloud vs. hybrid cloud: which cloud is suitable for busi­ness­es?

There’s no one-size-fits-all solution for companies looking for the right cloud in­fra­struc­ture. The choice depends on various factors, including costs, budget, business ob­jec­tives, security re­quire­ments, and IT resource needs. Con­sid­er­a­tions such as data sov­er­eign­ty and data pro­tec­tion also play a role if there is a re­quire­ment to host data in­ter­nal­ly and locally.

When to use a hybrid cloud?

For companies that require the flex­i­bil­i­ty to outsource workloads and resources, access external services, and si­mul­ta­ne­ous­ly host data locally, a hybrid cloud is the rec­om­mend­ed choice. This scenario is par­tic­u­lar­ly ap­plic­a­ble when de­vel­op­ing cloud-specific ap­pli­ca­tions and services, utilizing the public cloud for hosting while running or backing up business-critical data on on-premises servers in parallel.

When to use a multi cloud?

Multi-cloud solutions are well-suited for companies that do not possess the resources or interest in es­tab­lish­ing a locally hosted cloud in­fra­struc­ture and seek maximum flex­i­bil­i­ty in accessing diverse external resources. Ad­di­tion­al­ly, the multi-cloud model offers the advantage of utilizing different cost models instead of being con­strained by a limited sub­scrip­tion plan. Or­ga­ni­za­tions that do not intend to make sub­stan­tial in­vest­ments in local IT in­fra­struc­ture and desire access to a wide array of services such as pro­duc­tiv­i­ty ap­pli­ca­tions, AI func­tion­al­i­ties, virtual machines, and storage ca­pac­i­ties from external providers can benefit from adopting a multi-cloud approach.

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