| Not considering data portability. Migrating data from one cloud service to another can be challenging. It is important to have a solid data portability strategy in place that considers data format, size, and dependencies. Most of those moving to multicloud canât answer this question: âWhat would it take to migrate this data set from here to there?â This needs to be in your back pocket, as weâre seeing some data sets move from single and multicloud deployments back to on premises. You must give yourselves options. No centralized data management. Managing data across multiple cloud services can be a resource-intensive task if you attempt to do everything manually. It is essential to have a centralized data management system in place that can handle diverse data sources and ensure data consistency. Again, this needs to be centralized, abstracted above the public cloud providers and native data management implementations. You need to deal with data complexity on your terms, not the terms of the data complexity itself. Most are opting for the latter, which is a huge mistake. Lacking interoperability. The big issue is interoperability. Itâs really a combination of the problems listed thus farâdata silos, data portability, and lacking centralized data managementâbut itâs good to call it out on its own. Ensuring the interoperability of different cloud services and cloud data can be a huge pain in the neck. It is important to have a clear understanding of the data exchange standards supported by each cloud service and a plan for bridging any gaps. Most data is just tossed into multicloud deployments with little thought and no interoperability mechanisms. Interoperability then becomes a tactical effort when it should be strategic and well understood before and after deployment. The frustrating thing about all these challenges is that they are very solvable, with well-established solution patterns and enabling technologies. Enterprises are making dumb mistakes by dashing to multicloud deployments as quickly as they can, and then they donât see the ROI from multicloud or cloud migrations in general. Most of the damage is self-inflicted. Do your homework. Plan. Leverage the proper technology. Itâs not that hard, and it will save you and your enterprise a ton of time and money in the long run. | 