What is the difference between hybrid cloud and multi cloud

Hybrid cloud and multi-cloud represent two diverse cloud computing strategies that fulfill different business needs. While they may seem close because they involve more than one cloud, there's a differentiation in how the clouds are provisioned, integrated, and utilized. Here's a detailed comparison:

Hybrid Cloud

Hybrid cloud is a combination of either a private cloud (on-premises or hosted) with at least one more public cloud, such as AWS, Microsoft Azure, or Google Cloud. The primary feature of a hybrid cloud environment is seamless integration between private and public. This cloud allows seamless movement of data and applications between them whenever they have to move.

Key Features of Hybrid Cloud:

Private and Public Cloud Integration: Hybrid architecture combines on-premises infrastructure-private cloud with public cloud services closely, thereby allowing workloads to flow between environments based on needs.

Single IT Management: Hybrid cloud systems are typically managed from a single central point of access that provides one point of management for both public and private cloud resources.

Data Flow: The private and public cloud can have an open flow of data between them. Thus, businesses choose where to store data due to the specific needs of either security, compliance, or performance in one place.

Flexibility: A business will have its private cloud to carry out its sensitive workload, while using public clouds for scalable resources-based functions.

Use Cases: Hybrid clouds come in handy when organizations have a specific compliance or regulatory requirement that mandates certain data be left on-premises. However, they also require benefits in the form of public clouds for attaining scalability and cost-effectiveness.

Multi-Cloud

A multi-cloud strategy is the leveraging of multiple public cloud services offered by different providers such as AWS, Google Cloud, and Microsoft Azure, not necessarily integrated or connected to the private infrastructure. Hybrid cloud typically does not employ using several cloud platforms for specific services or tasks, but not necessarily coordinated.

Key Features of Multi-Cloud:

Multiple Public Cloud Providers: The use of more than one public cloud provider is referred to as a multi-cloud. For instance, a user might use AWS for storing data but would perform all AI/ML related tasks on Google Cloud.

Difference in Lack of Tight Integration: Another difference is a lack of tight integration between the two worlds. In most cases, a multi-cloud environment is not tightly integrated with each other like the hybrid clouds. Different clouds serve different purposes, and businesses manage them independently.

Vendor Diversification: The most important benefit of adopting a multi-cloud strategy is to avoid dependence on a single cloud vendor that enhances the threat of vendor lock-in.

Best-of-breed approach: Different cloud hosting providers use the best services they have for a given set of tasks-for example, one's superior AI tools, another's cost-effective storage capabilities.

Use Cases: Generally, whenever the concern comes up that the organization depends on a single vendor, or on its own, wants to utilize several providers' best features or pricing models, multi-cloud is usually seen in action.

Conclusion:

Though both hybrid cloud and multi-cloud implement more than one cloud, their architectures as well as purposes are very different. Hybrid Cloud A hybrid cloud is when you connect a private cloud to one or more public cloud providers, so workloads and data can be easily moved between different environments. It is best for organizations that require both scalability and compliance with data regulations. A multi-cloud strategy, on the other hand, is using more than one public cloud provider for different services and offers flexibility, reduces dependency on vendors, and uses best-of-breed tools across platforms.

The need for hybrid cloud comes forth from the requirements of an organization for data security, scalability, flexibility, and resilience. Some businesses eventually adopt both strategies. This is because organizations must combine the control of a hybrid cloud with the flexibility of a multi-cloud in highly complex IT infrastructures.