Businesses are moving from single-cloud to multi-cloud environments to meet the growing demand for integrated data solutions. This trend reflects a broader emphasis on AI, particularly generative AI, which requires substantial data and robust infrastructure—both provided by cloud environments.
To focus on challenges and solutions in cloud computing and data compliance, Oracle and YourStory organized a roundtable discussion titled ‘Smart Strategies for Multi-Cloud Environments and Data Integration’.
Om Prakash ShanmugamSenior Vice President – Engineering, VideoVerse; Siddharth SethSenior Vice President – Technology, CitiusTech; Vaibhav PunkarSenior Vice President – Engineering, Decimal Point Analysis; Prajakt DevalasiChief Technical Officer, Turtlemint; Pramod KathuriaFounder and CEO, Easiloan; Vivek AvoidanceEngineering major, purple; and Nishit SaurabhAVP & Head – CS Engineering, LogiNext attended the closed door meeting.
The discussion addressed a range of industry-specific challenges, including the creation of high-quality live gameplay content for sports teams and associations, as well as the complexities of transferring large volumes of medical image data to the cloud in the healthcare sector. Overall, participants identified data fragmentation and standardization as key barriers, along with concerns regarding data compliance and governance in accordance with the Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Act.
Multi-cloud strategies and regulatory requirements
Multi-cloud data solutions need to comply with regulatory frameworks like DPDP. Its data protection and security requirements apply to organizations such as internet companies, mobile apps, and businesses that handle citizens’ data.
Auditor requirements within the Indian regulatory framework, particularly in the banking sector, increasingly focus on concentration risk. This risk is assessed at two levels.
At the industry level, regulators have raised concerns about the potential impact on multiple institutions or banks if problems arise with a particular provider. At the individual bank level, emphasis is placed on ensuring adequate redundancy. For example, if the primary system fails, it is investigated whether the disaster recovery (DR) system is also dependent on the same provider. Recent events, including serious failures of circular dependency cases, have further highlighted this concern.
Regulators are also examining how organizations manage excess capacity. The focus is on whether organizations are adequately prepared to handle unexpected increases in demand, especially given the rapid changes that can occur in scaling requirements. These considerations highlight the growing importance of robust planning and flexibility in system architecture.
If businesses have robust plans in place, it will ensure that their multi-cloud environment can withstand unexpected disruptions and maintain continuous service delivery. This, in turn, will protect business operations and reputation.
Participants agreed that cloud companies should invest in educating auditors and regulators about the benefits of multi-cloud strategies. They also discussed the importance of running the same stack across different cloud providers and the challenges of managing services that are not fully supported by cloud providers.
Driven Oracle Cloud’s approach to multi-cloud strategies, including the use of physical network connectivity and the ability to run Oracle services within other cloud providers. Maintaining data security and compliance is critical when leveraging cloud services.
Best practices for mastering a multi-cloud strategy
The discussion highlighted customer success stories, including a large manufacturing company leveraging Oracle Cloud for real-time analytics and quality control. Emphasis was placed on the importance of adopting a flexible and cost-effective AI and machine learning strategy, highlighting the benefits of Oracle Cloud across the board. industries.
Participants agreed that there is a need to standardize policies across multiple clouds to simplify operations and increase security. Enforcing similar policies across cloud platforms is critical. Uniform policies reduce complexity and reduce the risk of compliance violations, making multi-cloud environments easier to manage and more secure.
Comprehensive cloud management platforms should be employed to consolidate monitoring and management across environments. These platforms improve operational visibility by integrating data from different clouds into a single dashboard, enabling real-time analytics and proactive management. This centralized approach helps to quickly detect and address anomalies or inefficiencies. This helps to ensure optimization of cloud performance at regular intervals and maintain reliability.
Speakers also discussed the need to consistently implement comprehensive security measures across all cloud platforms. Advanced security solutions must be integrated that provide continuous monitoring, threat detection, and automated response mechanisms. Furthermore, thorough documentation of multi-cloud operations and policies is essential to maintain clarity and consistency across teams. Documenting cloud architecture, processes, and compliance measures ensures that all team members have clear guidelines and can make informed decisions. This practice supports training, troubleshooting, and audits and helps maintain consistency in cloud operations and governance.
A final thought
Although a multi-cloud setup is about freedom and flexibility, it comes with a price-security. Without a reliable security approach, the risks can quickly outweigh the benefits. A single misconfigured setting in a cloud environment can be the entry point for a data breach that reverberates throughout the organization. And the costs—both financial and reputational—are often severe.
Multi-cloud security should be treated as a strategic priority. Leaders who build a proactive, integrated defense strategy will not only mitigate today’s risks but also build a resilient foundation to meet tomorrow’s challenges.