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Hybrid Cloud/Multicloud
Executive Summary December 30, 2022

As cloud computing has rapidly evolved, so has how it is defined. Early hype1 centered on cloud fully
replacing all on-premises computing has given way to the reality of hybrid cloud/multicloud
environments. This matters because it appears to offer something organizations need in their data
centers: flexibility. Most organizations now consider hybrid multicloud an ideal model.

Although historically the terms have been used interchangeably, hybrid and multicloud are not the same.
As a broad term, Gartner2 considers hybrid cloud subject to more hype and confusion. While most hybrid
cloud deployments are also multicloud, not all multicloud strategies are considered hybrid cloud because
separate public clouds might manage two different workloads.

What’s making a true hybrid/multicloud strategy more feasible today is a host of new orchestration
capabilities that help move apps among the different platforms – technologies such as containers,
microservices, virtual machines, edge computing, and orchestration tools, for example. Today's
applications have components that are hosted in multiple locations. Connectivity has become so rapid
and so ubiquitous that these components no longer have to be centralized in one data center facility or
one cloud or cloud vendor to be useful or practical.

Results from Flexera's 2022 State of the Cloud report show that organizations have almost entirely
embraced multi-cloud. 89% of respondents reported having a multi-cloud strategy. 80% are taking a
hybrid approach, combining the use of both public and private clouds. Organizations are beginning to
favor tools that are focused more on multicloud management and less on building out fully functioning
private cloud and managing heavy and complex hybrid cloud environments. Hybrid cloud/multicloud is
where IBM, Microsoft, AWS, Google, and VMware are placing their bets, and this is changing the power
dynamics within the cloud industry.

Microsoft has publicly embraced both hybrid and multicloud. The company is seen as having a huge
advantage in hybrid cloud because of its massive enterprise presence, and is facilitating multicloud
environments through its compatibility with AWS. With the release of Azure Arc, Business Insider says
Microsoft is positioning itself as the orchestrator of hybrid solutions, enabling the company to still secure
contracts with companies already working with competitors. Competitors are taking different approaches
to hybrid/multicloud, making the current environment a bit turbulent but creating opportunities for
Microsoft.

1
Gartner access notes
2
Ibid

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Contents
Definition & Background................................................................................................................................................................... 2
Current Scenario ................................................................................................................................................................................... 3
Hybrid Cloud Overview................................................................................................................................................................. 4
Multicloud Overview...................................................................................................................................................................... 5
Challenges ............................................................................................................................................................................................... 6
Key Players .............................................................................................................................................................................................. 6
Amazon Web Services (AWS) ..................................................................................................................................................... 7
IBM ........................................................................................................................................................................................................ 7
Google ................................................................................................................................................................................................. 7
VMware ............................................................................................................................................................................................... 8
Microsoft’s Role..................................................................................................................................................................................... 8
Outlook..................................................................................................................................................................................................... 9
Related Research from MS Library ............................................................................................................................................. 10
Sources .................................................................................................................................................................................................. 10
Update History.................................................................................................................................................................................... 17
About ProResearch .............................................................................................................................................................................. 9

Definition & Background

As cloud computing has rapidly evolved, so has how it is defined. Early hype3 centered on cloud fully
replacing all on-premises computing has given way to the reality of hybrid cloud/multicloud
environments. This matters because it appears to offer something organizations need in their data
centers: flexibility.

Although historically the terms have been used interchangeably, hybrid and multicloud are not the same.
The phrase “hybrid cloud” came to prominence around 2012 when it was a very new thing for the parts of
an organization's data center to reside partly on-premises and partly on third-party, commercial services.
As a broad term, Gartner4 considers hybrid cloud subject to more hype and confusion and to be more
common, however there are also reports finding multicloud gaining in popularity and that a blend may be
the ideal approach. While most hybrid cloud deployments are also multicloud, not all multicloud
strategies are considered hybrid cloud because separate public clouds might manage two different
workloads.

When it comes to hybrid cloud, getting everyone to agree on a definition isn’t easy. Microsoft defines it
this way, which is representative of various views:

A hybrid cloud—sometimes called a cloud hybrid—is a computing environment that combines an on-
premises datacenter (also called a private cloud) with a public cloud, allowing data and applications to be
shared between them.

3
Gartner access notes
4
Ibid

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Put another way by ZDNet, hybrid clouds all have this in common with one another: They refer to a single
software hosting platform where resources come from multiple sources – some from the public cloud and
some (or many) from an organization's own data center. All of an organization’s software, including its
applications, data, and database services, are hosted by a combination of private assets and public service
providers, are sharing the same network, and are managed, or at least overseen, using the same tools.
This is about moving workloads seamlessly between public and private cloud platforms and creating a
consistent architecture across both environments.

Multicloud refers to leveraging two or more cloud platforms, often to meet specific workload needs but
not necessarily without connectivity or orchestration between them. A multicloud setup can increase
availability and redundancy as well as improve performance by allowing enterprises to spread their
workloads across different providers. By Gartner's5 definition, multicloud does not refer to the simple use
of multiple cloud services within the organization – only the use of multiple providers for the same
purpose. Similarly, this definition does not encompass the use of private cloud services.

Current Scenario
Most organizations have already adopted6 multiple public cloud computing providers for different
applications and use cases. Some organizations have done so as part of a strategy to access best-of-breed
services or to be near specific datasets or partners. Others have done so unintentionally through
uncoordinated cloud adoption strategies. Hybrid solutions have achieved mainstream status.7 However,
according to Forrester, decreasing product revenue, increased public cloud adoption, and decreased
vendor participation indicate that hybrid cloud management is contracting in favor of tools that are
focused more on multicloud management and less on building out fully functioning private cloud and
managing heavy and complex hybrid cloud environments. All of this was accelerated by the COVID-19
pandemic and the increased demand for cloud services.

Most organizations now consider hybrid multicloud an ideal model. Results from Flexera's 2021 State of
the Cloud report show that organizations have almost entirely embraced multi-cloud. 89% of respondents
reported having a multi-cloud strategy. 80% are taking a hybrid approach, combining the use of both
public and private clouds.

5
Gartner access notes
6
Ibid
7
Ibid

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Source: Flexera

Of the enterprises adopting a hybrid strategy, 79% said they’re incorporating multiple public clouds, while
56% report using more than one private cloud. The most common combination is a mix of various public
and private clouds, with 48% taking this approach.

Source: Flexera

What’s making a true hybrid/multicloud strategy more feasible today is a host of new orchestration
capabilities that help move apps among the different platforms – technologies such as containers,
microservices, virtual machines, edge computing, and orchestration tools, for example. Today's
applications have components that are hosted in multiple locations. Connectivity has become so rapid
and so ubiquitous that these components no longer have to be centralized in one data center facility or
one cloud or cloud vendor to be useful or practical.

Hybrid Cloud Overview

Hybrid cloud computing is generally called a “best of all worlds” platform – the cost optimization, agility,
flexibility, scalability, and elasticity benefits of public cloud, in conjunction with the control, compliance,
security, and reliability of private cloud. Hybrid cloud enables an enterprise to deploy an on-premises

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private cloud to host sensitive or critical workloads and use a third-party public cloud provider to host
less-critical resources, such as test and development workloads. The solutions8 that hybrid cloud provides
include service integration, availability/disaster recovery, cross-service security, policy-based workload
placement and runtime optimization, and cloud service composition and dynamic execution (for example,
cloudbursting). However, despite the benefits, hybrid cloud can present challenges around complexity.

Hybrid cloud made significant gains in adoption during the COVID-19 pandemic, as it was seen as a cost-
cutter by those looking to leverage exiting assets. In 2023, Gartner predicts global cloud spending is
estimated to total $591.8 billion, up from $490.3 billion in 2022. According to Global Industry Analysts, the
hybrid cloud market is expected to reach $228 Billion by 2027, up from $81.4 Billion in 2020, exhibiting a
CAGR of 15.9% during that period.

Vendors are increasingly becoming responsive to the need for hybrid cloud solutions, with public cloud
providers offering software (some through third-party partners) to ease with deployment. Others offer
more tailored solutions. A variety of industries are using hybrid cloud technology, with healthcare being a
notable example. Nutanix found that the healthcare industry favored hybrid more than any of the other
business sectors they surveyed, with simplified operations and increased reliability among the chief
benefits.

Multicloud Overview
Multicloud computing can be planned or can evolve9 due to multiple groups in an organization making
decisions to procure multiple services from different providers or through a merger/acquisition (M&A).
Organizations employ multicloud strategies to avoid vendor lock-in, increase application reliability, and/or
reduce costs. Ultimately, multicloud is about enabling choice for organizations and application developers
to components that best fit the intended purpose, as well as gaining access to bleeding-edge innovative
capabilities.10 A mix of cloud providers buffers organizations against the effects of outages. Firms choose
to operate with multicloud because it is a reliable, scalable platform with which to digitally transform.

Source: Forrester

With a growing number of trustworthy, third party tools, it’s becoming easier for businesses to migrate,
manage, and monitor data across multiple cloud providers, and many organizations are doing just that.
These strategies also benefit cloud providers that compete closely with cloud market leader AWS, namely

8
Gartner access notes
9
Gartner access notes
10
Ibid

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Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud Platform (GCP), and IBM Cloud. As with hybrid cloud, multicloud
complexity can become a challenge, however – managing multicloud environments are among the top
hurdles reported by businesses in Flexera's survey.

Challenges
Despite the benefits, hybrid and multicloud can present challenges. In addition to dealing with
complexity11, there are also possible service disruptions (potential connectivity issues, service-level
agreements, breaches), failover/failback capabilities12, regulatory compliance, and a dearth of skills. In
practice, it’s still laborious to move a workload from one cloud platform to another. The lack of interface
standards and portability between different cloud providers makes interoperability a problem, and
technical teams struggle to establish and maintain visibility into what’s happening in their cloud
environments, including managing costs. When there are many instances and apps in use spread across
multiple cloud providers' services, it can be challenging to get the big picture and discover the causes of
performance issues. Not all cloud services are equal when it comes to supporting particular applications,
workloads, and business processes. Organizations on multicloud journeys must put in the effort to
determine which services are best for specific tasks. All of this leads to cultural issues that can hold back
organizations from pursuing a hybrid or multicloud strategy. Managing all of this will require new
approaches, technology, and products built for the cloud era.

Key Players
Hybrid cloud/multicloud is where IBM, Microsoft, AWS, Google and VMware are placing their bets, and
this is changing the power dynamics within the cloud industry. With the battle between the hyperscale
cloud vendors underway, the likes of IBM, Dell Technologies, and HPE aim to become the glue between
multicloud deployments that feature a blend of private and public clouds as well as owned data centers.
Various strategies have been adopted by market players to compete, such as partnerships, collaboration,
M&A, and new product launches. These vendors are also making moves into private data centers to
expand their reach and further their relationships.

Managed service provider (MSP) partnerships are a feature of the hybrid cloud landscape. Companies
need guidance to coordinate complex deployments and maintain interoperability. The trend is reflected in
the number of active partnerships between CSPs and MSPs. In North America alone, AWS currently
partners with 50 MSPs, including Accenture, IBM and Infosys. Google has 36, and Microsoft lists nearly 70.
As the cloud services industry matures, multicloud ISVs should play a larger role in the market, but
hyperscalers will maintain a strong competitive position.

Competitors are taking different approaches to hybrid/multicloud and they are escalating their efforts,
making the current environment a bit turbulent; the following briefly describes where they stand
(Microsoft is discussed in the section that follows).

11
Ibid
12
Ibid

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Amazon Web Services (AWS)
AWS is pursuing hybrid cloud in a more focused way, although the company is said to have been
facilitating it in one way or another “almost since its inception.” AWS has created strategic partnerships
with on-premises platform providers, with VMware front and center in its hybrid cloud efforts – VMware
Cloud on AWS was unveiled in 2018. A partnership with IBM was announced in 2022, and expanded
shortly thereafter. The company launched AWS Outposts, its own datacenter hardware solution, in 2019.
Outposts is a fully managed service that essentially brings AWS cloud hardware on-premises for a "truly
consistent" hybrid experience. AWS has since offered new Outposts form factors for those who do not
need an entire rack-size deployment. Data Center Knowledge speculates that AWS’s long-term strategy
appears to be oriented more toward moving organizations toward a purely public cloud architecture than
building a hybrid model that can evolve with business needs over the long term, given that Outposts
requires customers to purchase hardware directly from AWS instead of using servers they already own.

AWS has been highly reluctant to acknowledge multicloud realities, but ECS Anywhere and EKS Anywhere
– new variations of its services for managing software containers – will allow customers to run them in
their own data centers in addition to “any infrastructure,” which does, in fact, include applications running
on Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud and other competing cloud platforms.

IBM
In a landscape where three public clouds have carved overwhelming market share, IBM views hybrid,
private, and vertical industry-focused clouds as its sweet spots. Once considered a laggard in transitioning
to a cloud model, IBM has refocused its core business around the cloud beginning with a $34 billion
acquisition of Red Hat back in 2019. CEO Arvind Krishna has stated that his whole focus will be on
transforming his organization into a hybrid cloud management vendor. Roughly 70%13 of IBM’s revenue
can now be attributed to software and services, with hybrid cloud contributing to double-digit revenue
growth in recent quarters.

The foundation of IBM's hybrid cloud approach is a collection of software that creates a highly portable
PaaS. This replaces cloud-specific features and APIs to run applications. Its base is Red Hat OpenShift
Enterprise Linux and Kubernetes. IBM announced it would spin off its legacy technology services business
to focus on hybrid cloud computing and artificial intelligence. IBM Cloud Satellite extends the IBM Cloud
control plane to run virtually anywhere. Their expanded suite of IBM Security Services for Cloud helps
businesses manage their cloud security strategy, policies and controls across hybrid cloud environments.
In 2021 the company revamped its storage lineup to better enable hybrid cloud computing. Its efforts are
paying off, as sales from their cloud computing services jumped 21% to $6.5 billion in the first quarter of
2021. According to ZDNet, IBM’s new capabilities and partnerships may one day make it the number one
provider of hybrid cloud solutions.

Google
Like Microsoft, Google has publicly embraced both hybrid and multicloud. Anthos (formerly Cloud
Services Platform/CSP) is Google’s first real foray into bringing its own cloud services into the enterprise
data center as a managed service. Built on open APIs, Anthos is hardware agnostic and is based on the
Google Kubernetes Engine as well as other open-source projects. Google launched Anthos with more

13
Wall Street Journal access notes

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than 30 major hardware and software partners, including VMware. In addition to managing hybrid, it runs
on third-party clouds, including AWS and Azure. Google Cloud’s BigQuery Omni allows the BigQuery data
warehouse service to query data domiciled in other clouds, which has the potential to blur the lines
between cloud platforms. The company announced Google Distributed Cloud in 2021. This product is
aimed at enterprises with workloads and applications that are not ready to move to the public cloud for
latency or regulatory reasons. It allows users to access Google Cloud’s infrastructure services from
multiple edge locations, including those provided by the firm’s telco partners or those hosted in remotely.

Google has gone all-in on hybrid/multicloud, clearly – like IBM – seeing it as a way to make a big move in
the cloud market. The company says it is taking a different, “less disruptive and more compliant approach”
to hybrid than competing offerings. TechCrunch called its multicloud approach with Anthos “a big deal
and one that clearly delineates Google’s approach from its competitors.”

VMware
VMware’s solutions allow a common operating environment to be created across VMware-based on-
premises environments and VMware-based public clouds (including IBM and AWS), and native public
clouds such as AWS, Azure, and GCP using VMware technologies such as VMware Cloud Foundation,
VMware Aria Suite (formerly vRealize Suite), and VMware Cloud. In 2021 VMware announced Project
Arctic as a technology preview. It is intended to bring multicloud to the fingertips of vSphere customers,
by natively integrating cloud connectivity into vSphere. The project aims to make hybrid cloud the default
operating model.

VMware’s strategy looks at the entire journey to the cloud as being multicloud, but with two potential
paths. The first is cloud-native, where the organization wants to take advantage of the native services of
that public cloud provider; while the other is a hybrid cloud path. The company has had traditional data
centers in the fold for years. Its tight hybrid cloud partnership with AWS is seen as a good move and a
win-win for both parties as both companies have continued to build on their initial efforts. VMware also
maintains partnerships with HPE, IBM, and Nvidia.

Microsoft’s Role
Microsoft has publicly embraced both hybrid and multicloud and considers itself “almost uniquely“ able to
make on-premise and cloud computing work together. Whether companies want to move everything to
the cloud, stay on-premise, or mix on-premise and cloud computing is not a “religious issue” for
Microsoft, according to ZDNet. It supports all of these scenarios, so customers can do whatever works for
them.

Azure offers a broad range of cloud and on-premises technologies and services that work together in a
coherent way and provide flexibility to help customers achieve their goals. Among these is Azure Stack,
called a “one-stop hybrid-cloud offering” by Network World. It allows users to host different instances of
the same application in the Azure cloud and on-premises depending on needs, or develop an app in
Azure and then deploy it on-premises to meet regulatory or policy requirements. Azure Arc has become
one of the core vehicles of Microsoft's cloud strategy. Said by Satya to be the beginning of a new era of
hybrid computing, it enables customers to deploy, manage and secure apps and run data services across
in-house servers, multiple cloud platforms and edge computing scenarios, with connected devices in

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remote locations. Forrester found that businesses can realize 206% ROI over 3 years with Azure Arc. In
2022, Azure Machine Learning for hybrid and multicloud deployments was added to Arc, making it easier
for companies to run AI in hybrid environments. In addition to these and other Azure offerings, a
partnership with VMware was revealed in February 2019 that will bring a fully supported version of
VMware's virtualized compute infrastructure into the Azure cloud. The Azure VMware Solution empowers
customers to seamlessly extend or completely migrate their existing on-premises VMware applications to
Azure without the cost, effort, or risk of re-architecting applications or retooling operations. Microsoft also
facilitates multicloud environments through its compatibility with AWS. Azure includes a cost
management tool – based on the technology from Microsoft's Cloudyn acquisition – that can work with
AWS and Google cloud platforms.

According to Futuriom, Microsoft seems best positioned for hybrid cloud, with world-class management
and networking tools. With the release of Azure Arc, Business Insider says Microsoft is positioning itself as
the orchestrator of hybrid solutions14, enabling the company to still secure contracts with companies
already working with competitors. Microsoft is considered to have a huge advantage in hybrid cloud
because it has a massive presence in the enterprise already. Many companies out there could be
described as Microsoft shops, and for those companies moving from on-prem Microsoft to cloud
Microsoft represents a less daunting challenge than starting from scratch. According to Forbes, Azure is
the only public cloud platform with hardware and software-based choices for implementing an enterprise
hybrid cloud and multi-cloud strategy.

Outlook
Hybrid-cloud and multicloud are becoming the new norm. The COVID-19 pandemic changed how nearly
all organizations operate, and multicloud supports the future of work. Most organizations report that
while their remote workforces may shrink or grow, they are here to stay for the foreseeable future.
Multicloud offers the most agile IT environment for supporting this flexibility by distributing data to
diverse geolocations for user proximity and business continuity. This upward trend is expected to
continue. A Harris Poll survey found 86% of all respondents plan to increase investment in hybrid or
multicloud environments, and 95% say those technologies have already been critical to their success. 2023
will undoubtedly see more organizations actively moving or planning to move or refactor production
workloads and applications using cloud-native technologies.

An average of 3.4 public clouds and 3.9 private clouds are being deployed or tested per organization.
Gartner expects cloud spending to surpass $1 trillion USD worldwide, exceeding all other IT markets, with
cloud variations such as multicloud driving as a main driver for current hype. Forrester and Nutanix expect
multicloud use to continue to swell in the years ahead. IDC15 projects that by 2025, 55% of the Forbes
Global 2000 will adopt multicloud data logistic platforms to enable active data migration between
hyperscalers to optimize costs, reduce vendor dependencies, and improve governance. Perhaps the
biggest harbinger of the hybrid multicloud future arrived when the Pentagon announced that its $9 billion
Joint Warfighting Cloud Capability funding would be split among AWS, Google, Microsoft and Oracle –
with no guaranteed outcomes.

14
Business Insider access notes
15
IDC access notes

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Creating an enterprise hybrid/multicloud strategy is a process requiring a holistic and integrated
approach. For any cloud-aspiring or already cloud-intensive enterprise, the right approach is said to come
down to finding the best fit of cloud technologies and orchestration tools. Security, app requirements,
and monitoring are just a few of the many factors to consider. IT organizations also need16 training, skilled
engineers, and to be prepared for the additional expense. As the support and standards in this space
evolve, the current challenges are expected to wane, leading to progressively quicker adoption.

Related Research from MS Library

Find related research with other MS Library Topic Papers:

• Cloud Market Overview

• Cloud Security
• Containers
• Edge Computing
• Indian Cloud Market
• Microservices

Sources
Hybrid cloud emerges as winner of Pentagon cloud showdown
CIO Dive | Article | Matt Ashare | 9 December 2022
The real triumph belonged to the concept of hybrid multicloud, a strategy that will keep the four CSPs in
close competition for individual military contracts for the duration of the agreement.

Gartner predicts robust cloud computing market till 2027

TechRepublic | Article | Megan Crouse | 9 December 2022
Cloud variations (such as multicloud environments) are at the center of where the cloud hype currently is.

Learnings From Our Hybrid Cloud Management Forrester Wave

Forrester | Blog | Tracy Woo | 23 November 2022
Multicloud and cloud cost management rise as demand for private cloud lowers.

Gartner Forecasts Worldwide Public Cloud End-User Spending to Reach Nearly $600 Billion in 2023
Gartner | Press release | 31 October 2022
Global Cloud Revenue to Total $$591.8 Billion in 2023, Up from $490.3 Billion in 2022.

Managed service providers are here to save the hybrid cloud

CIO Dive | Article | Matt Ashare | 26 October 2022
In North America alone, AWS currently partners with 50 MSPs, including Accenture, IBM and Infosys.
Google has 36, and Microsoft lists nearly 70.

16
Gartner access notes

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IDC FutureScape: Worldwide Cloud 2023 Predictions
IDC (Access notes) | Report | Dave McCarthy et al | October 2022
By 2025, 55% of the G2000 will adopt multicloud data logistic platforms.

2022 Global Hybrid Cloud Trends Report

Cisco | Report | October 2022
The vast majority (92%) of the organizations we polled are using multiple public clouds.

Hybrid Cloud
Global Industry Analysts | Market research report | October 2022
Note: Report requires purchase, contact MS Library for assistance and potential discounts
The market is projected to reach a revised size of US$228 Billion by 2027, growing at a CAGR of 15.9%
over the period 2020-2027.

Technology Report 2022: Tech Companies Eat Disruption for Breakfast

Bain & Company | Report | David Crawford et al | September 2022
The multicloud software market has grown tremendously in recent years, but not all companies
can survive.

What is multicloud architecture?

TechRepublic | Article | Aminu Abdullahi | 26 August 2022
A multicloud setup can increase availability and redundancy.

Unlocking Multicloud’s Operational Potential

Forrester | Report | August 2022
60% of surveyed technology practitioners and decision-makers are using multicloud. In the next 12 months,
that number will swell to 81%.

Hype Cycle for Cloud Computing, 2022

Gartner (Access notes) | Report | David Smith, Ed Anderson | 12 July 2022
Cloud computing is used broadly and pervasively and continues to spawn new technology innovations and
trends. Infrastructure and operations leaders must be pragmatic about the hype surrounding cloud
computing as new innovations emerge and cloud usage expands to enable more use cases and outcomes.

How Are Public Cloud Leaders Addressing Hybrid Cloud?

Forbes | Article | R. Scott Raynovich | 23 June 2022
A key strength for Microsoft is its natural position in enterprise software, which gives it a huge edge with
customer engagements.

Solving Multi-Cloud’s Biggest Challenges: Visibility, Security And Governance

Forbes | Article | Vibhuti Sinha | 16 May 2022
By focusing on where and what identity risks exist, IT teams can create a cohesive security architecture,
mitigate risks, increase visibility and simplify governance.

Examine IBM's hybrid cloud strategy

TechTarget | Article | Tom Nolle | 12 May 2022

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IBM's greatest strength isn't the features of its hybrid cloud strategy, but its integration and completeness.

More IT Leaders Say Hybrid Multicloud is Their Future

Nutanix | Article | Joanie Wexler | 23 March 2022
Over 80% of survey respondents see hybrid multicloud as their ideal IT operating model.

Monitoring And Security In A Hybrid, Multicloud World

Forbes | Article | Pavel Minarik | 15 February 2022
Having multiple tools to monitor different cloud and on-premises parts of infrastructure delivers poorer
cybersecurity network detection and response.

Interoperability a long way off as enterprises target multicloud

CIO Dive | Article | Naomi Eide | 1 February 2022
Clouds remain segmented, leaving businesses little recourse for how to best navigate complexity.

IBM Cloud Makeover Shows Results

Wall Street Journal (Access notes) | Article | Angus Loten | 26 January 2022
IBM reported higher earnings and revenue for the fourth quarter ended Dec. 31, including a 16% increase
in hybrid cloud revenue and an 8.2% rise in software revenue.

4th Annual Nutanix Enterprise Cloud Index

Nutanix | Report | 2022
Multicloud is the most commonly deployed IT environment.

Flexera 2022 State of the Cloud Report

Flexera | Report | 2022
Enterprises have almost entirely embraced multi-cloud. 89% of respondents reported having a multi-
cloud strategy.

Top cloud providers: AWS, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud, hybrid, SaaS players
ZDNet | Article | Larry Dignan | 22 December 2021
The likes of IBM, Dell Technologies, and HPE aim to become the glue between multicloud deployments
that feature a blend of private and public clouds as well as owned data centers.

The 5 Biggest Cloud Computing Trends In 2022

Forbes | Article | Bernard Marr | 25 October 2021
During 2020 and 2021, cloud computing exploded as work went virtual and businesses adapted to the
global pandemic by focusing on the delivery of digital services. In 2022, we will undoubtedly see a
continuation of rapid adoption and growth.

Google builds out hybrid and multicloud vision for enterprises

Computer Weekly | Article | Caroline Donnelly | 13 October 2021
The setup consists of a portfolio of hardware and software offerings for enterprises that have workloads
and applications that are not ready to move to the public cloud for latency or regulatory reasons.

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VMware's Project Arctic aims to make hybrid cloud the default operating model
ZDNet | Article | Stephanie Condon | 5 October 2021
It natively integrates cloud connectivity into vSphere, allowing customers to leverage cloud services for
any workloads running on vSphere, including on premise ones.

IBM launches new services to simplify hybrid cloud security

TechRepublic | Article | N.F. Mendoza | 25 March 2021
The security services are designed to help protect data, user identities, workloads and applications across
dispersed cloud and on-premises systems.

Azure Arc Becomes The Foundation For Microsoft’s Hybrid And Multi-Cloud Strategy
Forbes | Article | Janakiram MSV | 15 March 2021
Azure is the only public cloud platform with hardware and software-based choices for implementing an
enterprise hybrid cloud and multi-cloud strategy.

25 cloud trends for 2021 and beyond

Accenture | Article | 4 March 2021
A well-integrated and balanced hybrid strategy gives businesses the best of both worlds.

IBM Cloud Satellite goes GA

ZDNet | Article | Tony Baer | 1 March 2021
IBM views hybrid, private, and vertical industry-focused clouds as its sweet spots.

IBM revamps its storage lineup to better enable hybrid cloud computing
VentureBeat | Article | Michael Vizard | 8 February 2021
IBM has unveiled a 1u all-flash storage system for on-premises IT environments that can scale to hold 1.7
petabytes (PB) of data.

What Colocation Users Should Know About AWS’s and Its Rivals’ Hybrid Cloud Solutions
Data Center Knowledge | Article | Chris Tozzi | 21 January 2021
AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, and IBM all take different approaches to extending their clouds to customers’
own data centers.

Why More Healthcare Teams Are Embracing a Hybrid Cloud Model

HealthTech | Article | Kevin Joy | 15 January 2021
The healthcare industry now favors hybrid IT models more than any of the 12 other business sectors
surveyed.

IDC’s Top 10 Worldwide Services 2021 Predictions

IDC | Blog post | Laura Becker | 18 December 2020
By 2023, more than 70% of firms will use multicloud management platform capabilities as part of
managed cloud services.

7 predictions for cloud computing in 2021

InfoWorld | Article | James Kobielus | 17 December 2020
Enterprises will mitigate cloud lock-in through hybrid and multicloud strategies.

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Innovation Insight for Multicloud Computing
Gartner (Access notes) | Report | David Smith, Lydia Leong | 14 December 2020
Enterprise architecture and technology innovation leaders must select the multicloud strategy that best
fits their business needs.

5 challenges every multicloud strategy must address

Forbes | Article | Bob Violino | 14 December 2020
Not all cloud services are equal when it comes to supporting particular applications, workloads, and
business processes.

After reaching $40B in revenue in record time, Amazon Web Services hints at its own reinvention
GeekWire | Article | Todd Bishop | 3 December 2020
Even implicit acknowledgment of multicloud realities is something Amazon has been highly reluctant to
do in the past.

Amazon's Andy Jassy talks up AWS Outposts, Wavelength as the right edge for hybrid cloud
ZDNet | Article | Tiernan Ray | 1 December 2020
Edge computing in AWS Outposts gains new form factors in 1U and 2U rack units.

IBM CEO Arvind Krishna wants to completely transform his organization

TechCrunch | Article | Ron Miller | 10 November 2020
Krishna sees the Red Hat acquisition as a key part of the transition strategy to capture what he estimates
is a trillion dollar opportunity in the hybrid cloud management market.

Third Annual ECI Report: How the Pandemic Raised IT’s Profile and Paved a Clearer Pathway to Hybrid
Cloud
Nutanix | Blog post | Wendy M. Pfeiffer | November 2020
46% of respondents said their investments in hybrid cloud have increased as a direct result of COVID-19.

Why hybrid cloud on premises is outpacing public cloud adoption: 5 insights

Becker’s Health IT | Article | Jackie Drees | 16 October 2020
About 84% of healthcare organizations have adopted a hybrid cloud platform.

Why AWS’s Hybrid Cloud Play Is Different, and What It Means for Colocation
Data Center Knowledge | Article | Christopher Tozzi | 7 October 2020
AWS’s long-term strategy appears to be oriented more toward moving organizations toward a purely
public cloud architecture than building a hybrid model that can evolve with business needs long-term.

Oracle brings its real public cloud to private data centers

CIO | Article | 27 September 2020
In a major announcement, Oracle is first among all cloud providers to allow the full capabilities of its
public cloud to be installed into customer data centers.

KPMG’s Enterprise Reboot report: Hybrid outpaces multi-cloud as model of choice through Covid-19
CloudTech | Article | James Bourne | 4 September 2020

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Hybrid or multi-cloud was seen as a cost-cutter.

Hybrid cloud and low-code approaches gained favor during Covid-19 crisis
ZDNet | Article | Joe McKendrick | 15 August 2020
IT leaders have turned their emphasis to hybrid cloud adoption over multi-cloud implementations. This
may reflect a need to prioritize leveraging existing assets and infrastructure.

Hype Cycle for Cloud Computing, 2020

Gartner (Access notes) | Report | David Smith, Ed Anderson | 31 July 2020
Profiles key cloud computing technologies and concepts and provides guidance to IT leaders.

Hybrid cloud by the numbers, 2020: 10 stats to see

The Enterprisers Project | Article | Kevin Casey | 27 July 2020
Nearly three out of four respondents in a recent Everest Group survey of 200 enterprises said they have a
hybrid-first or private-first cloud strategy.

Google BigQuery Omni connects customers to data in AWS and Azure

ZDNet | Article | Andrew Brust | 14 July 2020
The new multi-cloud analytics option allows BigQuery to run in other clouds.

Microsoft's Azure Arc will place it at the center of an enterprise's hybrid cloud solution
Business Insider (Access notes) | Article | George Paul | 5 November 2019
Microsoft is positioning itself as the orchestrator of hybrid solutions.

Microsoft unveils Azure Arc, aiming to fend off Google and Amazon with new hybrid cloud tech
GeekWire | Article | Todd Bishop | 4 November 2019
Customers will be able to deploy, manage and secure apps and run data services across in-house servers,
multiple cloud platforms and edge computing scenarios, with connected devices in remote locations.

Google’s hybrid cloud platform is coming to AWS and Azure

TechCrunch | Article | Frederic Lardinois | 9 April 2019
Google’s Cloud Services Platform for managing hybrid clouds that span on-premise data centers and the
Google cloud is coming out of beta. The company is also changing the product’s name to Anthos.

Microsoft And VMware Close To Revealing Joint Development Of A Hybrid Cloud Solution: Report
CRN | Article | Joseph Tsidulko | 27 February 2019
Microsoft and VMware are preparing a groundbreaking partnership, according to a report in The
Information.

Why IBM had no choice but bet $34 billion on hybrid cloud
TechRepublic | Article | Matt Asay | 26 February 2019
Hybrid cloud is the new default, and IBM couldn't afford to keep missing out.

Analyst Report: Remove Hybrid & Multi-Cloud Complexity and Take IT to the Next Level
Gigaom | Report | David S. Linthicum | 30 January 2019
Approaches and tools that will ensure success.

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A Closer Look At Hybrid-Cloud And Multi-Cloud Approaches
Forbes | Article | Chaitanya Atreya | 26 November 2018
Hybrid-cloud and multi-cloud are quickly becoming the new norm for enterprises.

The hybrid cloud market just got a heck of a lot more compelling
TechCrunch | Article | Ron Miller | 30 October 2018
The idea that you operate both on prem and in the cloud with multiple vendors is the whole idea behind
the notion of the hybrid cloud.

Hybrid cloud: A cheat sheet

TechRepublic | Article | James Sanders | 24 October 2018
This guide covers the common use cases, technical benefits and limitations, and what to know for
adopting hybrid cloud.

What a hybrid cloud is in the 'multi-cloud era,' and why you may already have one
ZDNet | Article | Scott Fulton III | 10 September 2018
Now that the services used by an enterprise and provided to its customers may be hosted on servers in
the public cloud or on-premises, maybe "hybrid cloud" isn't an architecture anymore.

VMware touts multi-cloud strategy with expanded hybrid cloud portfolio

ZDNet | Article | Asha McLean | 27 August 2018
VMware said its updated multi-cloud strategy is focused on supporting customers' needs.

Here’s Why Amazon Is No Shoo-In To Win The $206B Global Cloud Market
CB Insights | Article | 22 August 2018
While the most significant impacts of multi-cloud strategies have yet to be seen, the power dynamics
between AWS, Azure, and GCP are slowly shifting.

What is hybrid cloud really, and what's the best strategy?

Network World | Article | Stacy Collett | 13 April 2018
The definition of hybrid cloud varies depending on who you ask, but it always involves using both private
and public clouds.

Cloud strategy: hybrid and multi cloud are not the same
Network World | Article | Pete Johnson | 12 February 2018
Although historically we’ve used the terms interchangeably, hybrid and multi cloud are not the same.

For Microsoft, the hybrid cloud is the destination, not a staging post
ZDNet | Article | Jack Schofield | 30 October 2017
What was interesting about the conference call on Microsoft's results was Nadella's insistence that
Microsoft's strength lay in the hybrid cloud.

Multicloud: A cheat sheet

TechRepublic | Article | James Sanders | 4 May 2017

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This guide covers the use of services from multiple cloud vendors, including the benefits businesses gain
and the challenges IT teams face when using multicloud.

Update History
Editions and revisions to this Topic Paper:
December 2022: All sections reviewed for currency and links checked. Market and other data have been
updated, along with the “Outlook” section.
December 2021: All sections reviewed for currency and links checked. Market and other data have been
updated, along with the “Outlook” section.
April 2021: Market data updated, competitors offerings updated, Azure Arc discussed.
April 2019: First published.

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