Multicloud computing is here to stay, bringing with it a new wave of technology in the push toward digital and cloud transformation. So how will companies get ahead of the game? And where is the future going?

Fabio Gori (pictured, right), senior director of cloud solution marketing at Cisco Systems Inc., and Jonathan King (pictured, left), vice president of strategy, data center and cloud at World Wide Technology Inc., have firsthand experience watching the ongoing cloud transformation, and they have insight into where it’s going.

Gori and King spoke with John Furrier (@furrier), host of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s mobile livestreaming studio, at theCUBE’s studio in Palo Alto, California. They discussed multicloud and its influence on digital networks and architecture, as well as data and security (see the full interview with transcript here). (* Disclosure below.)

[Editor’s note: The following has been condensed for clarity.]

What’s your take on multicloud?

King: I think we’re at a point where there’s a growing acceptance of multicloud as the architecture of the future. And when you arrive at that point, it also means that multicloud is the architecture for today. Because if you see your competitors … moving in a rapid digital pace to meet their business needs, and you’re not on the same kind of architecture … then you’re going to be left behind.

The way we see it is that we’re in this multicloud world, and multicloud embraces an end-to-end imperative. How am I getting my apps and my development teams building those apps closer to my business and meeting my needs more rapidly? And then how am I connecting my entire business — my data, my network, all of it — to meet those needs? So multicloud architecture is really an imperative.

Gori: People want to use innovation wherever it comes from. You can’t allow yourself to be restricted. People want to have choice — multiple choices. And that’s why we’re seeing adoption of multiple cloud services, multiple SaaS solutions, infrastructure service solutions, and the like. So this is really what multicloud means. You’re satisfying a business need.

That next big wave [ in cloud services] is about people and technology. This holistic view around multiple architectures is a systems concept. You need networking to connect things together. What’s driving all this?

Gori: We’re seeing a pretty dramatic shift into an architectural model. I mean, if you remember a few years ago, we had networking specialists in the data center, storage specialists, and compute specialists. Well guess what? People moved to full-stack type of expertise, right? And now we even have systems that are completely converged or hybrid converged. Well, we’re seeing the same movie in the cloud — where we’re seeing the rise of cloud architectures, enterprise architectures — which become really determinable of the business.

And these people, especially in the companies that are ahead of the game in terms of cloud adoption and expertise, are issuing the new guidance and guardrails for the entire organization in terms of what governance role you need to take. … Some people say this is finally service-oriented architecture coming alive. So if you think about microservices in containers, that’s exactly what it is.

Also we’re seeing a lot of companies that are getting organized by microservices — which is the ultimate demonstration that the technology architecture and the business architecture are really converged.

Jonathan, regarding multicloud architecture, it might not be a bad thing to pick a cloud, a sole cloud for workload. But that’s not meaning you’re going to not use other clouds. So I can pick Amazon for this workload or pick Azure for that workload and Google for that workload, and holistically connect them all together?

King: There’s a somewhat of a paradox when you talk about multicloud architecture and then you talk about moments in time where it makes architectural sense to pick one cloud. With that particular decision, there’s issues around people, training, technology, time to market, and API coverage. So there’s all these things that you’re trying to do to get a job done or a mission done within the amount of time that you have to achieve that job or that mission. What path am I going to choose? What engine am I going to put on the plane to get me there?

Now that doesn’t mean that that’s the only engine you’re going to put on your fleet. It just means that particular plane is going to have that kind of engine. And then the next time, you got another engine; you got a different kind of plane. You’re thinking about how you’re doing these things in waves and modules, and you’re trying to build your aggregate velocity. Because really, if you strip it all down … we’re in a distributed computing land rush. And businesses of all sizes, government agencies, companies are trying to figure out … ‘How am I as an enterprise getting digitally ready and getting on a footing to be able to do what I need to do in that domain?’

Watch the complete video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s CUBE Conversations. (* Disclosure: Cisco Systems Inc. sponsored this segment of theCUBE. Neither Cisco Systems nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE