Hybrid Cloud vs Multi Cloud

In recent years, with mushroom growth in Cloud technologies, a change has been observed w.r.t where the application Workload and data is hosted. A large number enterprises have started moving their data, applications and related business services to Cloud. Two terms, namely Hybrid Cloud and Multi Cloud do come into mind when Cloud types are considered. Before going into the details of Hybrid cloud vs Multi Cloud, let’s understand both the Cloud flavors in more detail along with their differences –

Hybrid Cloud

Hybrid cloud is a solution that combines together a private cloud with one or more public cloud services with valid software that establishes communication between both clouds. A hybrid cloud provides businesses with more flexibility by moving workloads between cloud solutions. Hybrid cloud services are powerful because they give greater control over the private data. An organization can save confidential data on a private cloud or local data center. A hybrid cloud relies on a single plane of management while in a multi-cloud, administrator control and manage each cloud service independently.

Benefits of the Hybrid Cloud

• More Control
• Faster speed
• Strong Security
• Scalability
• Optimized Cost

Characteristics of Hybrid Cloud

• Hybrid Cloud is a centralized infrastructure that applies across multiple environments.
• High-speed connectivity and security between the enterprise and the cloud environment.
• Integrated networking that securely extends the corporate network, creating a segmented network single overall network infrastructure.
• Monitoring and resource management.

Multi Cloud

Multi cloud means multiple public clouds. Multi cloud is a cloud approach made up of more than one  cloud service from more than one cloud vendor. In cloud computing, a cloud is a collection of servers that can be accessed by customers over the Internet. Each cloud is managed and controlled by a cloud provider. Multi Cloud uses several vendors for cloud hosting, storage and the full application stack. A very good example of Multi Cloud setup is when a company’s web facing application is on AWS while Exchange servers etc are on Microsoft Azure

Related – Multi Cloud Network Architecture

Multi cloud deployments have a number of uses. A multi cloud deployment can take advantage from multiple IaaS (Infrastructure-as-a-Service) vendors and different vendors for IaaS, PaaS (Platform-as-a-Service) and SaaS (Software-as-a-Service) services. Multi cloud’s primary purpose is for redundancy and system backup or it can be incorporate different cloud vendors for different services.

Benefits of Multi cloud

• Suitability and Flexibility and Scalability
• Mitigating Vendor Lock-in
• Competitive Pricing

Challenges in Multi cloud

• Different workflow and management tools
• Lack of unified security
• Skill gaps
• Data Sharing

 Difference between Multi cloud and Hybrid Cloud

Let’s understand differences between Multi Cloud and Hybrid Cloud in detail –

• Hybrid cloud combines private and public clouds, such as an OpenStack private cloud and AWS. On the other hand, Multi Cloud involves two or more public clouds, such as AWS, Azure, and Google.
• Hybrid cloud allows operators to perform a single task in two separate cloud resources. In contrast, Multi Cloud architecture provides access to several service models within the cloud.
• In both cases i.e. of Hybrid Cloud and Multi Cloud, data can be shared.
• In Hybrid Cloud, Security constraints and tools are different for public and private clouds, whereas in case of Multi Cloud, Security constraints and tools are different only for public clouds.
• In both Clouds Cloud-native workloads are hard to move.
• Hybrid Cloud Focus is on native ops tool support. On the other hand, In Multi Cloud Focus on third-party ops tool support.
• Hybrid Cloud focus stays on native cloud usage and cost management. Whereas, In Multi Cloud, the Focus will be on third-party cloud usage and cost management.
• Hybrid Cloud focuses on native performance analytics unlike Multi Cloud, which focuses on third-party performance analytics.

Related – Types of Clouds

Comparison Table : Hybrid Cloud vs Multi Cloud

PARAMETER	HYBRID CLOUD	MULTI CLOUD
Philosophy	Hybrid Cloud combines together private and public clouds, such as an OpenStack private cloud and AWS.	Multi Cloud involves two or more public clouds such as AWS, Azure and Google.
Concept	Public Cloud + Private Cloud	Public Cloud + Public Cloud
Multiple Public Cloud	Requirement based	Always
Data Security	User data is secure within the private or public cloud.	User data is secure within the public cloud provider.
Unified Security	Possible	Difficult to implement
Data sharing	Data can be shared between clouds.	Data can be shared between clouds.
Tools and security controls	Security constraints and tools are different for public and private clouds.	Security constraints and tools are different only for public clouds.
Tool support	Focus on native ops tool support.	Focus on third-party ops tool support.
Cost management	Hybrid Cloud focus will be on native cloud usage and cost management.	Multi Cloud focus will be on third-party cloud usage and cost management.
Analytics	Focus on native performance analytics.	Focus on third-party performance analytics.

Download the comparison table Hybrid cloud vs Multi cloud.

Conclusion

In a multi-cloud solution, different public cloud services are leveraged from multiple clouds (often from different providers). Hybrid Cloud includes private and public, while multi cloud always includes multiple public clouds but can also incorporate physical and virtual infrastructure (including private clouds).