WHITE PAPERTHE
MULTICLOUD
MANIFESTManaging Data Complexity at ScaleWHITE PAPER

CONTENTS
3

INTRODUCTION

4

SETTING THE STAGE:
CLOUD COMPARISONS

6FINDING THE MIDDLE GROUND

8EXPLORING THE
MULTIPURPOSE ADVANTAGE

10EXAMINING THE EVOLUTION
OF CLOUD-CENTRIC ARCHITECTURE

11

ASSESSING THE ROLE OF
CLOUD SERVICES AT SCALE

12MANAGING MULTICLOUD COMPLEXITY

13

CONSIDERING A
THREE-STEP STRATEGY

14

CONCLUSION
MAKING THE MOST OF MULTICLOUD

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Introduction
Every enterprise today is part of a data economy. In this economy, data is currency; it’s how value iscreated and exchanged. Data is the new natural resource—the fuel of innovation.
An enterprise data economy is a global digital ecosystem in which data is gathered, organized, andexchanged by a network of cross-functional enterprise departments for the purpose of deriving value
from the accumulated information.
Data collected and managed in an enterprise data economy must be securely stored in dedicatedstorage repositories, which are physically distributed across a mix of on- and off-premises data center
environments—including traditional on-prem and co-location data centers, private cloud, public cloud,hybrid cloud, and ultimately, multicloud.
Multicloud describes an enterprise data infrastructure that uses more than one public cloud andincreasingly includes private cloud components. In practice, multicloud can mean that an enterprisehouses some data in public clouds and some in on-prem private cloud and may move data between
them. The enterprise’s data across all cloud elements is orchestrated through data management.
The multicloud landscape, while being exceedingly complex, offers great potential if data managers
can break down and understand how to exploit the advantages of its various constituent capabilities.
The goal of a multicloud data architecture is to yield optimal data economics; that is, to create themost efficient infrastructure possible so as to capture the growing data opportunity, while also moving
data to the right place within the organization so it can be converted to insight and drive competitive
advantage.
A flexible infrastructure approach to multicloud will enable data managers to choose from owned,
leased, or shared space—or a combination of all three. It’s about whatever is needed to seamlessly
scale to meet business requirements.
This white paper focuses on the emergence of multicloud data management strategies as a dominantparadigm for organizations with large and increasing storage demands, as well as the need to control
the flow and use of data more closely than traditional cloud enables.

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Part 1—Setting the Stage: Cloud Comparisons
Cloud solutions are typically defined by type: public, private, hybrid, and multicloud.
Public solutions offer multitenant compute and storage solutions off premises and on demand. Services
such as Amazon’s AWS and Microsoft Azure fall into this category.
Private cloud deployments are custom-built, single-tenant offerings that provide greater control overapplications, resource utilization, and security.
Hybrid architectures use a mix of public and private clouds to maximize organizational efficiency by
combining key benefits, such as public cloud load balancing and secure private storage.
Multicloud options use two or more clouds of any type. Although similar to hybrid deployments, there’s
a significant difference. Hybrid deployments effectively operate in series, with public and private services
intermingling to produce specific results, while multicloud solutions run in parallel, with each cloudservice running independently.
Each cloud approach features unique strengths and weaknesses:
Public cloud•Excels at: Shifting capital costs to operational expenses by moving resource management
and security off site. In a public cloud framework, for example, providers are responsible formaintaining server hardware, completing software updates, and remediating security issues.

•

Struggles with: Storing and accessing massive data sets. As data volumes increase, so does thetime required to move information back and forth from on-site to in-cloud servers.

Private cloud•Excels at: Combining public and private processes to improve operational output. For example,
hybrid solutions are often used to help enhance performance by combining public application
services with on-premises data storage.

•

Struggles with: Rapid scalability to meet the emerging demands of data-driven analytics that
inform strategic decision-making. Private clouds also struggle to balance price and peakdemand. While over-provisioning ensures peak demand performance, unused resources arecostly for typical traffic throughput. Under-provisioning reduces cost, but also puts companies
at risk of getting overwhelmed.

Hybrid cloud•Excels at: Combining public and private processes to improve operational output. For example,
hybrid solutions are often used to help enhance performance by combining public application
services with on-premises data storage.

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Struggles with: Reliably getting the best of both worlds. Evolving complexity, seamless data
placement, and orchestration concerns often conspire to frustrate hybrid outcomes.

Multicloud•Excels at: Data management at scale by combining mass-storage clouds with centralizedcompute clouds to deliver better data economics.

•

Struggles with: Increased complexity as IT teams must manage the ongoing interaction ofmultiple clouds simultaneously.

Which of these cloud types is used in theorganization’s IT infrastructure?

Enterprise Private Cloud

51%

Public Cloud

50%

Multicloud37%

Hybrid Cloud37%

Hosted Private Cloud

36%
17%

Industry Cloud
Other

1%
Source: The Seagate Rethink Data Survey, IDC, 2020

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Part 2—Finding the Middle Ground
Enterprises are embracing the cloud to gain granular resource control, streamline IT spending, anddeliver on big data potential. It makes sense: With data volumes rapidly increasing, 68% of available
information already goes unused, according to research from the International Data Corporation citedin Seagate’s recent Rethink Data report. And with enterprise data on track for 42.2% annual growth,organizations require solutions that can leverage this resource at scale.￼
But as cloud shifts accelerate, the limitations of single-provider models begin to emerge. Early adopter
benefits offered by the public cloud—such as pay as you go, scale as you need, and faster time tomarket—have given way to challenges that include latency, cost control, and privacy. Private clouds,
meanwhile, are often hampered by existing infrastructure limits and increasing management costs.  ￼
Multicloud offers a middle ground. The concept is simple: Enterprises use two or more cloud providers
to meet specific operational goals and deliver reliable return on investment (ROI). Recent data cited in
the Rethink Data report shows that multicloud is on the minds of IT leaders: 37% have already deployeda multicloud strategy across their IT infrastructures.
In practice, however, multicloud deployments come with their own challenge: complexity. In fact,
61% of enterprises point to the challenges of managing data in a multicloud environment over the
next two years. With data now widely and evenly distributed across enterprise, on-premises, cloud,and edge computing repositories, enterprises must manage multiple workflow streams and disparate
management tools simultaneously to reduce conflict across cloud service architectures.

Managing Data in More Than One Cloud
Over the Next Two Years

Managing data in multicloudenvironments

25%

Managing data in hybrid-cloudenvironments

24%Managing the data connections
between edge and core environments

36%

25%

13%

33%

28%

14%

22%

34%

30%

13%

Deciding what data to keep in whatenvironments (cloud, on-premise,edge, etc.)

22%

34%

29%

14%

Getting buy-in to get the resources tosuccessfully manage data beyond
enterprise data centers

21%

34%

30%

14%

Building or finding the expertiseneeded to successfully manage data
beyond enterprise data centers

22%

34%

30%

13%

Extremely challenging

Challenging

Somewhat challenging

Not a challenge

Source: The Seagate Rethink Data Survey, IDC, 2020

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As a result, finding a cloud middle ground is only the first step in enterprise success. By developinga mandate that defines both key roles and critical limitations for public and private cloud solutions,organizations can effectively leverage the scope of multicloud benefits and manage complexity at scale.

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Part 3—Exploring the Multipurpose Advantage
Business success is a trifecta of revenue, profit, and customer satisfaction. To achieve all three,enterprises are moving away from one-size-fits-all offerings to best-in-class solutions that alignwith unique organizational challenges. This shift to purpose-driven cloud usage aligns with the
democratization of cloud services at scale. Adoption is no longer restricted by public or private cloudclassifications; function now forms the defining characteristic.
The result is a multipurpose menagerie of services that can quickly outpace an IT department’s ability
to effectively operate and optimize. Before making the move to multicloud, companies should evaluate
current proficiency across three key categories:•

Management. The ability to effectively manage data storage, movement, and security acrosscloud services is critical to multipurpose success. With 37% of enterprises already moving
toward multicloud environments (per the Rethink Data report), disparate data management
skills are essential.

•

Capacity. Data capacity needs are quickly evolving as companies combine public and private
services to deliver optimal outcomes. As a result, organizations need capacity strategies that
account for current needs, anticipate emerging demands, and can effectively manage the divide
between on-premises storage requirements and public cloud capacities.

•

Efficiency. Agility is a hallmark of the cloud but is often lacking in enterprise IT strategies. Whilepiecemeal adoption of new solutions and services to meet specific needs offers in-situ benefits,businesses must address their data efficiency at scale to identify the best approach to cloudservice expansion. According to recent Deloitte data, almost half of all companies surveyed
said cloud adoption is more complex than they had expected. As a result, building efficiency is
critical.

In addition to evaluating current competencies, companies must also take steps to limit sprawl,
improve efficiency, and control spending. Critical considerations include:•

TCO calculations. Differing cloud frameworks demand different total cost of ownership (TCO)
calculations. If budgetary constraints inform current IT decision-making, public cloud solutions
offer the lowest TCO-to-resource ratio. Private clouds demand more up-front TCO but may
outpace pay-as-you-go public clouds over time.

•

Differing data functions. Purpose defines priority. Sensitive, compliance-controlled data, suchas personally identifiable information or financial records, is often best kept under the auspicesof private cloud solutions, while anonymized data can deliver significant value when leveraged
by large-scale analysis tools powered by public clouds.

•

Increasing capacity requirements. Physical hardware can’t always keep pace with increasing
capacity requirements. In this case, public cloud storage offerings can help bridge the gap
between needed space and existing storage. At the same time, as data centers continue
to evolve toward more open and composable architectures, and as open source software

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solutions reduce the costs of data orchestration, IT budgets for private cloud and on-prem data
centers can be expected to more readily absorb more storage costs than in the past—enabling
rapid deployment of new storage systems to meet requirements.
•

Movement and repatriation of data. As data analytics tools evolve to include artificial intelligenceand machine learning capabilities, many companies are repatriating their data—moving it backfrom public clouds to private stacks—to enable on-site, on-demand analysis for actionable
results.

•

Evolving data security demands. Both consumers and compliance organizations demand due
diligence from first-party data owners. As a result, diligence informs deployment. While public
cloud security has increased significantly over the past five years, ultimate responsibility can’t
be shifted to providers.

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Part 4—Examining the Evolution of
Cloud-Centric Architecture
Beyond basic considerations and specific use cases, the evolving nature of cloud solutions speaks toadoption at scale.
Consider data storage: as data volumes increase exponentially, file-based storage now faces achallenge from new solutions, such as object-based frameworks, which empower the transfer ofmassive data sets at speed.
Storage architecture is also evolving as options, such as hyperconverged and disaggregated,composable solutions, emerge. While hyperconverged offerings leverage software-defined clustering
to provision storage resources on demand, disaggregated, composable systems decouple storage,
network, and compute processes from physical hardware to create a shared pool of resources thatcan be individually assigned or used in concert.
Open source initiatives, meanwhile, are changing the fundamental nature of the cloud. From open
source software developments that allow organizations to customize key functions and frameworks toopen source architecture efforts—such as storage devices that are programmable and modifiable—
the shift away from proprietary provisioning will impact long-term cloud decision-making.
Organizations also must account for the movement of data and compute tasks away from central
cloud services to edge infrastructure. Informed by increasingly complex processes handled byconnected, intelligent devices at the point of origin—rather than being shunted to public or private
clouds for analysis—edge computing modifies the value proposition of both public and private cloudservices, as well as their impact on operational outcomes. As noted by The Enterprisers Project,
30% of IT budgets are now earmarked for edge computing, meaning organizations must be preparedto manage functions at the fringe.

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Part 5—Assessing the Role of Cloud Services at Scale
With the scalability of public cloud deployments, the specificity of private services, the continuity ofhybrid options, and the opportunity presented by multicloud solutions, companies are now spoiled
with choices.
But as organizations add new storage and compute services across IT environments at scale, finding
best-fit solutions becomes a challenge. What seems like a cut-and-dried case for public solutions
may suddenly become an ideal private initiative when composable architecture is introduced or object
storage is supported.
Here, an abundance of choice can lead to cloud decision fatigue—driving the adoption of type-based
services without a reliable road map. The result is a multicloud environment bereft of organizationaloversight that naturally lends itself to compute complexity and operational inefficiency.
To deliver on purpose-driven potential, role-specific assessment is essential across each cloudframework:•

Public clouds. Public solutions offer the lowest barrier to entry for enterprises that are shifting tocloud services. As a result, they’re often on the front lines of compute conversion. By moving
key processes into the cloud, organizations can free up much-needed overhead in local
environments.

But, as noted by Seagate senior vice president and CIO Ravi Naik in a recent Venture Beat piece,
what worked at 1 petabyte (PB) in the public cloud won’t work at 100PB. As data volumes increase,
issues are emerging around billing, transparency, and cost predictability.
•

Private clouds. Private clouds offer control. As a result, they’re the go-to option fororganizations looking to embrace resource scaling without compromising internal security.

With control comes potential compromise. From insider threats to outdated virtual machine (VM)
images, if private clouds aren’t properly managed, staff accidentally misuse internal cloud services, or
IT teams forget to update VM security software and settings, critical data could be compromised.
•Hybrid clouds. Hybrid clouds are all about balance. By combining public and private resources,businesses can both streamline operations and simplify resource procurement at scale,effectively finding a middle ground between the substantial resources available to public cloudusers and the significant control offered by private cloud alternatives.

When it comes to compliance, however, hybrid offerings often face challenges. With public andprivate services intertwined, the line between on- and off-site storage can begin to blur if sophisticateddata orchestration tools with effective policy-based data management are not in place, puttingorganizations at risk of accidentally exposing critical data by association rather than intention.
•

Multiclouds. The multipurpose nature of evolving cloud services has created a natural trend
toward multicloud deployments. By leveraging cloud services in parallel to produce specificoutcomes, organizations achieve a measure of the cloud’s theoretical intent. In practice, thismeans decoupling provider and process to deliver on-demand results.

Where multicloud often meets its match, however, is complexity. While hybrid clouds include
overlapping edges, multiclouds come with the need to create inter-cloud cooperation at scale.
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Part 6—Managing Multicloud Complexity
As companies broaden their cloud horizons with the adoption of public, private, and hybrid solutions,multicloud becomes the de facto structure of cloud environments.
The shift to multicloud makes sense as businesses look to leverage specific functions rather thandevelop vague organizational frameworks. This multicloud move delivers the best of both worlds:
scalable public resources for large-scale storage or data analytics, paired with private cloud solutions
to handle mission-critical tasks.
Despite this alignment of purpose and process, however, the increasing scope of multicloud solutions
creates its own challenge: complexity.
•

Separate workflows. While using distinct cloud processes can reduce user frustration by
providing purpose-built tools, deploying an application-based-outcome approach means eachprocess leverages its own separate workflow. Without effective monitoring and management
across cloud networks, these processes begin to conflate and conflict, in turn reducing overall
efficacy.

•

Disparate management tools. Many cloud solutions come with their own set of management
tools for handling resource deployment, permissions, and application calls. But these tools often
lack interoperability, forcing IT teams to spend time on redundant—albeit slightly different—
processes across multiple, similar cloud applications.

•

Lack of unified security. Multicloud solutions naturally introduce potential security concerns. Since
each cloud-based application interacts with network security solutions to a different degree andrequires different resource permissions, fragmented security is often the result.

•

Data movement and sharing. Data is handled and stored differently by public and private cloud
applications, in turn creating operational roadblocks when users attempt to export or import
key data sets for analysis or reporting.

•Making collected data usable. Thirty-nine percent of enterprises now highlight data usability as
their biggest challenge. While multicloud environments empower data collection at scale, theyalso introduce complexity as businesses look to manage multiple data sources simultaneously.

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Part 7—Considering a Three-Step Strategy
The multicloud is gaining ground as organizations embrace the application-driven outcomes deliveredby purpose-built cloud solutions at scale. Where these solutions exist—on public servers or private
stacks—is no longer their defining characteristic.
But deployment alone isn’t enough to deliver on the potential of big data. To make the most ofmulticloud movement, enterprises need a three-step strategy:
1. Identify data architectures
Before making the move to multicloud, it’s critical for companies to identify current dataarchitectures—including where data is stored, how it is used, and where processes could be
improved—to define desired operational outcomes. With specific goals in mind, enterprises
are better prepared to make multicloud decisions that deliver line-of-business benefits.
2. Assemble cloud resources
Purpose-built clouds are now commonplace across both public and private deployments
thanks to emerging solutions, such as customizable, composable infrastructure. As a result,it’s critical for companies to assemble multicloud network, compute, memory, and storage
functions that are capable of addressing current needs and meeting future challenges.
3. Enable seamless orchestration
Multicloud deployments only deliver on performance and process mandates when cloudelements operate seamlessly. Realizing ROI on this move to multicloud means building
on defined architectures and assembled resources with robust data orchestration andmanagement solutions capable of reducing friction across key cloud functions.

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Conclusion
The shift to cloud is inevitable as data volume, variety, and velocity increases exponentially—and thedemand for actionable insights based on intelligent analysis of new data sets is keeping pace. To
achieve operational outcomes at both speed and scale, companies are moving beyond dichotomiesof public and private to embrace hybrid frameworks and multicloud models that deliver specific,
application-based outcomes.
But the expanding impact of multicloud environments introduces a new issue: complexity. Tasked
with managing multiple clouds across storage, compute, security, access, and analytics applications,
IT teams are faced with a growing service disconnect. When every cloud process comes with its
own workload structures, management controls, and security settings, enterprises must conquer thechallenge of creating constructive communication across disparate delivery channels.
Multicloud solutions decouple key cloud functions from familiar cloud forms. With the right strategy,
enterprises can both reduce complexity and facilitate multicloud management at scale.

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