Zones Blog

Redefining Digital Transformation with Zones Multi Public Cloud Services

Written by Zones | May 31, 2024 6:13:04 PM

As the digital world evolves, more and more enterprises are adopting multicloud strategies to be faster, save money, and optimize their technology. This move towards multicloud management reflects smarter and more efficient ways to address the complex IT challenges businesses face today. Most other companies have adopted more complex multicloud strategies, and most use two or more cloud providers to balance performance, cost, and risk. A small but growing number of organizations are using four or more such public cloud deployments, highlighting a trend among cloud environments to optimize their IT operations with business agility.

Understanding Multicloud

Multicloud setups involve multiple cloud computing services in a single heterogeneous architecture. The setup allows enterprises to distribute their resources across multiple clouds, optimizing costs, compliance, and efficiency. So, why are companies adopting multicloud strategies? Because of:

  • Strategic Flexibility: 

    Companies don’t want to rely on one cloud provider. A multicloud environment allows you to choose services that best meet specific business needs.
  • Improved Risk Management: 

    Data and services can be extended with multiple clouds to improve productivity further, thereby reducing the impact of a single failure.
  • Cost Efficiencies:

    By choosing the most cost-effective solutions for projects, companies can reduce overall costs while optimizing content management across platforms.
  • Regulatory Compliance and Data Governance:

    In environments where local data storage is mandatory, multicloud platforms enable regulatory compliance while leveraging global service delivery.

Despite the clear advantages, multicloud adoption also faces some challenges:

  • Complexity of the Project: 

    The more cloud services a company uses, the more complex its infrastructure. These challenges can lead to significant operational challenges, requiring advanced equipment and expertise.
  • Security Concerns: 

    Each cloud platform has its own security measures, complicating the overall security environment.
  • Connectivity and Integration Issues:

    Ensuring proper connectivity and data across multiple clouds can be challenging, often requiring strong API management and effective middleware solutions.

“Zones has grown significantly since last year due to its automation-first approach towards migrating and modernizing workloads to cloud environments. This has enabled it to help its clients move seamlessly and securely to public cloud”

— Shashank Rajmane, Principal Analyst, ISG

 

Deep Dive into Multicloud Technologies

ISG, a leading global technology research and advisory firm, revealed important insights and trends around multicloud technologies that are changing the IT landscape. Here are some of the details:

Cloud-Native Technologies

  • Microservices and containerization: 

    Companies are increasingly moving from monolithic applications to microservices for better scalability, agility, and flexibility. Containers like Docker provide isolated environments that ensure consistency across cloud platforms.
  • Serverless computing: 

    Hosted serverless computing, such as AWS Lambda and Azure Functions, enables businesses to run code without configuring or maintaining a server, thus reducing operational costs and increasing flexibility.
  • Orchestration with Kubernetes: 

    Kubernetes is widely used to automate the deployment, scaling, and management of containerized applications, facilitating efficient cloud-native operations.

Mature AIOps Offerings

AIOps uses AI and ML to automate IT services, delivering real-time analytics, predictive insights, and actionable problem solving. This reduces business activities by 30 to 50 percent, increasing productivity and reducing downtime. AIOps tools identify and address potential issues before they affect operations, ensuring smooth and reliable IT operations.

FinOps: Cloud Financial Management

FinOps practices help businesses manage and optimize cloud spend. This includes monitoring usage, identifying waste, and making appropriate financial decisions to balance cost and productivity. FinOps injects financial accountability into cloud operations, enabling teams to track spend and align it with business objectives. This approach helps create strategic trade-offs between speed, cost, and quality. A comprehensive FinOps tool offers detailed cost management dashboards, providing insights into spending patterns and areas for optimization​​.

How Large Corporations Approach Multicloud

Larger enterprises are adopting multicloud strategies to leverage the best features of different cloud providers, avoiding vendor lock-in and increasing flexibility. Here are some ways:

  • Strategic Multicloud Adoption: 

    Large enterprises use multicloud providers to balance performance, cost, and risk. This approach allows best practices from different providers to be used for different purposes.
  • Advanced Technology Integration: 

    Enterprises are integrating AI and ML technologies into their cloud infrastructure to increase automation and operational efficiency. This includes the benefits of large learning samples (LLMs) and longitudinal analyses.
  • Robust Cloud Governance: 

    Implementing a comprehensive cloud governance framework, including FinOps, SecOps, and CloudOps, helps optimize cloud infrastructure and ensure security and compliance.
  • Enterprise-Centric Services: 

    Service providers offer industry-specific solutions, such as healthcare, retail, and public sector services, tailored to the unique needs of large enterprises.

Midmarket’s Take on Public Cloud Infrastructure

Midmarket enterprises encounter distinct challenges and opportunities when adopting public cloud infrastructure. Here's how they leverage:

  • Lift-and- Shift Approach:

    Many middle-market companies start with a lift-and-switch approach, moving existing applications to the cloud with minimal changes available. This method speeds up the transportation process and provides immediate benefits.
  • Customized Solutions from Providers: 

    Mid-market companies often rely on service providers for customized solutions specific to their needs. Providers offer automation enablement, cloud consulting, migration, and modernization services tailored to mid-market businesses.
  • Focus on Flexibility and Cost Savings: 

    Mid-market organizations prioritize flexibility and cost-effective cloud solutions. They are looking for service providers that offer scalable and agile services to meet their evolving needs with minimal upfront costs.
  • Automation and DevOps: 

    By implementing automation and DevOps practices, mid-market companies are improving productivity and reducing manual intervention in their IT operations. This includes using proprietary third-party automation platforms to streamline cloud management tasks.
  • Cloud-Native Aspirations: 

    As mid-market companies become more experienced, they are exploring cloud-native architectures to increase scalability and flexibility. Developers are contributing to this shift by providing the knowledge and tools to embrace microservices, containerization, and serverless computing.

Zones: Your One-Stop Shop for All Things Cloud

We're proud to be recognized as a Product Challenger in Managed Services for the Mid-Market in the U.S. in ISG's Multi Public Cloud Services Report—2023.

 

Zones is shaping the future of cloud services by delivering a wide range of solutions designed to fit the changing needs of both big and small businesses. With a strong emphasis on cloud-native technologies, Zones is helping enterprises move from traditional architectures to flexible clouds and reliable native environments. Maximize the potential of your cloud infrastructure with expert advice. To read the detailed insights, click here.