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You may already know the cloud as a service model, but to make full sense of the buzzwords and concepts circulating in today's industry, it's essential to view the subject from multiple angles. Let's guide you through these different perspectives, clarifying what terms like 'cloud-native,' 'hybrid cloud,' and 'multi-cloud' actually mean, and how their meanings can shift based on context and viewpoint.

THIS IS AN INTERACTIVE PAPER, SO PLEASE LOOK OUT FOR HINTS ON HOW TO DRILL DOWN AS YOU EXPLORE

CLOUD

CONFLATION AND

CONFUSION

How often have you found yourself listening to someone talking about cloud and becoming more confused, until you realise they are using terms you know, but are defining them differently?

How often have you found yourself listening to someone talking about cloud and becoming more confused, until you realise they are using terms you know, but are defining them differently?

How often have you found yourself listening to someone talking about cloud and becoming more confused, until you realise they are using terms you know, but are defining them differently?

Tap on the examples below to see the problem.

Tap on the examples below to see the problem.

Tap on the examples below to see the problem.

WHAT DOES THAT
EVEN MEAN?

WHAT DOES THAT
EVEN MEAN?

Cloud Native

Cloud First

Multi-Cloud

Hybrid-Cloud

Private Cloud

Private Cloud

Public Cloud

So how did these various interpretations stack up with your own view? The chances are that you agreed with some, were surprised by others, and considered some of the takes nonsensical or flat out wrong. And that sums up the problem.

Public Cloud

The term ‘Public Cloud’, which to many is synonymous with ‘The Cloud’, is most often understood as a scalable, virtualised environment offered by a third-party service provider to run remote workloads or applications. This can range from raw compute and storage resources to fully managed business solutions. However, some people still use the term to describe any off-site computing resource, including traditional hosting models in which you simply rent assets running in someone else’s data centre.

Private Cloud

The term ‘Private Cloud’ can mean different things depending on who you ask. It might refer to a dynamic, virtualised environment set up in your own data centre to emulate public cloud features. Alternatively, it could describe a self-service model that allows on-premise resources, including legacy systems, to be provisioned through a cloud-like interface. Some even use the term to refer to hosted services that are underpinned by a dedicated, ring-fenced set of resources in a service provider's environment.

Hybrid Cloud

For some, the term ‘Hybrid Cloud’ refers a strategic approach within which an organisation commits to using both public and private cloud platforms in a coordinated manner. Others use it to describe specific workloads designed to operate across different domains, such as an on-premise application that integrates with components running in a public cloud. Yet another interpretation focuses on applications that primarily run on-premise but 'burst' into the public cloud to handle peak loads

Multi-cloud

At its most basic, term 'Multi-Cloud' refers to an organisation's use of multiple cloud services, a definition many find too simplistic to be useful. A more nuanced view sees it as the strategic mixing and matching of different cloud providers, often facilitated by management platforms that enable abstract services and free movement of workloads between environments. The latest twist combines the concepts of hybrid and multi-cloud, with cloud management platforms embracing multiple private and public environments.

Cloud First

Some interpret term 'Cloud First' as a policy directive to deploy all new applications in the public cloud unless there's a compelling reason to do otherwise. This often leaves existing applications out of the picture, but others extend the meaning to include a program for also migrating as many existing applications to the cloud as possible, re-engineering along the way where required. A third angle focuses on building all new applications using cloud-native architectures so they run optimally in any cloud environment.

Cloud Native

For some, the term 'Cloud Native' a straightforward reference to applications designed from the get-go to run in a public cloud. Others use the term to highlight a specific type of application architecture that fully exploits the cloud's dynamic, flexible, and scalable nature, often involving technologies like containers and orchestration platforms. Yet another interpretation identifies 'Cloud Native' (a.k.a. ‘Born in the Cloud’) companies founded with the exploitation of public cloud as a cornerstone of their business.

Navigating the Jargon Maze

The first key to navigating cloud terminology maze is to shift your perspective from systems to services. This change in mindset is central to understanding the essence of 'cloud'. Also recognising that services can be delivered through both your data centre and external providers allows you to focus on the nature and quality of the services themselves, separately from their location or source.


If we then add architecture into this mix, it becomes much easier to understand and compare different forms of cloud computing.

TEASING APART THE DIFFERENT DIMENSIONS

TEASING APART THE DIFFERENT DIMENSIONS

While there are many ways to dissect a cloud solution or service to understand its characteristics, the schematic below captures some of the main dimensions to consider. Tap on any of them see the kind of questions to ask in each area when evaluating or comparing different options

Type of Service

Hosting Location

Source & Delivery

Service Architecture

Contract & Commercial

Myriad Combinations

What is cloud?

An opportunity as well as a challenge

What is cloud?

The dimensions we’ve outlined are mostly independent of each other and the options within each can be combined in many different ways - and in practice they are IT vendors and service providers innovate to deal with different requirements and use cases.

This is why a lot of labels and categories we discussed at the outset aren’t that useful in practical terms. To understand and compare different supplier propositions, you have to consider each of the dimensions we’ve outlined. Make assumptions, and there’s high risk of being caught out.

To finish on a positive a note, however, it’s nowadays possible to define a ‘cloud’ solution to meet pretty any set of requirements. So don’t start by asking whether public, private, hybrid or any other form of cloud is right in a given context; define what’s important in terms of functionality, performance, cost, control, security, compliance and so on, then talk to suppliers about meeting your specific needs.