Multicloud Strategy: Overcoming Silos, Security, & Compliance Challenges With APIs

Your multicloud strategy is important to your multicloud success. But many enterprises struggle to develop a sound multicloud strategy. Among the many challenges, scaling multicloud APIs is really difficult. 

In this blog, we share how to solve the challenges and create a better multicloud strategy.

What Is a Multicloud Strategy?

A multicloud strategy is your plan for selecting different cloud services from different providers based on capabilities and pricing. A good multicloud strategy leverages APIs. APIs make it possible to scale apps, services, and products across multiple cloud providers. 

Why Use a Multicloud Strategy?

A multicloud strategy supports digital transformation and innovation. 

81% of public cloud users are leveraging multiple cloud providers. To succeed, you need a multicloud strategy. It's the only way to successfully scale apps, services, and products across multiple cloud providers.

Disrupt or Be Disrupted

When it comes to digital transformation today, it's disrupt or be disrupted. And a multicloud strategy can help ensure you disrupt — rather than be disrupted. Get the eBook to learn how you can succeed in digital transformation.

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Of course, there are multicloud challenges you'll need a strategy for, including:

• Silos.
• Security.
• Compliance and governance.

You can solve these challenges with a multicloud API strategy.

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• API Basics
• API Strategy
• Enterprise Cloud

How to Eliminate Silos With Multicloud APIs

Technology silos have plagued enterprises since the dawn of computing. The sheer scale and complexity of multicloud silos can:

• Slow innovation.
• Disrupt workflows.
• Create barriers to interoperability.

According to Gartner, top public cloud players such as Amazon Web Services, Azure, and Google Cloud represent the lion-share of the cloud market. But none of these platforms are optimized to operate well with the others. In fact, each would prefer to meet all of your cloud computing needs. Interoperability is simply not a priority.

Leveraging multiple cloud providers delivers many benefits.

For instance, you can:

• Create greater application agility.
• Minimize vendor lock-in.
• Improve disaster recovery.

But how can you break down the barriers between cloud providers and reap the benefits? By using multicloud APIs in an API platform.

1. Build an API For Each Cloud Provider

In order to break down silos between multiple cloud providers, the first step is to build an API on top of each cloud infrastructure. 

You can use APIs as building blocks to expose business capabilities across an entire digital enterprise ecosystem.

2. Unify Your Clouds in a Single Portal

Next, you can unify and make these systems available within a single API portal. So, your developers and administrators can manage the entire multicloud ecosystem from a single interface.

3. Manage Multicloud Deployments — Without Silos

Now that you have your cloud APIs in a single portal, you can manage multicloud deployments without silos. 

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How to Enable Multicloud Security With APIs

We’ve all heard the horror stories and read the news about public cloud data breaches. According to Ermetic and IDC research, nearly 80% of companies have experienced a cloud data breach in the past 18 months. This is the main reason many enterprises are hesitant to go all-in on cloud and multicloud strategies.

Yet as Gartner points out, the cloud itself is not inherently less secure. In fact, their research has found that most vulnerabilities are due to:

• Lax security policies.
• Insufficient security software.
• Sheer user error.

So, how can APIs help?

Using an API platform strengthens multicloud security in three critical ways.

1. Limit Points of Exposure

When you manage your multicloud deployment in a single ecosystem, you limit points of potential exposure.

You'll also have more insight into any vulnerabilities that exist across your entire cloud infrastructure.

2. Use the Right Security Framework

With the right API platform, you'll be able to apply strong security right away. 

Akana’s platform comes with out-of-the-box security features. This includes FAPI (financial-grade APIs) compliance. We abide by OAuth 2.0 and OIDC standards. So, you can build a strong multicloud security framework.

3. Monitor Security With Analytics

Your APIs can be used to track core business functions — and cloud security indicators.

This includes:

• Configuration errors.
• Transfer errors.
• Compromised hardware.
• Malicious intrusions.

You can even consolidate and automate alerts. This reduces security response times significantly.

How to Use Multicloud APIs For Compliance & Governance

Managing your cloud solutions separately adds another challenge. You have to maintain strict IT compliance and government protocols across disparate environments.

In theory, you can develop a governance model that fits your industry. And you can ensure compliance through strict protocols. In reality, this becomes significantly more difficult in a multicloud strategy. Each comes with their own nuances and vulnerabilities.

Likewise, developing a compliance and governance model for each separate solution is time-consuming and expensive. There are also challenges in a potential audit situation — or when oversight committees require consolidated reporting and updates.

Managing multicloud environments with APIs gives your security architects, governance professionals, and C-suite peace of mind.

1. Develop a Single IT Governance Model

By consolidating and managing a multicloud stack using APIs, your enterprise can develop a single IT governance model. That's because you can track compliance via a unified API-driven interface. This consolidated view can pull data from all APIs across your multicloud environment. So, you can effectively keeping tabs on compliance across all cloud solutions.

2. Set Up Alerts, Thresholds, and Dashboards

You can customize alerts, compliance thresholds, and build dashboards unique to your governance and oversight needs. Plus, you can develop APIs across a multicloud and on-premises environment — and unite them in one platform. 

3. Get a Single Source of Truth

Your APIs can give you a single source of truth when you use the right platform. So, you can easily ensure governance and compliance standards across the enterprise.

📕 Related Resource: Learn more about Government + Cloud: How IT Government Agencies Can Safely Migrate to Cloud

Build Your Multicloud Strategy With Akana

The Akana API platform can help you develop a sound multicloud strategy by:  

• Reducing technology silos by consolidating cloud management using APIs.
• Enhancing security through greater line-of-sight, alerts, and API analytics.
• Reducing governance and oversight headaches through consolidated cloud-based API reporting.

In addition, Akana unlocks cloud-native compatibility for organizations scaling apps and services on private and public clouds. This can help you maximize investments, leverage advantages of all managed environments at scale, and optimize your digital transformation strategy.

Watch the demo to see how Akana enables multicloud APIs.

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