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Cloud, multicloud, omnicloud: what’s the difference?

Cybersecurity
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2 min

Cloud, multicloud, omnicloud: what’s the difference?

At Astrachain, the concept of cloud is an integral part of our solution.

But what is the difference between simple cloud computing, the concept of multicloud and omnicloud ?

The cloud

Definition

The cloud (or “cloud”) is a process that uses computer servers remotely via Internet networks.

This solution then becomes available anywhere in the world and can be used by companies and individuals alike.

The services provided by a cloud can be of different types. It can serve as storage, server, collaborative tool, networking as well as software.

It then responds to the services of Saas (Software as a Service), Paas (Platform as a Service) and that of Iaas (Infrastructure as a Service).

Characteristics

The cloud has four characteristics:

It has a self-service with automatic adaptation to storage demand.
It uses standardized techniques with availability on computer, phone and tablet.
It uses pooling through resource services to people they are assigned to.
It offers pay-as-you-go based on the desired level of storage.

Cloud types and providers

A user can choose to store their data in different types of clouds.

Il peut les stocker dans un cloud public, accessible par Internet, fréquemment utilisé par les particuliers.

It can store them in a public cloud, accessible through the Internet, frequently used by individuals.

Finally, he can choose the hybrid cloud, a mixture of public cloud and private cloud.

Among the suppliers, we find AWS, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud, Scaleway, OVH, Outscale, etc.

Advantages and limitations of the cloud

Using a cloud has several advantages.

First of all, it allows companies to save money by adapting their expenses to their needs. In addition, there is no prior investment thanks to the development facilities.

Then, using a cloud allows companies to have elasticity with scalable storage capacities.

However, using a cloud also has several limitations.

First, data security is limited because cloud providers are also prone to cyberattacks and privacy breaches.

In addition, the data is entrusted to a single third party, which leads to a loss of data in the event of an incident at the supplier.

Secondly, the user depends on the quality of the network, which does not make the cloud 100% available and he loses control over the location of his data.

Finally, there is an ecological impact linked to high energy consumption.

A few figures to illustrate this…

Enterprises using cloud computing raise several concerns, making other enterprises skittish about adopting a cloud.

Indeed, for 69% of them, their biggest concern is the leak or loss of their data.

Additionally, 44% cite concerns about credentials for a single storage space.

Finally, 37% of companies say they face problems of sovereignty and lack of information concerning the residence of their data.

Multicloud

Definition

Multicloud is when a company uses multiple services and/or providers

cloud.

This allows you to distribute your different tools across different hosts.

It is therefore an IT deployment integrated into the company’s services which complements the internal data centers (or replaces them).

Some clouds are recognized for specific skills, hence the use of several clouds by the same organization (example: storage at one, analysis and AI at another and “compute” at a last). In addition, and thanks to technologies that allow portability (such as Docker), it is possible to “move” applications from one cloud to another: multicloud also has a risk management and dependency reduction character.

Characteristic

Multicloud involves at least two clouds of the same type. It therefore uses several public clouds or several private clouds. Unlike the hybrid cloud which can use both a public cloud environment as well as a private cloud environment.

Multicloud then offers an expanded environment portfolio with improved choices, to use the best provider for a given need.

Advantages and limitations

Using multicloud offers several advantages.

First, it provides flexibility for businesses by offering a cloud for each service (as needed).

Then, it allows better adaptation to regulatory constraints. For example, a company can use a French cloud for sovereign data and a US cloud to train AI.

Finally, the multicloud (so well studied) makes it possible to reduce the risk of dependence on a single supplier.

But multicloud also has its limits.

This approach requires several skills and expertise. It can therefore be very costly, it requires governance and a strong decision-making process and can lead to a lot of security/confidentiality breaches.

Thus, it is important for companies to ask the right questions when considering multicloud.

Omnicloud

Natural evolution and Web 3.0 inspiration, the Omnicloud is the solution used and automated at Astrachain in the context of Cloud storage (ultra-secure and highly-available)

Definition

The omnicloud is the use of all clouds, simultaneously.

In order to use all the clouds at the same time, there would have to be a task to perform that is agnostic of the underlying provider. Thus, in the context of a “compute” without state saving (stateless), it is possible to run it on several clouds simultaneously.

In the context of stateful information storage, in order not to specialize this or that cloud for this or that storage, Astrachain innovates by fragmenting the data. Thus, each fragment is self-supporting and these fragments are stored simultaneously in several clouds.

The data is then “everywhere and nowhere at the same time”.

Types of clouds

The omnicloud allows client companies to choose their suppliers without depending on them: geo-location, nationality, environmental strategy, regulations, etc.

This decentralization of the data allows hyper-security, confidentiality, sovereignty (we also speak of neutrality thanks to this mechanism) and high availability.

Benefits

The advantages of the omnicloud at Astrachain are multiple.

Companies choose their cloud providers and thus retain control over their data.
The data benefits from high security thanks to encryption, fragmentation and decentralization.
Only (and only) the owners of the data have access to their data. They can share and revoke it at any time.
Companies have continuous availability of their data thanks to intelligent fragmentation (which incorporates error handling at the fragment level) allowing to reconstruct a data despite the inaccessibility (temporary or permanent) of a storage provider.
Astrachain’s omnicloud reduces its ecological impact because it allows the deletion of identical files.