There’s a famous saying, “A good system shortens the road to the goal.” This saying is true for IT systems, as their worth lies with their stability. Imagine you offer your users a suite of the best services, but they can’t access it. So, here, the design and development phases need to be more stable.  

Gartner’s report states that the average downtime cost of a business is USD 5,600 per minute. And this further multiplies if you are in a multi-cloud environment. Downtime causes security issues and latency, further breaking the bank and hitting your bottom line harder. What a costly affair it is!  

Today, if you look around, employees demand remote work. Customers are impatient and want everything at their fingertips quickly. Every organization is struggling to safeguard themselves from cybercrimes. So, in the middle of all this chaos, how would you mitigate risks, optimize performance, and win your brand reputation?  

Here is where cloud interconnectivity comes in. It is an easy solution where your existing IT infrastructure connects to an external cloud service to enhance performance, safeguard reputation, and boost the bottom line.

But why do we need an interconnected multi-cloud network? 

Network latency: Imagine you’re on a video call. While discussing a crucial point, you suddenly dropped out of the call. Another example can be a failure of your online payment at a store, or your software update got stalled, and now you are left with a spinning wheel on the mobile screen. Aren’t these irritants? We’ve experienced this in our daily lives. As we become impatient, we immediately switch to other apps, don’t you? Similarly, your customers get frustrated when there’s a delay in sending and receiving information, forcing them to leave your website or application. Stats say there is an 87% abandonment rate if there’s a 2-second delay in loading.  

Higher operational expenses: Suppose you have two separate instances of a customer database on two different cloud platforms- AWS and Azure. As every instance is independent, their required storage volumes, virtual machines, and network configurations will be different, resulting in duplication of resources. This duplication increases costs and leads to inefficient resource utilization. Another factor that adds to higher operational expenses is data transfer between two separate cloud platforms. Suppose you want to transfer your on-premises data to Azure. The cloud providers charge for outbound data transfers, which escalates with the increasing data volume, further breaking the bank. Also, you have to spend more because you must manage the complexity of both cloud environments, like troubleshooting, monitoring, and data consistency across clouds.  

Phew! It seems heavy on your pockets. 

Now, let’s see how you can interconnect a multi-cloud network.  

1. Figure out why you want to connect your cloud platforms- Enhance performance, faster data transfer, cost optimization, or just for a smoother business process.  
2. Suppose you have AWS and Azure to interconnect. Choose the best-fit option to connect them. For example, you can choose AWS Direct Connect and Azure ExpressRoute for a fast, reliable connection between your clouds. Another way is to use a third-party service to connect your clouds. Also, you can use software solutions to provide virtual connections between your clouds.  
3. Define how these clouds will communicate with each other. For example, define the network topology, bandwidth requirements, and security measures.  
4. Set up the connection from AWS and Azure to this interconnected network. This process will include VPN tunnels, virtual network gateways, or building private connections. This setup process is on the basis of the chosen interconnection method.

Fig: VPN tunnels

Fig: Virtual network gateways

Fig: Virtual Router

5. Make sure your cloud interconnection is safe. Use authentication methods and access control to safeguard your data.  
6. Test before you finally get into the ring. Test for its performance, reliability, and security. You can check for the following KPIs- latency, transfer speed, and cloud interoperability. 
7. Continuously monitor the interconnected multi-cloud network for availability, security, and performance. 
8. Optimize and scale your multi-cloud network according to the business requirements and the workload continuously.  
9. Document everything so that your troubleshooting & maintenance becomes a breeze.

This multi-cloud interconnected network will serve benefits like:  

• Reduced latency and enhanced responsiveness with resource allocation located near the users.  
• Ensures business continuity and minimizes service interruptions. 
• Optimized costs and vendor flexibility 
• Increased scalability and agility to meet fluctuating demands, dynamic business needs, and effective use of resources. 
• Centralized data management and governance. 
• Opportunity to leverage unique capabilities of different cloud providers for their systems and applications. 

In a nutshell, where every second counts, your systems and applications must be stable. And the only solution that can give you the stability you’ve been looking for is multi-cloud interconnectivity. So, why wait? Leap and leverage the full potential of the multi-cloud interconnectivity network today.