IBM has been steadily transforming itself into a leading hybrid and multi-cloud cloud provider, snapping up a number of startups and companies as it works toward that goal. Accelalpha is the latest acquisition, expanding IBM’s Oracle support.

Accelalpha has a long history of supporting Oracle, and has chalked up some notable firsts.

Accelalpha’s consultants bring expertise across the Oracle Cloud Applications Suite including Oracle Supply Chain Management (SCM) and Logistics, Oracle Cloud Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Oracle Cloud Enterprise Performance Management (EPM), Oracle Cloud Customer Transformation (CX), and Oracle Configure, Price, Quote (CPQ). As an Oracle Cloud Excellence Certified Implementer, Accelalpha boasts the largest Oracle logistics practice globally and was the first Oracle partner to implement Oracle Fusion Financials. Since its founding in 2009, Accelalpha has grown organically and through acquisition. Notable past acquisitions include Prolog Partners, Key Performance Ideas, LogistiChange and Frontera Consulting.

“Many enterprises depend on Oracle to run the workflows that are at the heart of their enterprise,” said Kelly Chambliss, Senior Vice President, IBM Consulting, Americas. “With our acquisition of Accelalpha, IBM will be even better positioned to help our clients deploy and manage Oracle solutions, including generative AI and cloud technology, for competitive advantage.”

“IBM’s client and employee-centric culture and long-established scale and reach in more than 175 countries is a great fit for the next stage of our growth,” said Nat Ganesh, CEO, Accelalpha. “We’re thrilled to bring our expertise in Oracle Cloud solutions and targeted domain and industry knowledge to bear together with IBM’s strength in generative AI and hybrid cloud. With Accelalpha’s history of being a pioneer in Oracle Cloud and IBM’s deep-rooted dedication to innovation that matters, we can further accelerate value creation for our clients.”

IBM did not disclose the terms of the deal.

The Evolution of Multi-Cloud Strategies

The concept of multi-cloud is not new; it has been a topic of discussion since the early days of cloud computing. However, the motivations behind multi-cloud adoption have evolved significantly over the years. In the past, enterprises primarily embraced multi-cloud to avoid being overly dependent on a single vendor—a strategy often referred to as “vendor diversification.” As Jo Peterson, a well-known cloud strategist, noted in 2022, “The initial goal was to mitigate risk by spreading workloads across multiple providers. But today, the focus has shifted towards leveraging the best capabilities of each cloud provider to achieve specific business outcomes.”

In 2024, the percentage of large organisations adopting a #multi-cloud strategy is set to increase from 76% to 85%. This approach offers advantages for #cost and #flexibility but also introduces complexities in data governance.https://t.co/2aG4vKVG9l pic.twitter.com/6uPxc527Bi

— CloudScale365 Inc (@cloudscale365) August 16, 2024

This shift is reflected in the way organizations are now approaching their multi-cloud strategies. According to a 2024 report by TechTarget’s Enterprise Strategy Group (ESG), 88% of organizations agree that using multiple public cloud providers delivers strategic benefits, such as enhanced flexibility, improved reliability, and the ability to meet diverse regulatory requirements. However, the report also highlights that multi-cloud adoption is often driven by a combination of strategic intent and organic growth, with some organizations adopting multi-cloud inadvertently through shadow IT or as a result of mergers and acquisitions.

Centralized vs. Decentralized Approaches to Multi-Cloud

One of the key decisions enterprises face when implementing a multi-cloud strategy is whether to centralize or decentralize cloud management. A centralized approach involves a unified governance framework where decisions about cloud usage are made at the enterprise level. This approach allows for greater control, consistency, and alignment with business goals. On the other hand, a decentralized approach gives individual teams or departments the autonomy to choose and manage their own cloud environments, which can lead to greater flexibility and innovation but also risks increasing complexity and inefficiencies.

The enterprise multi-cloud network-as-a-service market is still up for grabs, with no single vendor expected to dominate. We explore the evolving multi-cloud networking landscape and how businesses can optimise their cloud networking strategies. https://t.co/bNIBkNOED5 pic.twitter.com/hzCVmA20ny

— Analysys Mason (@AnalysysMason) June 19, 2024

The ESG report found that 39% of organizations prioritize one dominant public cloud provider while using others for specific applications or team requirements, reflecting a centralized strategy. Meanwhile, 30% of organizations adopt a more decentralized approach, allowing different teams to select the cloud providers that best meet their needs. This balance between centralization and decentralization is crucial for organizations to reap the benefits of multi-cloud while minimizing its challenges.

Key Objectives and Challenges in Multi-Cloud Adoption

As enterprises refine their multi-cloud strategies, the primary objectives often revolve around flexibility, reliability, and cost management. According to the ESG study, 35% of organizations cited performance flexibility as a top driver for multi-cloud adoption, followed closely by reliability (34%) and storage/capacity flexibility (33%). These objectives highlight the need for a cloud strategy that can dynamically adjust to changing business requirements while ensuring consistent and reliable performance across different cloud environments.

However, the road to a successful multi-cloud strategy is not without its challenges. One of the most significant issues organizations face is the complexity of managing multiple cloud environments. As Scott Sinclair, Practice Director at TechTarget’s Enterprise Strategy Group, pointed out, “Movement across multi-cloud environments is common and increasingly complex. Organizations must navigate the intricacies of integrating, securing, and managing data and applications across disparate cloud platforms.”

Another major challenge is ensuring data portability and application interoperability across clouds. The ESG report revealed that 81% of organizations struggle with application and data portability across locations, which can hinder cloud migration efforts and limit the flexibility that multi-cloud strategies are supposed to offer. Additionally, the cost and complexity of refactoring applications to run in different cloud environments add another layer of difficulty.

Cloud Cost Management and Optimization

Effective cost management is a critical component of any multi-cloud strategy. As enterprises distribute their workloads across multiple cloud providers, they must continuously monitor and optimize their cloud spending to avoid budget overruns. The ESG report shows that 95% of organizations use cloud cost estimation tools to compare the costs of different public cloud providers and make informed decisions about where to deploy their workloads.

These tools play a pivotal role in helping organizations take impactful actions, such as switching cloud vendors, changing deployment methods, or even deciding to keep certain workloads on-premises. However, the complexity of multi-cloud environments can make cost management a daunting task. According to the report, 77% of organizations agree that application deployment planning is hindered by a lack of visibility into cloud spending, underscoring the need for more sophisticated tools and strategies to manage costs effectively.

Security and Compliance in Multi-Cloud Environments

Security remains a top concern for enterprises adopting multi-cloud strategies. The distributed nature of multi-cloud environments introduces new security challenges, such as ensuring consistent security policies across different cloud platforms and managing access control for a diverse set of users and applications. Furthermore, regulatory compliance adds another layer of complexity, as organizations must navigate a patchwork of regulations that vary by region and industry.

To address these challenges, enterprises are increasingly turning to multi-cloud security frameworks that provide centralized control and visibility across all cloud environments. These frameworks enable organizations to enforce consistent security policies, monitor for threats, and ensure compliance with industry regulations. As one cloud security expert noted, “In a multi-cloud world, security must be both comprehensive and adaptable. It’s about protecting your data wherever it resides, whether that’s on-premises, in the cloud, or at the edge.”

The Role of Automation and AI in Multi-Cloud Management

As multi-cloud environments become more complex, the role of automation and artificial intelligence (AI) in managing these environments is becoming increasingly important. Automation tools can help streamline tasks such as workload provisioning, scaling, and monitoring, reducing the operational burden on IT teams. AI and machine learning (ML) algorithms can analyze large volumes of data to optimize cloud resource usage, predict potential issues, and recommend corrective actions before problems occur.

For example, multi-cloud network-as-a-service (NaaS) providers are leveraging AI and automation to deliver programmable connectivity with automated, self-service provisioning, configuration, and scaling. This allows enterprises to consume network resources as they would cloud resources, scaling up or down on demand to optimize costs and performance. According to a forecast by Analysys Mason, enterprise spending on multi-cloud NaaS solutions is expected to reach $13 billion by 2028, highlighting the growing importance of automation and AI in multi-cloud management.

The Future of Multi-Cloud: Trends and Predictions

Looking ahead, several key trends are expected to shape the future of multi-cloud strategies. One of the most significant trends is the increasing adoption of edge computing, which involves processing data closer to where it is generated rather than in centralized data centers. As more organizations deploy edge computing solutions, the need for seamless integration between edge environments and multi-cloud architectures will become critical.

Another trend is the growing focus on sustainability in cloud computing. As enterprises become more conscious of their environmental impact, they are likely to prioritize cloud providers that offer green computing solutions, such as energy-efficient data centers and carbon-neutral cloud services. This trend is expected to influence multi-cloud strategies, as organizations seek to balance their performance and sustainability goals.

Finally, the rise of hybrid cloud models, which combine public and private cloud resources, will continue to play a significant role in multi-cloud strategies. Hybrid cloud offers the flexibility to run workloads in the most suitable environment while maintaining control over sensitive data. As more organizations adopt hybrid cloud, the lines between public, private, and edge clouds will blur, creating a unified multi-cloud ecosystem that offers the best of all worlds.

Multi-Cloud Strategies More Relevant Than Ever

In 2024, multi-cloud strategies are more relevant than ever as enterprises seek to navigate the complexities of modern IT environments. By embracing a multi-cloud approach, organizations can leverage the strengths of different cloud providers, enhance their flexibility and reliability, and optimize costs. However, the success of multi-cloud strategies hinges on effective management, robust security frameworks, and the strategic use of automation and AI.

As the multi-cloud landscape continues to evolve, enterprises must remain agile and proactive in adapting their strategies to meet changing business needs and technological advancements. By doing so, they can unlock the full potential of multi-cloud and position themselves for success in an increasingly digital and interconnected world.

The Evolution of Cloud Computing: From Single-Cloud to Multi-Cloud

Cloud computing has fundamentally transformed how businesses operate, offering scalable resources, cost efficiency, and the ability to innovate rapidly. Initially, many enterprises adopted a single-cloud approach, partnering with one provider to meet their IT needs. This made sense in the early stages of cloud adoption, as it simplified management and allowed companies to build deep relationships with a single vendor. However, as cloud technology matured and enterprise needs became more complex, the limitations of a single-cloud strategy became apparent.

The shift towards multi-cloud began as companies realized that no single cloud provider could meet all their needs optimally. Different providers excel in different areas, whether it’s computing power, storage capabilities, AI and machine learning services, or global reach. By spreading workloads across multiple clouds, enterprises can leverage the strengths of various providers, creating a more flexible, resilient, and cost-effective IT infrastructure.

Key Drivers Behind Multi-Cloud Adoption

Several critical factors are driving the shift towards multi-cloud strategies in enterprise environments. These drivers are deeply rooted in the desire for flexibility, resilience, innovation, and competitive advantage.

Avoiding Vendor Lock-In: Ensuring Flexibility and Negotiating Power

One of the most compelling reasons for adopting a multi-cloud approach is the desire to avoid vendor lock-in. Vendor lock-in occurs when a company becomes overly dependent on a single cloud provider, making it difficult to switch providers or move workloads without significant cost or disruption. This dependency can limit an enterprise’s ability to negotiate favorable terms, access the latest technologies, or migrate to new platforms as business needs evolve.

By adopting a multi-cloud strategy, enterprises can mitigate the risks associated with vendor lock-in. This approach allows them to spread workloads across multiple providers, ensuring they are not overly reliant on any single vendor. This diversification enhances negotiating power, as companies can compare services and pricing across providers, and it also provides the flexibility to move workloads or adopt new services as needed.

“As enterprises grow and their needs evolve, the flexibility to switch or combine cloud services becomes essential,” says James Staten, VP and Principal Analyst at Forrester. “A multi-cloud approach provides the agility to leverage different providers’ strengths without being tied down.”

Optimizing Performance and Cost: Leveraging the Best of Each Cloud

Different cloud providers have different strengths, whether it’s Amazon Web Services (AWS) for its robust computing capabilities, Microsoft Azure for its seamless enterprise software integration, or Google Cloud for its cutting-edge AI and machine learning services. By adopting a multi-cloud strategy, enterprises can optimize their IT environment by deploying workloads on the platforms that best meet their specific needs. This selective approach allows companies to maximize performance, reduce latency, and achieve cost efficiencies that would be difficult to attain with a single-cloud strategy.

For example, a company might choose to run its data analytics workloads on Google Cloud, where AI and machine learning tools are highly advanced, while hosting its enterprise applications on Microsoft Azure due to its strong integration with Microsoft 365 and other enterprise software. Meanwhile, AWS might be used for general-purpose computing and storage, thanks to its vast array of services and global reach. This approach allows enterprises to match each workload with the best possible platform, optimizing both performance and cost.

“In a multi-cloud environment, enterprises can run workloads where they perform best and cost the least,” explains Bernard Golden, a cloud computing consultant. “This flexibility is crucial for maintaining a competitive edge while managing operational costs.”

Enhancing Resilience and Redundancy: Building a Robust IT Infrastructure

Resilience is a critical factor driving multi-cloud adoption. In a world where downtime can lead to significant financial losses and reputational damage, ensuring the availability of IT services is paramount. Relying on a single cloud provider poses a significant risk; if that provider experiences an outage, the enterprise’s entire operations could be compromised. By distributing workloads across multiple clouds, companies can mitigate this risk, ensuring that if one provider fails, others can pick up the slack.

“A multi-cloud strategy allows for better disaster recovery planning,” says Lydia Leong, a Distinguished VP Analyst at Gartner. “Enterprises can design their systems to failover to a different cloud provider in the event of an outage, minimizing downtime and ensuring business continuity.”

This approach also enhances redundancy, as critical applications and data can be replicated across multiple clouds. In the event of a failure in one cloud, operations can seamlessly continue on another, reducing the impact of outages and improving overall system reliability. This is particularly important for global enterprises that need to ensure their services are available 24/7 across multiple regions.

Compliance and Data Sovereignty: Navigating Regulatory Complexities

Compliance with data protection regulations and data sovereignty laws is another significant driver behind the adoption of multi-cloud strategies. Different countries have different regulations regarding where data can be stored and processed. For global enterprises, this can create complex challenges, particularly when dealing with sensitive customer data.

A multi-cloud approach allows enterprises to navigate these challenges by using different cloud providers in different regions, ensuring that data is stored and processed in compliance with local laws. For example, a company might use a European cloud provider to store data for its European customers, while using a different provider for its North American operations. This approach helps enterprises avoid legal risks and ensures that they can operate globally while complying with local regulations.

“As data protection regulations become more stringent, companies need to be more strategic about where and how they store their data,” says Janelle Hill, a VP Analyst at Gartner. “A multi-cloud strategy gives them the flexibility to meet these requirements without compromising on performance or cost.”

The Challenges of Multi-Cloud Adoption

While the benefits of a multi-cloud strategy are clear, this approach is not without its challenges. Enterprises adopting a multi-cloud approach must navigate a complex landscape of technical, operational, and strategic issues.

Complexity in Management and Integration

One of the most significant challenges of a multi-cloud strategy is the complexity of managing multiple cloud environments. Each cloud provider has its own set of tools, APIs, and management interfaces, making it difficult to achieve a unified view of the entire IT environment. This can lead to operational inefficiencies and increased risk of errors, particularly in areas such as security, compliance, and performance monitoring.

“Managing multiple clouds is not as simple as managing one,” says Lori MacVittie, a Principal Technical Evangelist at F5 Networks. “It requires specialized skills, tools, and processes to ensure that everything works together seamlessly.”

To address these challenges, enterprises need to invest in multi-cloud management platforms and automation tools that can provide a unified view of their cloud environment. These tools can help streamline operations, improve security, and reduce the risk of errors, making it easier to manage a complex multi-cloud environment.

Security and Compliance Risks

Security is another significant challenge in a multi-cloud environment. Each cloud provider has its own security protocols and standards, and ensuring that these align with the enterprise’s overall security strategy can be difficult. Additionally, the complexity of managing security across multiple clouds can increase the risk of vulnerabilities and breaches.

To mitigate these risks, enterprises need to adopt a robust security strategy that spans all their cloud environments. This includes implementing strong identity and access management (IAM) controls, encrypting data both at rest and in transit, and regularly monitoring for potential threats. Additionally, enterprises should work closely with their cloud providers to ensure that security protocols are up to date and aligned with industry best practices.

“Security is always a top concern in a multi-cloud environment,” says Neil MacDonald, a Distinguished VP Analyst at Gartner. “Enterprises need to be proactive in managing security across all their cloud providers to reduce the risk of breaches and ensure compliance with regulations.”

Cost Management and Optimization

While a multi-cloud strategy can lead to cost savings by optimizing workloads across different providers, it can also introduce new challenges in cost management. With multiple cloud providers, enterprises need to track and manage costs across different billing systems, making it difficult to gain a clear picture of overall spending.

To address this challenge, enterprises need to invest in cloud cost management tools that provide visibility into spending across all their cloud environments. These tools can help identify areas of inefficiency, such as underutilized resources or redundant services, and provide recommendations for optimizing costs. Additionally, enterprises should work closely with their cloud providers to negotiate favorable pricing and ensure they are getting the best value for their investment.

“Cost management is a critical component of a successful multi-cloud strategy,” says Bernard Golden. “Enterprises need to be vigilant in tracking and optimizing costs to ensure they are getting the best value from their cloud investments.”

Strategic Considerations for Multi-Cloud Success

To succeed with a multi-cloud strategy, enterprises need to take a strategic approach that aligns with their overall business goals. This includes carefully selecting cloud providers based on their specific strengths, investing in the right tools and technologies, and building a strong governance framework to manage risks and ensure compliance.

Selecting the Right Cloud Providers

The first step in a successful multi-cloud strategy is selecting the right cloud providers. Enterprises should evaluate providers based on their specific strengths and how well they align with the company’s needs. This includes considering factors such as performance, cost, security, compliance, and the availability of specialized services.

“For enterprises, it’s not just about choosing the biggest or most popular cloud provider,” says Janelle Hill, a VP Analyst at Gartner. “It’s about selecting the right provider for each specific workload or business requirement. This might mean using one provider for AI and machine learning, another for data storage, and yet another for enterprise applications.”

Enterprises should also consider the geographic reach of their cloud providers, particularly if they operate globally. Providers with data centers in multiple regions can offer better performance and compliance with local regulations. Additionally, companies should evaluate the provider’s ecosystem, including third-party integrations, support services, and partnerships, to ensure that they can build a comprehensive and cohesive cloud strategy.

Investing in Multi-Cloud Management Tools

Effective management is crucial to the success of a multi-cloud strategy. As enterprises distribute workloads across multiple providers, the complexity of managing these environments increases. To address this, companies should invest in multi-cloud management platforms that provide a unified view of their cloud infrastructure. These tools can help streamline operations, automate routine tasks, and provide real-time visibility into performance, security, and costs.

“Multi-cloud management platforms are essential for maintaining control over a complex cloud environment,” says Lori MacVittie, a Principal Technical Evangelist at F5 Networks. “They enable enterprises to monitor and manage all their cloud resources from a single interface, reducing the risk of errors and improving operational efficiency.”

In addition to management platforms, automation tools play a critical role in a multi-cloud strategy. Automation can help reduce the manual effort required to manage multiple cloud environments, allowing IT teams to focus on higher-value tasks. This includes automating tasks such as resource provisioning, scaling, and security updates, which can significantly improve the efficiency and reliability of cloud operations.

Building a Strong Governance Framework

A strong governance framework is essential for managing risks and ensuring compliance in a multi-cloud environment. As enterprises work with multiple cloud providers, they must establish clear policies and procedures to govern how cloud resources are used. This includes defining roles and responsibilities, setting security and compliance standards, and establishing protocols for monitoring and auditing cloud usage.

“Governance is critical in a multi-cloud environment,” says Neil MacDonald, a Distinguished VP Analyst at Gartner. “Without a strong governance framework, enterprises risk losing control over their cloud resources, leading to security vulnerabilities, compliance issues, and cost overruns.”

Enterprises should also implement robust identity and access management (IAM) controls to ensure that only authorized users can access cloud resources. This includes enforcing strong authentication measures, such as multi-factor authentication, and regularly reviewing and updating access permissions. Additionally, companies should establish processes for monitoring cloud usage and detecting anomalies, such as unauthorized access or unusual spending patterns.

The Future of Multi-Cloud: Trends and Predictions

As cloud technology continues to evolve, the multi-cloud approach is likely to become even more prevalent in the enterprise space. Several trends are expected to shape the future of multi-cloud adoption, including the rise of hybrid cloud environments, the increasing importance of edge computing, and the growing focus on cloud-native applications.

Hybrid Cloud: Bridging the Gap Between On-Premises and Cloud

Hybrid cloud environments, which combine on-premises infrastructure with cloud services, are becoming increasingly popular among enterprises. This approach allows companies to take advantage of the scalability and flexibility of the cloud while maintaining control over critical workloads and data. As hybrid cloud adoption grows, enterprises are likely to incorporate multi-cloud strategies to optimize their hybrid environments further.

“Hybrid cloud is the next frontier for multi-cloud adoption,” says James Staten of Forrester. “Enterprises will need to integrate multiple cloud providers with their on-premises infrastructure, creating a seamless and flexible IT environment.”

Edge Computing: Extending the Cloud to the Edge

Edge computing, which involves processing data closer to the source rather than in centralized data centers, is expected to play a significant role in the future of cloud computing. As enterprises deploy more IoT devices and real-time applications, they will need to adopt multi-cloud strategies that incorporate edge computing to reduce latency and improve performance.

“Edge computing is transforming how enterprises think about cloud,” says Bernard Golden, a cloud computing consultant. “As companies deploy edge devices, they’ll need to integrate multiple cloud providers to manage data and workloads at the edge effectively.”

Cloud-Native Applications: Driving Innovation in Multi-Cloud Environments

Cloud-native applications, designed to run in cloud environments, are driving innovation in how enterprises use multi-cloud strategies. These applications are built using microservices, containerization, and DevOps practices, allowing for greater scalability, flexibility, and resilience. As enterprises continue to adopt cloud-native technologies, they will increasingly rely on multi-cloud strategies to deploy and manage these applications across different cloud environments.

“Cloud-native applications are the future of enterprise IT,” says Lydia Leong of Gartner. “Enterprises that embrace multi-cloud strategies will be better positioned to innovate and compete in a rapidly changing market.”

The Strategic Importance of Multi-Cloud

The strategic importance of a multi-cloud approach lies in its ability to offer enterprises the flexibility, agility, and resilience necessary to thrive in an increasingly complex digital landscape. As organizations continue to evolve and expand their digital operations, relying on a single cloud provider can be limiting and risky. A multi-cloud strategy, however, empowers enterprises to choose the best services from different providers, optimizing their cloud infrastructure to meet specific business needs.

“Relying on a single cloud provider is like putting all your eggs in one basket,” says Dave Bartoletti, a VP and Principal Analyst at Forrester. “A multi-cloud strategy allows enterprises to mitigate risks by distributing workloads across multiple platforms, ensuring that they can continue to operate smoothly even if one provider experiences an outage or service disruption.”

Another key advantage of a multi-cloud strategy is the ability to negotiate better terms with cloud providers. By working with multiple vendors, enterprises can leverage their relationships to secure more favorable pricing, service-level agreements (SLAs), and support. This competitive dynamic can lead to significant cost savings and improved service quality, both of which are critical for maintaining a competitive edge.

“Enterprises that adopt a multi-cloud approach are in a stronger position to negotiate with providers,” says Janelle Hill, VP Analyst at Gartner. “They can compare services, pricing, and performance across multiple platforms, choosing the best options for their specific needs and driving better outcomes for their business.”

Moreover, a multi-cloud strategy enables enterprises to take advantage of the latest innovations and advancements from different providers. Cloud vendors are constantly developing new features and services, and by adopting a multi-cloud approach, organizations can quickly integrate these innovations into their operations. This not only enhances their technological capabilities but also positions them as leaders in their respective industries.

“In the fast-paced world of technology, staying ahead of the curve is crucial,” says Bernard Golden, a cloud computing consultant. “A multi-cloud strategy allows enterprises to tap into the best that each cloud provider has to offer, ensuring that they remain at the forefront of innovation and can adapt to changing market conditions.”

Lastly, the strategic importance of multi-cloud is amplified by the growing emphasis on data sovereignty and compliance. With regulations like GDPR and CCPA becoming more stringent, enterprises must ensure that their data is stored, processed, and managed in accordance with regional and industry-specific requirements. A multi-cloud strategy allows organizations to choose providers with data centers in specific regions, ensuring compliance and reducing the risk of legal complications.

“Data sovereignty is a critical concern for enterprises operating in multiple jurisdictions,” says Neil MacDonald, a Distinguished VP Analyst at Gartner. “By adopting a multi-cloud strategy, organizations can navigate the complexities of global compliance, ensuring that their data is handled in a way that meets regulatory requirements while still benefiting from the scalability and flexibility of the cloud.”

In conclusion, the strategic importance of a multi-cloud approach cannot be overstated. It provides enterprises with the tools they need to manage risk, optimize costs, drive innovation, and ensure compliance, all while maintaining the flexibility and agility necessary to thrive in a rapidly changing digital landscape. As the demand for cloud services continues to grow, a multi-cloud strategy will be essential for any organization looking to stay competitive and resilient in the years to come.

Google is currently the third-largest cloud provider in the world, behind AWS and Microsoft. CEO Thomas Kurian has made no secret of his intention to overtake Microsoft for the second spot, but those ambitions have yet come to fruition, or even threaten to do so. Meanwhile, Oracle usually usually places sixth or seventh, depending on various factors.

The two companies clearly see the benefit of teaming up, making it easier for customers to run their workflows across the two platforms, as emphasized by Google’s Gurmeet (GG) Goindi and Oracle’s Karan Batta:

It provides a rich set of interoperable solutions that make it easy for our joint customers to migrate, modernize, and manage their Oracle-based applications in the cloud. With unified engineering, product, and commercial model, these integrated solutions deliver choice and flexibility backed by the end-to-end enterprise-class collaborative support model that our joint customers have relied on over the years. At the core of this partnership is the Oracle Database@Google Cloud. Oracle will directly host, operate and manage Oracle database services natively within and from the Google Cloud data centers, beginning with regional footprints in North America and Europe, and plans to rapidly expand globally.

The executives says customers have been asking for a unified framework between the two companies for year:

Over the years, joint enterprise customers expressed interest in a unified framework that allows them to continue to benefit from Oracle’s database and enterprise application offerings while seamlessly complemented with Google Cloud offerings and AI solutions such as Gemini and Vertex AI to modernize and accelerate cloud migrations. However, as customers explored the existing multi-vendor, multi-cloud options, these solutions lacked sufficient choice and the native integration options to meet customers’ technical and commercial requirements. Customers had to further deal with additional costs such as cross-cloud data transfer charges, or the lack of end-to-end enterprise-grade support for these architectures.

Customers will be able to connect Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) and Google Cloud without paying cross-cloud data transfer chargers, and the two companies will support running Oracle app on Google Cloud.

We are tremendously excited about the opportunities this partnership unlocks for our customers. We are committed to continue innovating around these unified solutions on our customers’ behalf with a focus on delivering cost-effective choices that can meet the performance, availability and security requirements of their most demanding applications and database workloads.

Oracle says Google Cloud’s Cross-Cloud INterconnect will initially be available in 11 global regions for onboarding customers. Later this year, Oracle Database@Google Cloud will be available, offering “highest level of Oracle database and network performance, along with feature and pricing parity with OCI.” Oracle and Google will both provide Oracle Database@Google Cloud.

Oracle will operate and manage Oracle database services directly within Google Cloud datacenters globally, beginning with regions in North America and Europe. Oracle Exadata Database Service, Oracle Autonomous Database Service, and Oracle Real Application Clusters (RAC) will launch later this year across four regions—US East (Ashburn), US West (Salt Lake City), UK South (London), and Germany Central (Frankfurt)—and then rapidly expand to additional regions worldwide.

“Customers want the flexibility to use multiple clouds,” said Larry Ellison, Oracle Chairman and CTO. “To meet this growing demand, Google and Oracle are seamlessly connecting Google Cloud services with the very latest Oracle Database technology. By putting Oracle Cloud Infrastructure hardware in Google Cloud datacenters, customers can benefit from the best possible database and network performance.

“Oracle and Google Cloud have many joint enterprise customers,” said Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google and Alphabet. “This new partnership will help these customers use Oracle database and applications in concert with Google Cloud’s innovative platform and AI capabilities.”

The deal is good news for Oracle, especially as the company continues to vie for cloud share in a market dominated by AWS, Microsoft, and Google Cloud.

At the heart of this debate lies the egress fees – charges cloud service providers impose when customers attempt to move their data between different platforms. For years, these fees have been a source of contention, with critics arguing that they stifle competition and inhibit the free flow of information.

Recently, Google and Amazon made headlines when they announced plans to eliminate egress fees. They cited regulatory pressure and a desire to promote fair competition. However, one major player has remained steadfast in its resistance: Microsoft.

In a recent interview, Richard Campbell, host of RunAsRadio and an industry insider with extensive Enterprise sector experience, highlighted this issue’s significance. “I have not been pushed hard on something like this in a long time,” he remarked, highlighting the gravity of the situation.

Indeed, Microsoft’s refusal to budge on egress fees has far-reaching implications. These charges hinder customers’ ability to switch between cloud providers and raise concerns about data sovereignty and privacy.

In Europe, where data protection laws are among the strictest in the world, the debate over egress fees has taken on added significance. Companies like Microsoft are under increasing scrutiny as governments grapple with how best to regulate big tech.

The timing of Google and Amazon’s announcements, coming just months before Microsoft decides to eliminate egress fees, raises questions about the role of regulatory pressure in shaping industry practices. Are these moves genuine attempts to promote fair competition, or are they preemptive measures designed to avoid government intervention?

The stakes are high for CFOs and IT decision-makers. As companies look to leverage the benefits of cloud computing while minimizing costs, the issue of egress fees looms large. For some, the solution may lie in repatriation—bringing data back in-house to avoid the hefty charges imposed by cloud providers.

But for others, the battle over egress fees is about more than just the bottom line. It’s about principles of fairness, competition, and data sovereignty. As the debate rages on, one thing is clear: the outcome will shape the future of cloud computing for years to come.

Cisco says Isovalent’s acquisition will help improve its Cisco Security Cloud and provide customers better protection across their workloads.

“Together with Isovalent, Cisco will build on the open source power of Cilium to create a truly unique multicloud security and networking capability to help customers simplify and accelerate their digital transformation journeys,” said Jeetu Patel, executive vice president and general manager of Security and Collaboration at Cisco. “Imagine in today’s distributed environment – of applications, virtual machines, containers and cloud assets – having security controls with total visibility, without hindering networking and application performance. The combination of Cisco and Isovalent will make this a reality.”

“Cisco is committed to nurturing, investing in, and contributing to the eBPF and Cilium open source communities,” said Stephen Augustus, Head of Open Source at Cisco. “Isovalent’s team will join Cisco’s deep bench of open source governance and technical leadership to solve complex cloud native, security, and networking challenges. Their knowledge will accelerate innovation across the business and help further strengthen the Cisco Security Cloud platform to meet the growing demands of our customers.”

Terms of the deal were no disclosed, but it is expected to close in the third quarter of fiscal 2024.

AWS, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud dominate the industry, accounting for a 71% share of the market. Similarly, the three companies account for 65% of all cloud spending. Nonetheless, it appears some organizations are looking to support smaller, independent rivals.

A new report, commissioned by Linode and conducted by Techstrong Research, shows that despite 93% of respondents using one of the Big Three, two-thirds would consider an alternative.

The largest three hyperscalers (Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud Compute) are used by 93% of respondents. Yet many DevOps buyers are re-thinking a reflex default to these hyperscalers. Two-thirds of companies surveyed would consider bringing in an “alternative” CSP; almost 22% have already done so. In fact, the combined market share for the top alternative vendors is fourth in the category, just behind Microsoft and Google.

Even more troubling for the Big Three is the growing interest in alternative providers, as well as the reasons that interest is growing.

Interest and adoption is highest in small and medium organizations (fewer than 10,000 employees). Main reasons for bringing in a new vendor include reducing reliance on a single provider, improving price performance and ease of use, and better data protection.

Another growing concern is competition from a company’s cloud service provider (CSP). Each of the Big Three are part of larger companies that offer a wide array of products and services, many of which can compete with the products and services of their cloud customers.

More than 50% of DevOps professionals and leaders surveyed say their CSP is already a competitor to their B2B or B2C business or is expected to become one. Fear of IP loss and rapid market displacement is also evidenced in respondent’s strong stated desire to work with a trustworthy, capable provider who shares their company values.

Needless to say, the Big Three hold a commanding position in the market, and it will be a long time before they face a serious challenge. Nonetheless, the report should be a cause for concern and highlights areas where they must improve in order to keep their customers happy.

Microsoft has been expanding its Microsoft Defender for Cloud to offer multicloud security. The product already supports AWS, in addition to Microsoft’s own Azure, but now the company has announced support for GCP.

Vasu Jakkal, Corporate Vice President, Security, Compliance, Identity, and Management, made the announcement in a company blog post:

Today, we’re thrilled to announce new advanced multicloud posture management capabilities for Google Cloud Platform (GCP) in Microsoft Defender for Cloud to help customers proactively prevent breaches across multicloud and hybrid environments.

Microsoft is recognized as a Representative Vendor in the 2023 Gartner Market Guide for Cloud Native Application Protection Platforms.3 Microsoft Defender for Cloud became the first cloud provider to offer multicloud workload protection for cloud infrastructure, applications, and data across the full lifecycle for all three public clouds.4 Since then, we’ve rapidly expanded our CNAPP capabilities to provide advanced posture management with Microsoft Defender Cloud Security Posture Management (Defender CSPM), DevSecOps security with integrations into GitHub Advanced Security, and continued investments in our cloud workload protection (CWP) solutions across servers, containers, APIs, storage, and databases.

On August 15, 2023, Defender CSPM will extend its advanced agentless scanning, data-aware security posture, cloud security graph, and attack path analysis capabilities to GCP, providing a single contextual view of cloud risks across Amazon Web Services (AWS), Azure, GCP, and hybrid environments.

The move will likely make Microsoft Defender for Cloud the leading multicloud security option.

Apptio’s products are designed to help companies track their spending across cloud platforms. Given IBM’s efforts to transform itself into a hybrid cloud company, the acquisition fits in with Big Blue’s long-term plans. IBM announced a $4.6 billion acquisition deal in June 2023.

According to the company, the deal has gone through, and Apptio is now part of IBM.

“The combination of Apptio products and IBM’s IT automation portfolio will give businesses a 360-degree technology management platform they can use to optimize and automate decisions across their IT landscapes,” said Rob Thomas, Senior Vice President, Software and Chief Commercial Officer, IBM. “We are bringing together market-leading and best-in-class solutions to continue to reshape IT from a cost center to a true competitive advantage, powered by automation and AI.”

“Our journey with Apptio is a testament to Vista’s ability to create consistent outcomes that drive value for our stakeholders,” said Robert F. Smith, Founder, Chairman and CEO of Vista Equity Partners. “We are proud of our continued momentum, even amidst these challenged market conditions, and look forward to seeing how Apptio’s technology will bolster IBM’s IT automation and AI capabilities in the years ahead. It’s been an honor to partner with a visionary founder like Sunny and we wish the entire Apptio team the best in the next phase of their growth with IBM.”

IBM has been working to transform itself into a hybrid could company, even going so far as to devise a plan to split into two companies and sell off parts of its legacy business. Apptio’s cloud-based platform is designed to help companies gain insights into their spending across cloud environments, including hybrid and multi-cloud. Given IBM’s focus on hybrid cloud, the Apptio acquisition makes sense.

“Technology is changing business at a rate and pace we’ve never seen before. To capitalize on these changes, it is essential to optimize investments which drive better business value, and Apptio does just that,” said Arvind Krishna, CEO and chairman, IBM. “Apptio’s offerings combined with IBM’s IT automation software and watsonx AI platform, gives clients the most comprehensive approach to optimize and manage all of their technology investments.”

“Our customers are evolving to a complex digital-first, hybrid world where technology investments are distributed and decentralized but all innovation must be aligned with clear business outcomes,” explained Sunny Gupta, Apptio co-founder and CEO. “We are so excited to be joining IBM and combining our industry leading offerings with IBM’s global presence and strong portfolio across AIOps, automation and hybrid cloud offerings.”

“We are committed to building resilient enterprise software companies, which has proven to be highly attractive to strategic and financial buyers, as well as public markets,” said Robert F. Smith, founder, chairman and CEO of Vista Equity Partners. “Our investment philosophy, value creation strategy, and industry expertise, enables us to identify and partner with companies that have the potential for long-term success. Apptio has transformed how leading organizations optimize their IT spend and performance for better outcomes. We are proud of these shared accomplishments and look forward to seeing Apptio further evolve with IBM.”

The deal is expected to close in the second half of 2023 and caps a string of hybrid cloud acquisitions IBM has made to bolster its efforts.

Cloudflare is a well-known CDN and cloud provider, while Databricks is a company specializing in providing “an open and unified platform for data and AI.” The two companies are working together to help joint customers get the most from their multi-cloud environment.

“Without an open standard for secure data exchange across organizations, companies find it highly time-consuming to collaborate, requiring export, replication and maintenance of data across many software platforms,” said Matei Zaharia, Co-Founder and CTO at Databricks. “Delta Sharing provides the first open protocol for sharing data across diverse computing platforms, clouds and regions. Today’s announcement shows just how much demand there is for this in the industry, with Cloudflare joining the ecosystem. We are excited about how this will push open interchange forward and help all of our customers collaborate more easily.”

Databricks will now support a number of Cloudflare features that will enable users to more effectively share data in a secure manner:

Databricks will now support Delta Sharing from Cloudflare R2, Cloudflare’s zero egress, distributed object storage offering. This seamless integration enables data teams to share live data sets in R2 easily and efficiently, eliminating the need for complex data transfers or duplications of data sets, and with zero egress fees. This will enable joint customers to ensure they’re sharing the most up to date data sets with their partners, suppliers, and lines of businesses, without compromising security and privacy, and without unpredictable, surprise egress fees.

“We are in the midst of an AI revolution rooted in data,” said Matthew Prince, co-founder and CEO, Cloudflare. “R2 provides an amazing value proposition for companies that suffer from vendor lock-in, and instead ensures developers retain the power to choose where to move and use their data. The combination of Cloudflare’s massive global network and zero egress storage, along with Databricks’ powerful sharing and processing capabilities, will give our joint customers the fastest, most secure, and most affordable data sharing capabilities across the globe.”

According to a draft of new legislation seen by Reuters, the EU is preparing strict rules that non-EU cloud providers must meet in order to receive the coveted cybersecurity label.

The cloud providers will be required to partner with an EU-based company in order to qualify, and would only be eligible for a minority stake in the joint venture. All data handled by the venture would need to be stored in the EU, and EU data laws would take precedent over all others.

“Certified cloud services are operated only by companies based in the EU, with no entity from outside the EU having effective control over the CSP (cloud service provider), to mitigate the risk of non-EU interfering powers undermining EU regulations, norms and values,” the document said.

“Undertakings whose registered head office or headquarters are not established in a ember State of the EU shall not, directly or indirectly, solely or jointly, hold positive or negative effective control of the CSP applying for the certification of a cloud service,” it added.

As Reuters points out, US cloud providers are likely to balk at the new legislation, and it will likely have a significant impact on the market.

2022 was not a good year for the tech industry. Despite flying high during the pandemic, an economic downturn has taken its toll, resulting in slower growth and mass layoffs.

According to CNBC, however, IBM is the exception to the rule. The company is one of only two among companies valued at $50 billion or more whose stock is up over the course of 2022. The other one is VMware, although its stock is only up because of its deal to be purchased by Broadcom.

Read more: IBM Beats Expectations on Strong Hybrid Cloud Results

IBM’s stock, which is up 6%, appears to be benefiting from the company’s long-term strategy which has reassured investors. The company has reinvented itself as a hybrid cloud provider and formed close ties with its larger cloud rivals, such as Microsoft and AWS.

As a result of the company’s strategy, Bernstein Research analysts say IBM is “trading well above its historical range.”

“Given its defensive characteristics and historical performance, we believe that IBM is likely to fare well if we continue to have pressured markets, and likely to lag major indices if we enter a recovery period,” they continued.

IBM is once again proving its ability to adapt to changing circumstances and stay relevant when many younger, more “nimble” companies struggle to keep up.

The Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure (JEDI) contact was the Pentagon’s attempt to modernize its IT operations and migrate to the cloud. AWS was largely seen as the frontrunner until Microsoft was awarded the entire $10 billion contract. AWS responded by suing the Pentagon relentlessly until the DoD canceled the contract in favor of the $9 billion multi-vendor Joint Warfighter Cloud Capability (JWCC).

“The purpose of this contract is to provide the Department of Defense with enterprise-wide, globally available cloud services across all security domains and classification levels, from the strategic level to the tactical edge,” the DoD writes in the award notices. “The Joint Warfighting Cloud Capability will allow mission owners to acquire authorized commercial cloud offerings directly from the Cloud Service Providers contract awardees. Joint Warfighting Cloud Capability is a multiple award contract.”

The multi-vendor contract was awarded to AWS, Google Cloud, Microsoft, and Oracle. Rather than define the share of the contract each company will receive, each company is part of the same $9 billion pool and will receive funds as their services are needed.

“No funds will be obligated at the time of award; funds will be obligated on individual orders as they are issued,” the DoD continues.

Only time will tell if all four cloud players, especially AWS, accept the terms or resort to lawsuits in an effort to secure more favorable terms.

Update: Amazon has reached out to WPN with the following statement:

“We are honored to have been selected for the Joint Warfighting Cloud Capability contract and look forward to continuing our support for the Department of Defense. From the enterprise to the tactical edge, we are ready to deliver industry-leading cloud services to enable the DoD to achieve its critical mission.”

Oracle Interconnect for Microsoft Azure allows customers to integrate and use the two cloud platforms, making it an ideal option for hybrid cloud deployments. The new region will allow customers throughout Africa to use Oracle Database Service for Microsoft Azure.

“Our longstanding collaboration with Microsoft Azure gives our joint customers the flexibility and choice to innovate using the best of both our clouds. With growing customer demand for multicloud capabilities across Africa, we look forward to helping Microsoft Azure customers migrate their workloads to the cloud without the need for complicated re-platforming, while giving them seamless access to Oracle Database services on OCI,” said Nick Redshaw, senior vice president, Technology Cloud, Middle East and Africa, Oracle.

“Microsoft and Oracle share a long-standing history of delivering excellence on behalf of our mutual customers and supporting their evolving needs,” said Colin Erasmus, COO, Microsoft South Africa. “Expanding the Oracle Interconnect for Microsoft Azure to Johannesburg ensures our valued customers in this region can benefit from the choice to deploy multicloud solutions.”

Oracle emphasized the benefits of a multicloud approach.

With Oracle Interconnect for Microsoft Azure, customers in Africa can now migrate and run mission-critical enterprise workloads across their Azure and OCI environments with a private, dedicated low-latency connection and identity federation. Customers also receive a collaborative, comprehensive service support model. Pricing is port-based with no additional charges for bandwidth consumed.

MySQL HeatWave is billed as “the only service that combines OLTP, analytics, machine learning, and machine learning-based automation within a single MySQL database.” Oracle found many of its customers came from AWS, or are running a multi-cloud setup and want to keep costs down.

“Oracle believes in giving customers a choice. Many of our MySQL HeatWave customers migrated from AWS. Others wish to continue running parts of their application on AWS. Those customers face serious challenges including exorbitant data egress fees charged by AWS and higher latency when accessing a database service running in Oracle’s cloud,” said Edward Screven, chief corporate architect, Oracle. “We are addressing these issues while delivering outstanding performance and price performance across transaction, analytics, and machine learning compared to other database cloud providers—even Amazon’s own databases running on AWS, where you’d think they would have an advantage. We wanted to offer AWS customers this choice to benefit from MySQL HeatWave innovation without moving their data from AWS, or developers needing to learn a new platform.”

Oracle is positioning MySQL HeatWave as a multi-cloud option, with support for OCI and AWS, as well as plans to support Microsoft Azure in the near future. Oracle also provides the service for on-premise customers via Oracle Dedicated Region Cloud@Customer.

“While AWS offers a smorgasbord of cloud database services specialized for each data type and capability, MySQL HeatWave on AWS follows Oracle’s converged database strategy—offering transaction, analytics, ML, and Autopilot automation all in one. For AWS users, this means no charges for add-on services, extra storage, data egress fees, connectors, and more. For cost conscious IT teams and developers, MySQL HeatWave on AWS represents a whole new TCO calculation with zero cost for what are add-on services on AWS and no data egress fees,” said Marc Staimer, senior analyst, Wikibon. “And just as Usain Bolt left all of his competitors in the dust and set new world records that have yet to be broken, the latest price performance benchmark results demonstrate that MySQL HeatWave on AWS is 7X better than Amazon Redshift. If you follow the money, the choice is easy.”

Microsoft drew the ire of smaller EU cloud providers over terms that made it more expensive for Office 365 customers to use third-party cloud providers, rather than Microsoft’s Azure. The company outlined its plans to address the complaints and work to more fairly treat its smaller competitors earlier this week.

Despite Microsoft’s efforts to allay concerns, its rivals are not convinced, with Google Cloud Vice President of Government Affairs and Policy Marcus Jadotte slamming Microsoft’s announcement:

Jadotte contrasted Microsoft’s approach with Google’s, with the latter focused on openness and a multi-cloud approach:

Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian has made no secret of his desire to move from third-place to second-place in the cloud market. As part of that goal, Google has been positioning itself as a multi-cloud provider.

It remains to be seen if Microsoft’s actions will be enough to prevent a regulatory response from the EU, but it certainly hasn’t won any praise from its biggest competitors.

The cloud computing market is experiencing major growth, due in no small part to the pandemic and the rise of hybrid work. All three of the top providers are experiencing major growth, with no signs of it slowing down. According to McDermott, cloud computing’s success is because of its “pervasive” and transformative nature.

“It simplifies everything. Everything’s on the mobile. Everything’s beautiful and easy to use,” McDermott told Yahoo Finance.

“It’s one platform that can single thread business across an entire enterprise, all functions of the business. So, it is a great unifier in a sense, because some people have very powerful Chief Information Officers, others have Chief Digital Officers, others have Chief People officers, others have these wonderful data managers,” McDermott added. “But to have one platform, that single thread, all of those powerful relationships to deliver great experiences is super exciting to us.”

While the economic downturn has many companies hedging their bets and cutting costs, McDermott believes the cloud computing market can continue growing, buoyed by companies’ digital first strategies.

“Ninety-five percent of CEOs have a digital first strategy. So, they’re leaning in to digital transformation. Because it’s the only way out. On one hand, it’s software as the great deflationary force,” McDermott said. “On another hand, if you can’t transform and recreate your business model, and innovate digitally, you lose the game. So, CEOs are very well aware of this. So, that tailwind is super strong.”

McDermott’s predictions are good news for the cloud market and underscore the opportunities available to cloud providers.

Amazon’s AWS is the leading cloud provider platform, both in the private sector as well as the public. Microsoft is its largest rival, and the company is working on getting other companies to help lobby against Amazon’s dominance, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal.

Microsoft has been sharing talking points with cloud providers Google and Oracle, as well as IBM, VMware, Dell, and HP Enterprise. The talking points are aimed at lobbying Washington to require a multi-vendor approach for large cloud contracts. According to WSJ’s sources, Microsoft has not included Amazon in its efforts.

Read more: Microsoft Azure Is a Major Threat to AWS

There’s certainly no love lost between Amazon and Microsoft, especially in their battle for the cloud market. Microsoft famously scored the Pentagon’s JEDI contract, worth some $10 billion, only to have Amazon relentlessly challenge the win in court until the Department of Defense was forced to abandon the contract in an effort to move forward with its cloud transition.

Not long after, AWS won a $10 billion contract to provide cloud services to the National Security Agency. Microsoft challenged that contract award but was unsuccessful in overturning the results.

More recently, an AWS exec took Microsoft to task over its cloud licensing terms, accusing the company of not putting customers’ needs first and engaging in anti-competitive behavior.

It appears the rivalry between Microsoft and AWS is picking up steam with no end in sight. If Microsoft is successful in rallying the smaller cloud providers to its cause, it could represent the single biggest threat that AWS has ever faced.