Multi-cloud vs. single-cloud: Which is right for your business?

Understanding multi-cloud and single-cloud strategies

Understanding the difference between multi-cloud and single-cloud strategies is imperative for businesses looking to optimise their IT infrastructure. A multi-cloud approach offers flexibility, redundancy, and the ability to harness the unique strengths of different

cloud providers, ensuring higher resilience and scalability. In contrast, a single-cloud strategy offers simplicity, potential cost savings, and streamlined management, making it appealing for businesses with more straightforward needs. As of 2024, 73% of enterprises have adopted a hybrid cloud model, highlighting a shift away from relying solely on private or public clouds. Understanding these strategies helps organisations make informed decisions aligned with their growth and technical requirements.

What is a single-cloud approach?

A single-cloud approach is a cloud computing model where an organisation relies on one cloud provider to handle all its computing needs. This strategy offers simplicity, centralised management, and potential cost savings by consolidating services under one provider, making it ideal for businesses seeking streamlined operations and ease of integration.

What is a multi-cloud approach?

A multi-cloud approach involves using services from multiple cloud providers to enhance performance, flexibility, and risk management. By using the strengths of different providers, businesses can optimise their infrastructure, improve resilience, and avoid vendor lock-in, ensuring greater control and scalability to meet diverse operational needs.

Critical differences between multi-cloud and single cloud

When evaluating cloud strategies, organisations often face the decision between adopting a single-cloud or a multi-cloud approach. Both models have their unique benefits and challenges. The choice is based on factors such as cost, flexibility, security, and disaster recovery needs. Below is a side-by-side comparison of key differences between single vs. multi-cloud strategies:

Differences	Single cloud	Multi-cloud
Vendors	Single vendor dependency	Multiple vendors offering more control
Cost	Payment to one provider	Payment to multiple providers
Purpose	Provides single service	Handles multiple services with multiple solutions
Required skill set	Fewer cloud engineers required	Requires extensive cloud engineering teams with strong multi-cloud expertise
Security	Easier to ensure data compliance	Less secure with distributed sensitive data
Disaster recovery	Single point of failure making it vulnerable	Easier disaster recovery
Management	Easier management	Complex management

Benefits of a single-cloud strategy

Below are the key benefits of adopting a single-cloud strategy:

• Centralised data security: Data backups stored in the provider's data centres reduce the risk of data loss.

• Cost savings: This avoids the need for expensive hardware or local data centres. This results in long-term savings.

• Easier to manage: No need to migrate workloads between multiple cloud providers, simplifying management.

• Faster workload handling: Workloads can be processed quickly with a single provider.

• Reduced data inconsistencies: There is a lower risk of inconsistencies as data resides within one provider's infrastructure.

• Accountability: It is easier to hold one vendor accountable for cloud-related issues.

• High degree of integration: All applications operate seamlessly within one cloud environment.

• Cost-effective for small businesses: A single-cloud solution is often ideal for small businesses with limited resources.

Benefits of a multi-cloud strategy

Below are the key benefits of adopting a multi-cloud strategy:

• Cost optimisation: Save money by selecting the best pricing and discounts from various cloud providers.

• Improved redundancy: Services are seamlessly routed to another cloud if one goes down, minimising the risk of a single point of failure.

• Increased agility: Adapt quickly to changing requirements by optimising cloud resource utilisation.

• Reduced operational overhead: Use the same toolsets to manage applications and infrastructure across diverse clouds.

• Improved observability: Enhance application performance and security across all cloud environments.

• Interoperability: Enable seamless collaboration between different systems and clouds.

• Data consistency: Ensure accuracy and reliability of data across various environments.

• Enhanced security: Maintain robust security protocols across multiple platforms

• Data privacy: Control access and maintain privacy across diverse cloud services.

• Optimised application performance: Choose the best cloud provider for specific regions or workloads, enhancing application performance.

Cost considerations: Single-cloud vs. multi-cloud

When evaluating cloud solutions, cost remains critical when choosing between a single-cloud or multi-cloud solutions. The overall cost of cloud computing depends on various elements, including resource usage, pricing models, and the cloud providers selected. Below are key cost considerations for both approaches:

• Cloud pricing model: Pricing can be based on time, cost, or auction, and it varies depending on the chosen cloud provider.

• Cloud provider: Typically, a single-cloud provider will be more cost-effective than using multiple providers, as single-cloud solutions streamline billing and resource management.

• Resource usage: In a multi-cloud strategy, careful resource usage monitoring is essential to avoid overspending, as using multiple providers can lead to unanticipated costs.

• AWS RDS Single AZ vs. Multi-AZ: While AWS RDS Single AZ offers a more budget-friendly option, using Multi-AZ provides improved availability and reliability, adding to the overall cost.

Performance and reliability: Which strategy offers more?

When considering performance and reliability, a multi-cloud vs single-cloud strategy offers distinct advantages. A multi-cloud strategy is generally more reliable, as it reduces the risk of a single point of failure by distributing workloads across multiple providers. This enhances system resilience and uptime. In contrast, a single-cloud vs multi-cloud approach may offer simpler management but increases vulnerability if the chosen provider experiences outages. The right choice can be made based on your business's specific needs, objectives, and risk tolerance. A multi-cloud strategy is mostly the better choice for higher reliability and performance.

Why Choose Tata Communications for multi-cloud solutions?

• Expert-led design consultation – Our certified cloud engineers assess your existing infrastructure and design a customised, high-performance IT architecture tailored to your business needs.
• Seamless migration & deployment – Leveraging industry best practices, we ensure smooth workload migration to AWS, Azure, or GCP with minimal disruption and maximum efficiency.
• 24/7 monitoring & management – Our cloud-certified professionals provide round-the-clock proactive monitoring, ensuring optimal performance, security, and ease of management through a single-pane-of-glass view.

Conclusion

Choosing between multi-cloud and single-cloud depends on your business needs, risk tolerance, and long-term objectives. While a single-cloud approach offers simplicity and cost savings, a multi-cloud strategy enhances flexibility, reliability, and redundancy. Assessing performance, cost, and security is crucial in determining the best-fit solution for your enterprise.

At Tata Communications, we recognise that every application has unique performance requirements, security demands, and operational complexities. Our comprehensive multi-cloud solutions help businesses efficiently design, integrate, migrate, and manage public cloud services. Through our proven framework—which includes cloud advisory, secure deployment, and managed operations—we eliminate the challenges of cloud adoption and deliver a frictionless cloud journey.

Hybrid and multi-cloud environments offer significant operational and cost advantages, but navigating them requires the right expertise, frameworks, and tools. With Tata Communications, you can eliminate complexity, maximise cloud ROI, and gain a competitive edge in today’s digital landscape. Schedule a conversation today to explore how we can optimise your cloud strategy and drive business success.