About 15 years ago, cloud computing became the standard operating model for applications, and one of the main reasons is the ease of distributing computing resources. Just like these resources, the infrastructure model itself can be easily distributed across different cloud providers. That’s how multicloud works.

It is an operational model that uses two or more public or private cloud services to access, on demand and in a configurable manner, computational resources that can be provisioned quickly and easily. It is through multicloud that it becomes possible to maintain a functional system in the cloud by using part of the computational resources, for example, on AWS, and another part on Google Cloud Platform.

Using a multi-cloud strategy can be extremely beneficial for your software maintenance; however, it is necessary to consider various aspects of the project to determine whether it would be more advantageous to use the resources of just one public cloud service or more than one.

Read on to learn more about multicloud, the scenarios in which it’s beneficial, and the key considerations you should evaluate before choosing this model!

What characterizes public cloud services?

In the article on cloud computing that we published on our blog—just click here to read it —we detailed its five essential characteristics, as defined by the U.S. government’s National Institute of Standards and Technology: on-demand self-service; broad network access; resource pooling; rapid elasticity; and metered service. In summary, we can say that public cloud computing services are capable of adapting to the needs of applications, especially in the initial development phase.

Even so, although they all share these characteristics, public cloud services can still vary greatly from one another. For example, elasticity may be faster in some than in others. And beyond the essential characteristics, there are many other aspects of the services that differ. One cloud provider may own certain solutions. Others may offer native integrations with applications your company already uses.

All of these points highlight the main advantage of choosing a multicloud strategy: flexibility. As we’ve already mentioned, cloud computing services adapt to newly launched applications. However, as your software scales, you may need to move to a multicloud approach to achieve the best adaptability across all the services and resources offered by different clouds.

To make a choice, you need a combination of knowledge about the architecture of the application that is a candidate for multicloud operation; knowledge of the various public cloud providers and which ones offer the best services for each component of your application; and an estimate of the application’s expected growth scale, so you can build the application in a way that takes advantage of multicloud without affecting operating costs.

Multicloud: When to Use It and What to Watch Out For

There are several factors to consider when deciding on the right time to adopt a multicloud strategy, and it is difficult to determine which one is the most important. Below is a list of these factors, ranked by relevance according to Inmetrics experts:

1. Ease of recovery → Concentrating data and applications in a single cloud service can leave you highly vulnerable in the event of failures or service outages, as was made clear by the “blackout” that occurred on Microsoft Azure in July 2024. The outage disrupted critical systems used by banks, airlines, airports, and train stations, causing cancellations and delays for numerous trips. A multicloud approach allows your entire inventory of data and systems to be transferred from one service to another with relative ease, drastically reducing application recovery time in the event of failures.
2. Quality → Some cloud providers offer features and solutions that others do not, or at least not at the same level of quality. Using more than one service can give applications new capabilities or enable them to be enhanced more quickly—either by allowing the use of technologies that are easier to work with, or because they integrate more securely and robustly with systems your company already uses.
3. Independence from providers → Being limited to a single public cloud service leaves you at the mercy of changes—whether in terms of service, technological limitations, or even price adjustments. Having more than one service under contract gives you greater bargaining power in the face of these potential changes.
4. Cost → Even if cloud services offer identical or very similar solutions of equivalent quality, their prices and billing models can vary significantly. In such situations, a multicloud strategy can significantly reduce infrastructure costs.
5. Availability → For applications accessed from various locations around the world, high availability is essential. To reduce application response times, consider hosting some workloads on more than one cloud service.

When might it not be the best choice?

Despite the clear advantages of adopting a multicloud model, it is not the best option for every scenario. Among the factors to consider, we highlight two: cost and orchestration capabilities.

It can also be more cost-effective to allocate resources across different automation services with the help of applications.

Here at Inmetrics, in all our projects, we start with a simple belief: simply making things work is the bare minimum; evolving is the goal. In some scenarios, we recommend maintaining operations on a single cloud computing service. As the application portfolio evolves, there is a tendency to move toward a multicloud strategy. All of these assessments are conducted by the Digital Platforms team , our unit specialized in analyzing and reviewing the fundamentals that support growth at scale, helping our clients operate applications with predictability, high performance, and cost efficiency.

If you're considering adopting a multicloud approach or reviewing your current public cloud strategy, please contact our experts —they're here to help you with this analysis!

Frequently Asked Questions About Multicloud

1. What is multicloud?

Multicloud is the strategy of using two or more public cloud services—such as AWS, Google Cloud Platform, and Microsoft Azure—to host applications and data for a single operation, rather than concentrating everything with a single provider.

2. Is multicloud the same as hybrid cloud?

No. Multicloud combines two or more public cloud providers. Hybrid cloud, on the other hand, combines public cloud with private or on-premises infrastructure. A company can adopt both approaches at the same time: it can be both multicloud and hybrid simultaneously.

3. Does multicloud increase IT costs?

It depends. In some cases, it reduces costs by allowing you to choose the least expensive service for each workload. In others, it can increase expenses, since many providers offer tiered discounts based on usage volume for a single service—a benefit that is lost when you split operations across multiple clouds. Therefore, it is recommended that you estimate your costs before making a decision.

4. When is it worth adopting a multicloud strategy?

Especially when the priority is to reduce the risk of downtime (by avoiding reliance on a single provider), take advantage of specific, high-quality resources across different clouds, gain bargaining power with suppliers, or reduce costs and latency for users spread across different regions.

5. What are the main risks of multicloud?

The two key considerations are cost—which may increase rather than decrease, depending on the scenario—and the complexity of orchestration, since managing multiple cloud services requires greater technical expertise from the IT team.

6. Does every company need a multicloud strategy?

Not necessarily. Companies with early-stage applications or smaller operations typically benefit more from keeping everything on a single cloud service, migrating to a multicloud environment as their application portfolio evolves and complexity increases.