MultiCloud is a strategy and model of using multiple cloud providers simultaneously to host applications, services, and data. Unlike the Single Cloud approach, where a company relies on just one cloud provider, a multicloud architecture distributes resources across different platforms – for example, AWS, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud, IBM Cloud, and private on-premises clouds.
The primary goal of MultiCloud is to increase flexibility, reliability, and efficiency of IT infrastructure while avoiding vendor lock-in.
Key Characteristics of MultiCloud
- Heterogeneous environment – each cloud platform offers unique features and services.
- Task distribution – one cloud may be used for data storage, another for machine learning, and a third for development and testing.
- Cost optimization – companies can choose the most cost-effective pricing plans from different providers.
- Risk mitigation – an outage at one provider does not lead to a full business disruption.
How It Works
MultiCloud may include a combination of:
- Public clouds (AWS, Azure, GCP);
- Private clouds (based on VMware, OpenStack, and other solutions);
- Hybrid scenarios (integrating on-premises systems with multiple public clouds).
Management of multicloud environments is often performed via specialized platforms (e.g., VMware Tanzu, NetApp Cloud Manager, or Kubernetes with multicloud plugins), which help control resources, costs, and security across different providers.
Applications
MultiCloud is widely adopted by organizations that require scalability, resilience, and flexibility, such as:
- multinational corporations with distributed offices and data centers;
- telecommunications providers;
- banks and fintech companies to meet regulatory requirements;
- e-commerce and SaaS services where continuous availability is critical.
Example
A large IT company stores customer data in Microsoft Azure (to comply with data residency requirements), uses AWS for analytics and machine learning, and Google Cloud for application testing and development. All clouds are centrally managed through a unified tool, enabling cost control and security enforcement.