Embracing the cloud is a conversation we’ve had a thousand times before, but let’s talk about why so many businesses, organizations, and educational institutions are embracing a multi-cloud environment for their success. Many factors come to mind, but namely, the benefits simply outweigh the risks. Imagine having the capability of running 24/7 without having to worry about downtime, or being able to deploy a stronger cloud strategy by having more cloud environments to leverage. You can even diversify and expand at a rate unimagined before. The best part? You can pick and choose more cost-effective options based upon your specific needs for some workloads, while securing your more private workloads in a different cloud, allowing you to really take advantage of the best of all worlds simultaneously. 

So, how do we get into the multi-cloud world? Most take the approach of placing their highest security need workloads in private clouds while saving money and placing their low-risk workloads in public clouds. While that is just one approach, every business need will vary, and the beauty of the cloud lies in the agility and simplicity of its ability to adapt to your specific needs. 

Now, why Google Cloud? Google has been a trusted name in the world of internet since the age of internet, and now, a stable and trusted source of all things cloud – after all, it is one of the prime examples of a truly cloud native platform. Above and beyond that, Google Cloud is redefining what it means to be hybrid and leverage multiple clouds. Let’s break it down, shall we?

Future proofing your investments with an open cloud approach

Google Cloud famously believes that it’s just not possible to be able to discuss cloud survivability with just one cloud solution. They advocate for an open cloud approach focused on addressing executive and policymaker concerns with more than one cloud solution on the table. 

What’s an open cloud approach? Google defines it as, “An open cloud relies on open-source tools and open standards rather than proprietary tools and systems that lock you into one vendor.” This allows all business needs to be addressed when coming up with a cloud solution, as each department’s needs can be weighed against the right kind of cloud solution that is most beneficial to all involved. Google helps by being able to provide on-premises data centers, other public clouds and “edge” locations such as retail stores or telecommunications towers – all while leveraging the same Google Cloud you know and trust. 

This type of strategy for your cloud investment is game-changing in ensuring that you’re futureproof by considering all of your departmental needs, having a flexible and adaptable plan that can be adjusted on the fly, and including every business need in the strategy. 

Build and scale faster in any cloud

With Google, it truly doesn’t matter which cloud your workloads are on – your ability to quickly build and scale is not limited. By leveraging a multi-cloud approach, developers can take advantage of the best of the best from each cloud and run each designated workload in the right place. The challenge is figuring out a smooth and repeatable process for updating code that requires different packaging needs, deployment tools, etc. 

Normalizing this process between multi-clouds can be done by creating a consistent developer experience and a standard API for every environment. Google Cloud offers development tools that help developers deliver consistency across environments, as well as an API management platform and operations suite that monitors software performance. 

One of those tools is Cloud Build – a fully serverless development platform that allows developers to build, test, and deploy software across all programming languages and in multiple clouds. Cloud Code, another tool, adds to that by helping developers write, deploy and debug faster – allowing you to focus on code, not configuration, and scale from one cloud to multi-clouds with ease. In addition to these tools, modern applications on Google are built to be highly distributed with microservices and APIs that run across many environments and multiple clouds. 

By leveraging Google and a multi-cloud approach, you can build resilience, scalability, and faster code velocity that keeps your workloads nimble. 

Best of managed Kubernetes – from anywhere!

Back in 2019, Google created Anthos – a run-anywhere Kubernetes platform that’s connected to Google Cloud. It delivers so many capabilities that make multi-cloud environments more accessible and sustainable. It also delivers a GKE-like experience that you can leverage on any public or private cloud with a Google-backed control plane for consistent management. 

When you use Google Cloud Anthos, you have a stable, consistent platform that helps you manage all of your application deployments from one view of all of your environments, no matter where they reside. With this view, Anthos can help you keep a watchful eye on cost, uptime, compliance requirements, latency, and other factors to help you determine which cloud is the best for each application, as well as helping avoid developers from blocking each other while working together in parallel. 

For these reasons and so many more, multi-cloud with Google alleviates a lot of common pain points for companies while casting a wider net of possibilities that streamline day to day business operations within the cloud. 

Uncover new insights with multi-cloud data analytics in one platform

Access to data across multi-cloud and hybrid environments can be challenging, and definitely limiting from a business growth perspective. Seamlessly accessing and moving this data across platforms is not an expense that every business has access to, either. 

Google Cloud’s BigQuery is the one-stop shop solution to unified analytics that lets you use standard SQL from the interface to write queries and build dashboards that span your individual and unique data. Google just recently launched BigQuery Omni, too, which doesn’t require you to make any sweeping or expensive changes to merge the data, either. 

Google also has Looker, their platform that allows you to seamlessly gather business intelligence analytics across your cloud deployments. On top of all of that, Google is actively developing more AI solutions that will support businesses to better engage with their customers, predict trends more accurately, and analyze images faster. 

Simplified and across platform access to your own analytics is an imperative part of any business’s ability to grow, and a necessary requirement when you’re operating on multiple cloud environments. It can make the difference between connecting with your customers and saving money to reduce overhead costs. Don’t miss this step when you’re planning your multi-cloud strategy. 

Secure your apps and data – no matter where they are

Security is the number one concern about moving to the cloud – and rightfully so! Your business operations, compliance, and consumer data protection is of the utmost importance to you – and us, too! Securing your workloads, applications, and data in a hybrid or single cloud environment is challenging enough – but with a multi-cloud approach? We know what you’re thinking – and we’re here to alleviate that concern. 

Google Cloud protects data, applications, infrastructure, and your customers from fraudulent activity, spam, and abuse. Your data? It’s protected, too, using the same infrastructure foundation and security services that Google uses for their own operations. Encryption? It’s done with both at-rest and in-transit data. You can even encrypt data in-use, and even while it’s being processed in customer VM and container workloads. Google’s advanced security tools support compliance and data confidentiality. The best part? This requires minimal overhead on your part.

You don’t have to worry about digital sovereignty with Google, either. You’ll have control over data access, including who can access what from which region, who can make changes to the infrastructure, and more. Google Cloud even has a comprehensive, multi-cloud solution called Web Application and API Protection (WAAP) that delivers improved threat prevention, greater operational efficiencies, and consolidated visibility – all in the name of protecting web applications and public APIs that your customers and partners access. 

Let’s get started

Ingram Micro Cloud provides our partners with streamlined access to Google Cloud with expanded and dedicated support to help you get started. Whether you’re still supporting the hybrid phase of your customers’ cloud journey, or ready to embrace and engage a multi-cloud strategy to give your customers a diversified environment, we’re here to help.  

Learn more about Google Cloud and how we can help you take the next step in your cloud journey today!