Multi-cloud vs. hybrid cloud: The main difference

<p>To this day, there’s no single cloud solution. Cloud technologies have expanded, matured and proliferated to support the most demanding business needs and use cases.</p>
<p>The proliferation of cloud technologies is particularly confusing to businesses new to cloud adoption, and they’re sometimes baffled by the distinction between&nbsp;<a href=”https://www.techtarget.com/searchcloudcomputing/definition/multi-cloud-strategy”><i>multi-cloud</i></a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href=”https://www.techtarget.com/searchcloudcomputing/definition/hybrid-cloud”><i>hybrid cloud</i></a>. Each type of cloud has a distinct definition and purpose.</p>
<section class=”section main-article-chapter” data-menu-title=”What is multi-cloud?”>
<h2 class=”section-title”><i class=”icon” data-icon=”1″></i>What is multi-cloud?</h2>
<p>Although the public cloud infrastructure and services can be similar among public cloud vendors, public clouds are not directly interchangeable or interoperable. Each public cloud offers a unique set of computing resources and services that are accessed using unique APIs. Every public cloud attempts to be ubiquitous, but differences do exist. And every cloud presents tradeoffs for different business use cases. When a company migrates to the public cloud, that business might eventually adopt a multi-cloud strategy that engages multiple public cloud vendors.</p>
<p>A multi-cloud technology strategy involves two or more cloud computing&nbsp;<a href=”https://www.techtarget.com/searchcloudcomputing/definition/Cloud-management-platform”>platforms</a>&nbsp;or cloud vendors to handle various business tasks. The ultimate goal of any multi-cloud strategy is to match the business need with the specific strength of each public cloud. A business might perform some tasks or&nbsp;<a href=”https://www.techtarget.com/searchcloudcomputing/tip/Compare-AWS-Azure-and-Google-Cloud-IAM-services”>host certain types of applications</a>&nbsp;on AWS; another set of tasks, apps and data on&nbsp;Google Cloud&nbsp;Platform (GCP); and yet other tasks on&nbsp;Microsoft Azure&nbsp;– all while utilizing cloud applications hosted through various third-party SaaS providers.</p>
<p>A multi-cloud approach can be extensive and complex, depending on the number of clouds involved and the ways a business consumes each cloud resource or service. For example, a business might employ a public cloud provider’s IaaS to host its&nbsp;<a href=”https://www.techtarget.com/searchdatacenter/definition/workload”>workloads</a>. At the same time, it could use specialized SaaS or PaaS providers for business services, such as productivity tools (Microsoft 365), employee expense tracking and reporting (Concur Expense) and so on, where each service is its own cloud.</p>
<h3>Benefits of multi-cloud</h3>
<p>So, why undertake such complexity? There are compelling reasons why a business might explore a multi-cloud approach, including the following:</p>
<ul type=”disc” class=”default-list”>
<li><b>Reducing local infrastructure.</b>&nbsp;A business outsources some or all its on-premises infrastructure to third-party providers to shed the burdens of hardware, software, maintenance and support — for example, moving business email from an in-house exchange server to Microsoft Exchange Online.</li>
<li><b>Using specific services.</b>&nbsp;Clouds often specialize in ways that complement the provider’s business background and strengths. A business, for example, might use one cloud provider to host a test and development workload but use a different cloud provider’s more mature artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) services.</li>
<li><b>Managing costs.</b>&nbsp;Local infrastructure requires a capital investment, no matter how or whether it’s used. Cloud resources and services employ a pay-as-you-go model in which costs scale based on actual use. A SaaS platform, for example, might charge based on the number of users (seats), while other cloud services charge based on usage or recurring monthly fees. These costs are well documented by providers, and businesses can see that money is spent cost-effectively. Similarly, a business can opt to shift workloads between multiple clouds as costs — and potential cost savings — allow.</li>
<li><b>Improving resilience and compliance.</b>&nbsp;A business must run and remain secure in the face of disruption; this is a central tenet of today’s regulatory compliance and business continuity environment. A business might deploy a redundant workload in two or more clouds to handle more application traffic and&nbsp;<a href=”https://www.techtarget.com/s

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