By acting as a brokering service, multicloud aims to enhance operational and security aspects.

As a result, the market is transitioning to anything that sits above and between multiple clouds, according to Dave Linthicum (pictured), chief cloud strategy officer of Deloitte Consulting LLP. This calls for another layer of abstraction and automation.

“Things that don’t exist in the hyperscaler, things that provide common services above the cloud providers, are where the growth’s gonna happen,” Linthicum said. “We haven’t really solved that problem yet. So multicloud … is not about cloud; it’s about things that exist in between cloud and making those things work.”

At last year’s VMware Explore event, Linthicum spoke with theCUBE industry analysts John Furrier and Dave Vellante, during an exclusive broadcast on theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s livestreaming studio. They discussed how the multicloud concept is gaining steam, with VMware being a major catalyst, and the challenges presented. (* Disclosure below.)

The complexity wall in multicloud

Dealing with multiple clouds can be chaotic based on the intricacies encountered. As a result, a complexity wall emerges, necessitating easier solutions, according to Linthicum.

“They’re getting to a point where they can’t scale operations to deal with complexity and heterogeneity that they’re bringing into the organization because of using multiple clouds,” he pointed out. “So that is chaotic. They don’t have the operational team, the skill, skill levels, and tooling to do it.”

By having multiple abstraction layers, the problem isn’t solved, because complexity gets relocated to the multicloud structure, according to Linthicum. Therefore, slashing redundancy is the best approach, which calls for having common security and operational layers, as well as services.

“We can’t have multiple abstraction layers or else we don’t solve the problem,” he noted. “We have to go back and fix it. So instead of having five different security layers and five different cloud providers, we’re layering one and providing management and orchestration capabilities to make that happen. If we don’t do that, we’re not succeeding.”

Interoperability is a huge aspect of the multicloud journey. It plays an instrumental role in driving the complexity away, because different proprietary systems can communicate and interact with each other, according to Linthicum.

“What we’re doing is putting a layer of things, which allows them to interoperate,” he stated. “If you put a layer above it, they can talk down to whatever native interfaces that are there and deal with the differences between the heterogeneity and abstract yourself from the complexity.”

Here’s the complete video interview, part of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of VMware Explore:

(* Disclosure: This is an unsponsored editorial segment. However, theCUBE is a paid media partner for the VMware Explore event. VMware Inc. and other sponsors of theCUBE’s event coverage do not have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE