The Case for Multi-vendor Cloud Provider
Recently, I lost (access to) 40,000 pictures at Yahoo / Flickr (see story at https://medium.com/@epatro/how-i-lost-40-000-pictures-at-flickr-c877eed1691c).
I know this story is getting old, but I still regret using Yahoo / Flickr .
I took some time examining the Terms of Service of different providers (https://medium.com/@epatro/examining-the-terms-of-service-of-some-cloud-providers-ea770a4a30a5), and Yahoo seems to be the only one to have such preposterous contract.
If Yahoo could do that with my pictures, any Cloud Provider can do that for you or your business. It’s just matter of them changing their Terms of Service, adding such ludicrous terms, and Bang: you are at their mercy.
That leads me to the point of proposing using multiple vendors for your Cloud business, whether it’s for personal or business reasons.
By using multiple vendors, you always have access to your data and application:
- There are countless cases of unavailability, even with the giants of Cloud providers (see https://www.recode.net/2017/3/2/14792636/amazon-aws-internet-outage-cause-human-error-incorrect-command for an example)
- You should always back up your data to a different location (and preferably provider). If Yahoo could cut my access to my pictures, any Cloud provider could cut your access too.
- You should always use standards and Open Source for deploying applications to the Cloud. I have experienced many cases of companies relying on proprietary APIs (AWS, Azure, etc), then struggle to cut the dependency on that provider.
In summary, when moving to the Cloud, implement a strategy of using multiple Cloud providers, so that you can control your business and data (despite some insanity some Cloud providers might have).
Thoughts? Comments?