In today’s fragmented digital landscape, businesses face a common challenge with their multicloud strategies: connecting workloads and data across increasingly complex environments, including public clouds, colocation data centers and on-premises data centers.
Distributing modern cloud applications and data across multiple environments creates silos that traditional networking cannot support. Siloed environments introduce limited interoperability, inconsistent management and connectivity challenges. This in turn leads to performance issues, high operational costs and security risks.
Further, AI is intensifying the need for seamless connectivity. Both training and inferencing require secure and lightning-fast data transmission capabilities to ensure low latency.
Unless these issues are addressed, networking could become the bottleneck to running modern, distributed apps.
Why do workload and data silos exist?
Companies are adopting multicloud strategies, allowing them to access and use best-of-breed services to run applications and store data. According to the 2024 Multicloud Networking and NaaS Survey Report by Futuriom, 49% of IT and network managers said they are pursuing a multicloud strategy.
This evolution from using a single cloud service provider (CSP) to multiple CSPs requires the seamless distribution of workloads and data between clouds and other infrastructure environments. Businesses need a networking solution that can cross between workloads and data to keep their applications continuously connected and avoid creating silos.
Networking infrastructure for multicloud connectivity is getting more complex than ever, for several reasons:
- Fragmented ecosystems: The networking ecosystem includes a wide range of equipment and software OEMs, network service providers (NSPs), telcos, public cloud providers and colocation data center operators. They may operate independently, using their own systems, tools and technology, making communicating and integrating with other systems difficult.
- Proprietary cloud architecture: Cloud service providers may develop expertise with specific applications, storage capabilities and industries, requiring them to customize their architecture. This can limit the ability of companies to connect data with workloads and run those workloads in best-fit environments.
- Hybrid and multicloud complexity: Establishing connections between public or private clouds and colocated or on-premises infrastructure, or simply between two public clouds, can require multiple types of physical and virtual connectivity from various providers. Solving this complexity is essential for enabling hybrid and multicloud strategies.
Breaking down silos with multicloud networking
A multicloud networking solution can also help businesses establish seamless connectivity between multiple clouds, including public and private, and data centers. In the Futuriom survey, 71% of respondents said that it’s very important to have seamless multicloud networking connectivity among the enterprise data center, edge, telco and public cloud, compared to 59% in 2023.
Companies can achieve operational agility by integrating multicloud networking services as a critical network infrastructure layer while maintaining governance and control. Connecting distributed applications and data with secure, intelligent networks can help companies reduce risk and simplify the management of their multicloud and hybrid strategies.
Multicloud networking solutions provide a unified, automated framework for connecting diverse cloud environments. They are foundational for multicloud and hybrid cloud strategies, providing software-defined virtualized networking services that route traffic between public and private clouds and between clouds and colocation or on-premises data centers.
These solutions help teams build networks that can cross silos and keep apps consistently connected—regardless of where workloads reside. Multicloud networking also serves as a platform for connecting diverse cloud environments and data centers to transport and manage data securely.
Removing silos with multicloud networking allows businesses to solve for use cases such as connecting apps siloed on different clouds, enabling seamless data integration between resources and ensuring disaster recover/failover between clouds.
Implementing a multicloud networking solution also helps companies:
- Achieve unified connectivity across the ecosystem with customers, providers and partners. Businesses can access traditional and leading-edge tools and solutions via high-speed and secure interconnection. This helps lower costs and accelerate delivery, especially as they prepare to run AI and other data-intensive workloads.
- Meet data privacy and sovereignty requirements locally, regionally and globally. Companies can connect data and workloads while ensuring data stays where it was generated. Multicloud networking provides centralized control, helping companies strengthen compliance.
- Ensure seamless app communication between clouds and private infrastructure. Businesses can expect their applications to function in a steady-state with high performance, ensuring reliability.
AI workloads and data intensify need for seamless connectivity
As the complexity of AI applications increases, network connectivity must function dynamically, providing large amounts of bandwidth for short durations and low-latency connectivity to global locations. Of the IT and network managers surveyed by Futuriom, 82% said AI services will increase the need for multicloud networking services.
Network design is crucial in AI deployment planning to avoid performance bottlenecks and meet scalability challenges. Businesses need to transport, secure and manage more data than ever across more diverse and distributed resources. Future-proofing your network for AI starts by determining how to:
- Assure the safety and privacy of data transmitted for AI models
- Connect AI infrastructure, including multiple clouds and private data centers
- Scale to meet the increased demand for data, for AI model training and AI inference
Organizations will need secure, low-latency, high-capacity network connectivity to their distributed AI data sources to ensure predictable performance. Multicloud networking is a critical AI success factor; it’s flexible and future-proof, with the ability to adapt and change as AI projects progress.
Reference architecture for a private AI deployment on Platform Equinix
Traditional ecosystems are evolving and now include new AI-related services and solutions. Enterprises concerned about investing in hardware and technology that will be outdated quickly can connect with a robust ecosystem of proven AI hardware and software providers. On-demand GPU as a Service (GPUaaS) equips businesses with high-performance compute power for AI. Multicloud networking enables businesses to access AI ecosystems securely and quickly.
Getting started with multicloud networking in a vendor-neutral environment
Future-proofing your network has never been more important. Placing workloads in the best environments and ensuring data is easily accessible is just the start. Without secure and seamless connectivity, your workloads and data will be isolated in silos.
Instead, choose a multicloud networking solution you can deploy on a platform that gives you access to a diverse ecosystem of thousands of local, regional and international NSPs. These NSPs can help with planning, deployment, support and end-to-end management.
Equinix Fabric®, our software-defined interconnection solution, is the cornerstone of our hybrid multicloud networking solution. It provides secure, private high-performance connectivity and is available on-demand in 60+ global metros to seamlessly interconnect your workloads and data.
Platform Equinix® includes a global network of data centers in 73 key markets in 34 countries. In addition to providing traditional colocation, we offer the flexibility of digital infrastructure, private connectivity solutions and cloud on-ramps to all the major providers.
Our robust ecosystem includes 3,000 cloud and SaaS providers, 2,000 network service providers and 4,800 enterprises, plus leading AI hardware and software providers–all interconnected for seamless integration with your company.
To learn what IT and networking professionals are saying about the future of multicloud networking, read the Futuriom Multicloud Networking and NaaS Survey Report.
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If you’re looking to modernize your networking to prepare for AI, multicloud networking is a great place to start. Learn more about architecting a multicloud network by downloading our planning guide.
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