Hybrid and multi-cloud user access challenges

One of the biggest challenges in digital transformation for most enterprises is migration of their services from on-premise to the cloud. Since those migrations often include a hybrid model for high performance, availability and security, the proper management of user access to services located in hybrid environments is crucial for the best possible end-user experience.

Many organizations which already deliver services from the cloud, by doing business globally have a need to deliver those services near the users for a better service performance, usually by using multiple cloud data centers located worldwide or even multi-cloud infrastructure for better availability and cost reduction. In addition to reducing latency and cost, a multi-cloud environment also prevents ‘vendor lock-in’ performance problems, limited options and offers great flexibility regarding the choice of optimal cloud providers. According to Forbes, back in 2020, most companies (70 percent) said they were still tied to one cloud service provider, reports have found that 84% of mid-to-large companies will have adopted a multi-cloud strategy, by 2023, positioning it as one of the year’s defining trends in cloud computing.

One of the issues that arise in a hybrid or multi-cloud environment is managing all the different distributed services across different cloud providers.

User access to the hybrid and multi-cloud digital infrastructure is commonly managed by using a Global Server Load Balancer (GSLB) service. The choice of a proper GSLB service is the most important step in establishing a multi data center environment for both hybrid and multi-cloud models since GSLB is responsible for the server load balancing and the end-user’s optimal server selection. One of the easiest to implement, manage and configure solutions is to have a modern Client-side Global Server Load Balancing solution do all the necessary load balancing between the different cloud environments and providers.

*Bernard Marr, 2022, Forbes <https://www.forbes.com/sites/bernardmarr/2022/10/17/the-top-5-cloud-computing-trends-in-2023/amp/>