1. Security can be an issue
A disadvantage to spreading your workload, applications and data across multiple platforms is security. There are many advantages to not depending exclusively on one service, but with multiple cloud platforms complexity can also increase, and this can make it harder to know what data is located where.
Read more: How to Run Security Threats Diagnostics
2. You can miss out on provider deals
The major, global cloud platforms prefer that you buy everything from them, and sometimes they can offer heavily discounted packages. These are of course discounts you’ll miss out on if you choose multiple providers. Hence, you should at least calculate and compare the total cost – and put it in relation to the performance you receive, what your needs are and what advantages multicloud can bring you.
3. Messy architecture and no overview
Multicloud adds an increased complexity to your organization’s IT structure and architecture, and monitoring cloud environments becomes increasingly challenging the more providers you have. So even if you take advantages of the opportunity to save on costs, it can result in a lack of overview of your cloud environments, which in turn means these cost savings might not be possible to realise. The risk of increased complexity also significantly increases if the implementation of multicloud is ad-hoc, rather than planned from the ground up. Implementing and managing a multicloud environment can involve challenges, specifically if you lack an IT team with sufficient knowledge about the various cloud platforms. Each platform has its own interface, and the task of configuring and managing the different platforms can lead to many headaches.
4. Harder to automate processes and workflows
When the infrastructure and applications are on different clouds, integration and automation might be hampered. There’s a lot of money to save through automation (BPA, RPA) of manual and digital processes and workflows, and hence this is a strategic part of many organizations. Therefore it’s important to have a plan for how automation can be implemented in the cloud environment already from the start.
Read more: Understanding Intelligent Process Automation and Hyperautomation
The Future of RPA and Integration - Hyperautomation Digital Integration Hub
5. Challenging integrations
The ability to share information almost in real time is crucial to many modern organizations. Order flows, deliveries, ERP, CRM, etc. must be connected, and decisions are made based on data from several different applications. In a hybrid multicloud environment this can be a huge challenge if the right tools and conditions are missing.
Read more Will the Azure and AWS platforms replace the integration platforms?
Conclusion
Even if the advantages of multicloud compared to a single cloud model by far outweighs the cons, the challenges must be taken seriously and solutions must be found.
At Frends we don’t have the solution to every challenge with multicloud, but we’d love to play an important role as a central tool and a platform that supports the management and handling of these challenges, which may arise from the implementation of a multicloud strategy.