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The use of public clouds has been rising over the last few years, fuelled by an uptick in remote working and the resulting splintered workforce. What’s been less discussed is the emergence of multicloud.
Flexera’s 2025 State of the Cloud Report found that 70% of respondents were embracing hybrid cloud strategies, using at least one public and one private cloud.
However, other surveys, like Fortinet’s 2025 State of Cloud Security Report, have uncovered that there are still struggles associated with cloud adoption, many focused around the rate of change, and making sure multicloud works for a business in the long term.
So, adopting a multicloud strategy – whether on AWS, Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure or something else – does have unique challenges. But they’re far from insurmountable. In this article, we’ll run through five of the most common stumbling blocks, and how savvy businesses can lessen their impact.
Challenge 1: Cost
It’s obvious, but worth saying – investing in separate cloud systems will often cost significantly more than a single system. Differences in pricing mean that it can be hard to compare solutions like-for-like. And it can be difficult to keep a handle on costs even once those systems are in place – a 2024 Gartner report revealed that 69% of IT leaders reported cloud cost overruns.
How do I solve it? As part of your budgeting process, use a financial operations (FinOps) framework that brings IT, finance, and business together, and fosters accountability for cloud spending. Be clear on what services are must-haves versus nice-to-haves – putting this into a cloud use policy that everyone can access.
Challenge 2: Data Integration
When your business is across multiple cloud platforms, your data is too – but integration of all this data can be difficult. A lack of integration can lead to data silos. This means data from transactional, analytical, and search systems are isolated from each other. These are problems a cloud system should be solving, not creating.
How do I solve it? A data management strategy is crucial here. “Lifting and shifting” your on-prem data is rarely the answer. Instead, look into data integration technology that can make sure data flows across environments. You can even take it one step further and design your entire data storage system with performance in mind (i.e. not siloed). When you’re looking for data integration technology, make sure the tool works seamlessly across your target cloud platforms, and is able to handle increasing data volumes and workloads.
Challenge 3: Skills Gap
Where the previous multicloud challenges were more technical, this one is more organisational. If your team is like many others, you’ll have lots of people with experience in specific cloud platforms. However, you might not have many – or any – with cloud-agnostic knowledge. This is also true for the security and compliance implications of multicloud. This can have a profound impact on businesses: a 2024 report commissioned by Hyve Managed Hosting found that 20% of UK businesses had experienced outages, data breaches, or ransomware attacksas a result of the IT skills shortage.
How do I solve it? Training, training, training – whether in-house or through your MSP. Eventually, this will expand your knowledge circle outside of those with platform-specific skills.
Challenge 4: Security
This is another key concern for multicloud users. Different providers with their own systems can make it hard to get a clear, central view of data. This not only compromises a company’s security posture, but also increases its attack surface – posing a greater risk.
How do I solve it? Strengthen your identity and access management solutions. Make sure that they’re consistently applied, on zero trust architecture if possible. And even when these are set up, don’t neglect the importance of independent audits tailored to multi-cloud to identify misconfigurations or policy drift.
In Case You Missed It… Our recent podcast How do you secure access without slowing down your people? covers some tactics IT managers can use to keep your tech easy for employees to use, but difficult for attackers to access.
Challenge 5: Governance and Compliance
Much like security, different cloud providers have different ways of implementing governance. Keeping up with audit trails and industry regulations (like HIPAA and PCI DSS) across more than one cloud is a tough ask. That makes it harder for you to document and control your data.
How do I solve it? Establish a centralised governance framework that overlays your cloud environments. This includes guidelines for resource utilisation, data management, and access control across platforms. Frameworks like the NIST Cybersecurity Framework or the Cloud Security Alliance’s Cloud Controls Matrix can help align your governance strategy with regulatory requirements.
For businesses who want to have more control over their data as they grow, multicloud is becoming the new normal. However, its challenges can’t be ignored – and if you don’t plan how to handle them, your road to multicloud maturity could be a bumpy one.
But here’s the good news: all of these struggles have clear solutions. If you’re proactive, collaborative and have a multicloud strategy from the start, you can turn this complexity into a competitive advantage.
Need help with a complex issue on your multicloud platform? Our multicloud 3rd line support is a direct line to highly-skilled staff who are ready to solve it.
To find out more, visit our dedicated multicloud solutions webpage. Or, book a free consultation to find out how else we can help you.
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