• How to prepare for both unplanned and planned disruptions to ensure continuous availability
• Actionable steps to remove the complexity of moving and migrating workloads across disparate infrastructures
• Guidance on hybrid and multi-cloud IT: gain the flexibility to move applications in and out of the cloud

The primary goal of a multi-cloud data management strategy is to supply data, either via copying or moving data to the various multi-cloud use cases. A key enabler of this movement is the data management software applications. In theory, data protection applications can perform both of the copy and move functions. A key consideration is how the multi-cloud data management experience is unified. In most cases, data protection applications ignore the user experience of each cloud and use their proprietary interface as the unifying entity, which increases complexity.

There are a variety of reasons organizations may want to leverage multiple clouds. The first use case is to use public cloud storage as a backup mirror to an on-premises data protection process. Using public cloud storage as a backup mirror enables the organization to automatically off-site data. It also sets up many of the more advanced use cases.

Another use case is using the cloud for disaster recovery.

Another use case is “Lift and Shift,” which means the organization wants to run the application in the cloud natively. Initial steps in the “lift and shift” use case are similar to Dev/Test, but now the workload is storing unique data in the cloud.

Multi-cloud is a reality now for most organizations and managing the movement of data between these clouds is critical.

There are a number of limitations today keeping organizations from not only lifting and shifting from one cloud to another but also migrating across clouds. Organizations need the flexibility to leverage multiple clouds and move applications and workloads around freely, whether for data reuse or for disaster recovery. This is where the HYCU Protégé platform comes in. HYCU Protégé is positioned as a complete multi-cloud data protection and disaster recovery-as-a-service solution. It includes a number of capabilities that make it relevant and notable compared with other approaches in the market:

• It was designed for multi-cloud environments, with a “built-for-purpose” approach to each workload and environment, leveraging APIs and platform expertise.
• It is designed as a one-to-many cross-cloud disaster recovery topology rather than a one-to-one cloud or similarly limited topology.
• It is designed for the IT generalist. It’s easy to use, it includes dynamic provisioning on-premises and in the cloud, and it can be deployed without impacting production systems. In other words, no need to manually install hypervisors or agents.
• It is application-aware and will automatically discover and configure applications. Additionally, it supports distributed applications with shared storage. 

CloudCasa supports all major Kubernetes managed cloud services and distributions, provided they are based on Kubernetes 1.13 or above. Supported cloud services include Amazon EKS, DigitalOcean, Google GKE, IBM Cloud Kubernetes Service, and Microsoft AKS. Supported Kubernetes distributions include Kubernetes.io, Red Hat OpenShift, SUSE Rancher, and VMware Tanzu Kubernetes Grid. Multiple worker node architectures are supported, including x86-64, ARM, and S390x.

With CloudCasa, managing data protection in complex hybrid cloud or multi-cloud environments is as easy as managing it for a single cluster. Just add your multiple clusters and cloud databases to CloudCasa, and you can manage backups across them using common policies, schedules, and retention times. And you can see and manage all your backups in a single easy-to-use GUI.

Top 10 Reasons for Using CloudCasa:

1. Backup as a service
2. Intuitive UI
3. Multi-Cluster Management
4. Cloud database protection
5. Free Backup Storage
6. Secure Backups
7. Account Compromise Protection
8. Cloud Provider Outage Protection
9. Centralized Catalog and Reporting
10. Backups are Monitored
    

With CloudCasa, we have your back based on Catalogic Software’s many years of experience in enterprise data protection and disaster recovery. Our goal is to do all the hard work for you to backup and protect your multi-cloud, multi-cluster, cloud native databases and applications so you can realize the operational efficiency and speed of development advantages of containers and cloud native applications.

The author of this Pathfinder report is Mike Fratto, a Senior Research Analyst on the Applied Infrastructure & DevOps team at 451 Research, a part of S&P Global Market Intelligence. Pathfinder reports navigate decision-makers through the issues surrounding a specific technology or business case, explore the business value of adoption, and recommend the range of considerations and concrete next steps in the decision-making process.

This report explores the following topics:

• the growth of already commonplace cloud usage for mission-critical applications
• the importance of cloud governance
• the top cloud security concerns for enterprises
• the adoption of third-party tools for cloud management
• the steps IT teams should take to make their cloud environments more secure and reliable

Vladimir Galabov, Director, Cloud and Data Center Research, and Rik Turner, Principal Analyst, Emerging Technologies, are the co-authors of this eBook from Omdia, a data, research, and consulting business that offers expert analysis and strategic insight to empower decision-making surrounding new technologies.

This eBook covers the following topics:

• the current landscape of cloud computing, including the BIG problems
• the advantages of using a multi-cloud approach
• the dangers of shadow IT, including billing surprises and security breaches
• the move of mission-critical applications to the cloud
• the considerations regarding cloud security, including recommendations for IT teams