Article
Cloud Trends in Switzerland
Why multicloud may not (yet) be the answer
Swiss companies are lagging behind mature markets like the UK and U.S. in adoption of public Cloud technologies. They should turn this to their advantage by learning from mistakes made in the more mature markets. Our view is that Swiss companies should not introduce multicloud management platforms (also called metacloud solutions) yet, but should rather go for selective, use case-based integration of Cloud environments.
Where multicloud is now
The multicloud environment, in which companies use more than one Cloud environment, offers businesses a range of benefits, from increased agility to reduced costs, but also creates significant new challenges and complexities. As much as 85% of companies globally are using two or more Cloud platforms, and 25% are using at least five. The public Cloud services of different providers are growing together into an apparently seamless Cloud service environment in which providers compete for the best service, while customers combine the best offers from different providers. Moreover, given the growing trend for software as a service (SaaS) solution, companies are being pushed towards embracing one or more Cloud solutions.
In response, Cloud service providers are offering new tools and services to help businesses manage their multicloud environments. But it can still be difficult to integrate and manage these tools effectively. In fact, 98% of organisations feel challenged using multicloud environments. Managing multi-cloud environments requires new skills and capabilities, including the ability to orchestrate workloads across different Cloud providers and ensure consistent security and compliance. But many businesses are operating in a multicloud environment without a clear strategy for addressing issues like security and redundancy. In these circumstances, and given the changes in their environment, it is crucial to adapt their Cloud strategy to these changes to keep up to speed.
Metacloud to manage the multicloud
To simplify management of different Cloud providers, companies are beginning to turn to a layer of abstraction and automation that provides a single point of control: metacloud. Metacloud is an approach that involves building a compatibility layer above a business’s various Cloud platforms. This compatibility layer provides access to most infrastructure as a service (IaaS) and platform as a service (PaaS) service – especially to common services such as compute, storage, backup, containers, security services application development tools and deployment, using the native technical standards of the Cloud provider through APIs. In this way administrators have centralised control and can enforce common governance over their multiple Cloud landing zones, and the applications still enjoy the strong security of the Cloud provider.
The benefits of metacloud
Metacloud is believed to simplify the management of multicloud environments by eliminating unnecessary boundaries, reducing security exposure, enhancing user privacy, and lowering operational effort, resulting in reduced costs.
The availability of tools within the enclosed space of a single cloud provider is not something that businesses want to be restricted by. Additionally, using the provider’s competitors as leverage enables them to negotiate better terms of service. For most companies, consolidating operations under a single cloud provider is unlikely to be a feasible option, and Deloitte’s research suggests that multicloud will be the dominating trend for the foreseeable future. Its benefit is that it can help enterprises reduce specialisation in their workforce and allow developers to build more general skills, making teams more capable of tackling higher-level, generalised problems.
Metacloud can eliminate the problem of security complexity and reduce the overall surface that is vulnerable to attack by allowing developers to set one security configuration executed across each cloud platform through its native interface.
The challenges of metacloud
The market may, however, prevent metacloud from providing a good solution. A compatibility layer has clear benefits for users, but it would naturally lead to the commoditisation of the Cloud providers, conflicting with their interests. There are only a few providers offering metacloud as a service and there is also no comprehensive integration management platform on the market yet. This implies that development teams in a company that wants to use the metacloud will need to take the lead in building each of the connections and the ultimate interface themselves. If a company decides to do this, it needs to ask several questions, such as the degree of integration and the separation of roles, permissions, etc. across the different landing zones. It is a complex means of addressing complexity when what companies want is greater simplicity.
The outlook and our recommendation
Metacloud, a compatibility layer that simplifies the management of multiple Coud providers, has attracted interest. But the long-term viability of the concept, as we know it today, remains questionable. In the absence of a comprehensive multicloud management solution, capable of seamlessly integrating different Clouds and on-premises solutions, metacloud is unlikely to endure. We do not recommend turning to it now. But we do recommend keeping an eye on metacloud. It could be that in the future a more practical metacloud-based solution will become available.
Given the limitations of metacloud, organisations must develop a more strategic approach to multicloud management. The new strategy should leverage the centralisation and control offered by metacloud while preserving developers' freedom to select the most suitable tools for their tasks.
One promising option is to entirely reconsider the multicloud concept. We propose a shift towards focusing on a single main Cloud provider while utilising dedicated Clouds for specific niche applications such as SaaS, the internet of things (IoT), or artificial intelligence (AI). However, an important consideration arises: is it economically feasible for companies to adopt an additional Cloud solely for niche applications?
Deloitte Switzerland has helped numerous clients define their technology strategy and adapt successfully to the fast-moving changes in their environment. If you are interested in obtaining comprehensive insights into managing multicloud environments and effectively addressing the challenges that arise when implementing metacloud solutions in your organisation, we encourage you to connect with one of our experts.
Together, we can explore tailored solutions to meet your unique requirements and propel your Cloud management efforts.
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