We recently published an article here on the Inmetrics blog about multicloud, in which we explained it in detail, highlighted its benefits, and discussed points to consider before choosing it. If your company decides to adopt it, it’s worth noting four challenges involved in implementing a multicloud strategy.

Broadly speaking, we can define multicloud as 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. The decision to adopt this type of model takes five factors into account: ease of service restoration, quality, independence from vendors, cost, and availability.

Given the possibility of using different cloud providers, it is important to assess the conditions and human resources needed both to begin adopting a multicloud approach and to keep this operating model running securely and efficiently. Join us in this article to learn in detail about four challenges involved in implementing a multicloud strategy.

Team Knowledge and Training

Before highlighting the challenges, it is worth making it clear that, in this text, we are dealing with a hypothetical scenario in which at least one public cloud service is already in use and another will be adopted. In other words, we assume that the obstacles typically encountered when adopting cloud computing have already been overcome.

The first challenge we face when adding another public cloud service to our operating model—and, consequently, establishing a multicloud environment—is selecting the best cloud provider to contract with. This choice must take into account the services offered from three perspectives:

1. Compatibility with services currently subscribed to on other cloud platforms
2. The team's familiarity with the new services that will be used
3. Cost

Point two of the first challenge inevitably leads us to the second challenge: ensuring the team has the knowledge and skills not only to manage the new cloud services but also to make a multicloud operating model work.

Provider rules—whether regarding data storage or resource management—introduce new concepts and terminology. Gaining a detailed understanding of this entire knowledge base takes time and resources, especially in situations that require hiring an external consultant or trainer to instruct the team on how to operate the new public cloud service.

To overcome this challenge, planning is essential. Once the cloud service to be contracted has been selected, it is important to conduct two thorough assessments: first, a mapping of all the resources that will be used initially; and second, a detailed assessment of the team’s skills and knowledge.

With these two assessments in hand, it becomes possible to forecast the team’s learning curve and, consequently, ensure the smooth integration of the resources contracted for the new cloud service. This forecast also facilitates cost planning for the new service, thereby preventing resources from being contracted but not utilized.

Four Challenges for Multicloud Implementation: Management and Interoperability

Once the difficulties related to knowledge gaps have been overcome, the third challenge emerges: the obstacles to implementing the multi-cloud model. Assuming that a solid foundation of knowledge regarding multi-cloud management has been established, it is essential to allocate and maintain the resources—both human and technological—needed to manage them so that they function together at full capacity.

Since more cloud services inevitably lead to greater exposure on the Internet, it is essential to determine how many layers of security will need to be added to ensure that they communicate quickly and securely, as well as how much of the team’s time will need to be allocated to monitor the proper functioning of this communication. In other words, in a multicloud deployment scenario, it becomes even more critical to adopt quality practices as an ongoing service.

The fourth and final challenge concerns the ability to maintain interoperability between different clouds. It’s worth remembering that two of the main benefits of multicloud are the ease of restoring services and high availability. The first refers to the ability to transfer the entire inventory of data and systems from one service to another with reasonable ease, while the second allows applications to be accessed from various locations around the world with high availability.

These two benefits are achieved through proper configuration and monitoring of multicloud interoperability. To enable this, APIs are used to integrate or automate services from different providers, since they typically have different operational standards.

Even in the face of challenges, an increasing number of companies are opting for a multicloud approach. The “State of the Cloud” report published in 2024 by Flexera shows that, in 2023, 89% of the companies surveyed plan to increase their use of multicloud—a 2% increase from the previous year.

Every company has its own unique service requirements and a budget forecast for investing in IT resources—two factors that must be carefully analyzed before beginning a multicloud implementation. However, this architectural model has proven beneficial for most business models.

Our Digital Platforms unit has extensive experience with multicloud adoption and knows how to anticipate implementation bottlenecks. If you want this process to go as smoothly as possible for your company, click here to contact us! We’d be happy to explain all the steps involved in adopting and maintaining a multicloud environment.