Part 4: 3 Reasons Managing Your Multicloud Should Be Outsourced

By Paul Bulmer, Director of Product

Paul Bulmer, Director of Product, Maintel

July 2022
By: Paul Bulmer, Director of Product

Removing Complexity in an Evolving Multicloud Environment

Continually adding to an already complex cloud means the team in charge needs to be experts in such an environment. For many businesses, this should fall to a managed services partner.

The typical cloud environment of most businesses today is a complex mix of both public and private clouds, applications, workloads, and resources. With 97% using the public cloud, 80% using a private cloud, and 78% using both, it’s likely your multicloud environment requires your internal IT team to have a solid grasp of a wide range of cloud architectures, integration points, SaaS applications, and more. And, despite your business’ evolution of its use of the cloud, it’s equally likely that the challenge of managing such an environment is only being compounded with each addition made to help meet changing business requirements.

In this fourth blog in a 5-part series on removing complexity in an evolving multicloud environment, we’re going to look at why you may want to consider outsourcing some or all of the management.

More businesses are looking to take advantage of outsourcing their cloud management to a managed services provider that focuses on the cloud. This is becoming more common for three reasons:

1. They Have Already Been Where You’re Wanting to Go

To your staff, that new cloud application or workload environment that needs to be added is something they know nothing about. But to an outsourced managed services provider, this is just another cloud app they’ve seen countless times before. By using a managed services provider, you gain the depth and breadth of experience their service team has spanning countless companies – both as simple as, and far more complex than yours. In essence, the right managed services provider already knows what to do, which cloud to use, how to integrate it into your current environment, and how to get your business utilising your evolving cloud environment quickly.

2. They Will Augment Your (Limited) Internal Staff

Your internal IT staff (even if you have one or more dedicated to cloud) is already being pulled in a large number of directions – with the cloud being ‘yet another’ initiative they need to triage into the mix of other responsibilities. But as your multicloud environment grows and scales, the importance of having a dedicated team assisting with design, implementation, monitoring, securing, and supporting it becomes increasingly critical. A managed services provider employs architects, engineers, admins, NOC analysts, and more – all focused on the success of your cloud. Working alongside your internal team, the managed services team addresses those parts of managing and maintaining your multicloud environment that your internal team can’t, seamlessly acting as part of your business processes, ensuring the environment stays accessible, productive, protected, and secure.

3. They’ll Manage the Multicloud More Cost-Efficiently

With the average organisation estimating a waste of 30% of their cloud spend, it’s evident that misspending on the cloud is somewhat ubiquitous. Part of this waste comes from businesses repeatedly making mistakes along their cloud journey, costing precious budget. The first reason above addresses this issue; by leveraging the expertise of a managed services partner, your cloud choices are sound and will be put to good use, lowering spend waste. Another part of the waste comes from a lack of visibility on the bigger picture of how each resource within your multicloud is to be used, whether it’s being used, and if it’s being used efficiently. This is addressed by the second reason above; having a partner dedicated to understanding and watching your environment means a lessened risk of waste from a lack of use or diminished performance. The last part of the waste comes from overspending on internal resources. By utilising a managed services provider, you cost-effectively gain a bench of seasoned experts – all without the cost of employing them full time.

Simplifying Management Through Outsourcing

Using multiple cloud providers seems pretty simple at first glance; choose your vendors, add on the applications, workloads, storage, etc. you need, VPN in or use a version of direct connectivity such as an Express Route and – in sum total – you have your multicloud environment. But making certain the entire environment is accessible, resilient, maintains service quality, is continually secure, and is future-ready is something that requires the skillset of a cloud practitioner. A managed services provider is laser-focused on your success in the cloud and is already all too familiar with both what you have in use today as well as what you will need tomorrow. 

If you would like to learn more about multicloud connectivity, click here.

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