Weathering The Storms of Multi-Cloud Network Management
Like explorers in a dry spell, many organizations recognize that two (or more) clouds can be better than one. Network architecture incorporating multiple public cloud vendors can increase capacity and efficiency while providing the freedom to hand-pick capabilities based on business needs. These benefits have led to a boom in multi-cloud deployments, with 79% of organizations worldwide adopting or planning for multi-cloud infrastructure.
But more clouds can bring too much rain. Multi-cloud environments introduce barriers to visibility, interoperability, and security that create formidable challenges for network managers. The complexity of the multi-cloud model also contributes to increased mean time to detect (MTTD) and mean time to repair (MTTR), placing network performance and reliability into the eye of the storm. Network management practices based on consolidated monitoring tools, packet and flow data capture, and collaboration can provide a safe harbor.
Multi-Cloud vs Hybrid Cloud
The terms multi-cloud and hybrid cloud are often used interchangeably, but each approach combines resources in its own distinct way. While multi-cloud deployments utilize services from two or more cloud environments, hybrid cloud infrastructure extends on-premises capabilities through public cloud resources. This distinction gains importance when you consider the multi-cloud limitations on IT resources and native data access, along with the accompanying network complexity.
Hybrid cloud deployments retain on-premises infrastructure as an anchor for applications and storage migrating to the cloud. Strategically incorporating data streams like AWS VPC and Azure NSG flow logs into the mix produces a more unified visibility solution. On the other hand, the dispersed vendors and resources of multi-cloud deployments have the potential to untether network management teams from their moorings.
Addressing the Barriers to Multi-Cloud Visibility
Managing a complex multi-cloud environment means collaborating with multiple cloud providers, each with their own unique (and purpose-built) collection of tools, procedures, and SLAs. For organizations standing in the middle, over-reliance on external resources, and an inherent lack of ownership and high-level visibility, can be detrimental side-effects. These challenges can be addressed through a commitment to unified network management tools and practices.
Breaking down data siloes
The risks to network performance stemming from siloed data sources in separate clouds are understood by most organizations pursuing multi-cloud strategies, yet surprisingly few are proactively addressing this issue. According to the VIAVI 2024/25 State of the Network Study, only 20% of organizations have adopted collaborative approaches to cloud-based application monitoring, with larger organizations relying heavily on cloud service providers (CSPs) to fill this need.
Complex network architecture, data overload, and sluggish MTTR are problems that are not (and never will be) fully owned by cloud service providers, despite their ongoing commitments to customer satisfaction. Advanced network monitoring solutions counter this trend by embracing collaboration, automated workflows, and metric consolidation through end-user experience scoring. This empowers network managers and IT teams to take back the mantle of network performance.
Packet and flow data
Telemetry is the term used to describe the collection of network performance data from remote locations to support ongoing monitoring and analysis. Logs, metrics, and traces have long been considered the most data-rich and reliable telemetry sources, but new stars are appearing on the horizon to help navigate perilous multi-cloud waters:
- Packet data from the cloud provides an unaltered record complete with detailed traffic, application, and error information while establishing a complete back-in-time resource to recreate any network event.
- Enriched flow logs integrate network, infrastructure, and user data within a single record carrying in-depth traffic information. Observer GigaFlow also incorporates VPC Flow Logs and NSG flow logs to bring user-focused insights to multi-cloud and hybrid environments.
Consolidated toolkits
An assortment of vendor-specific monitoring tools is another common byproduct of multi-cloud deployments. If more tools always meant more visibility, this would not be concerning, but our State of the Network Study revealed a surprising case of diminishing returns: While the average organization deploys 10 tools for network performance monitoring, those with 10 or fewer tools reported a 60% reduction in MTTR.
One common strategy for consolidation involves re-organizing vendor-provided products and replacing specific monitoring tools with more comprehensive alternatives. This unified approach is taken a step further when data from purpose-built monitoring applications is fed into a centralized network management solution. The VIAVI Observer Platform establishes a single source a multi-cloud truth by integrating available packet and flow data into consolidated workflows, dashboards, and reports.
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Introducing the VIAVI 2024/25 State of the Network Study
The 16th annual VIAVI State of the Network Study for 2024/25 is now available. Insights culled from over 750 networking and security professionals highlight the challenges of multi-cloud and hybrid cloud architecture, along with the tools and practices needed to address modern network complexity.
