Multi-cloud
Multi-cloud — AWS and Google Cloud
Azure-first does not mean Azure-only — but multi-cloud should be a decision, not an accident.
Overview
What this service is for
Most multi-cloud estates were not designed. They accumulated: a developer opened an AWS account for a proof of concept, a marketing team adopted a Google service, an acquired business arrived with its own platform. The result is several clouds with inconsistent identity, uneven monitoring, and no single person able to describe what is running where.
Deliberate multi-cloud is different, and occasionally the right answer — a specific managed service, a data residency requirement, a resilience objective, or genuine commercial leverage. Accidental multi-cloud simply multiplies your operational surface without adding capability.
Our work here is mostly rationalisation and governance: establishing what exists, deciding what belongs where, applying consistent identity and guardrails, and creating one operational view. Where a second cloud earns its place, we make it properly supportable rather than tolerated.
What you receive
- Multi-cloud estate inventory with ownership per account
- Workload placement recommendations and rationale
- Landing zone design and guardrail policy set
- Cross-cloud identity and access model
- Consolidated cost and monitoring reporting
Outcomes to expect
- A complete, owned inventory of cloud accounts
- Fewer orphaned resources quietly accruing cost
- Consistent identity and guardrails across platforms
- Platform choices you can justify to an auditor or a board
Capabilities
How AAG can help
The specific work covered by this practice area.
Estate discovery and rationalisation
Finding every account, subscription, and project — including the ones outside IT's visibility — and deciding what stays.
Landing zones and guardrails
Account structure, policy baselines, and budget controls so new workloads start compliant.
Workload placement analysis
Deciding platform per workload on capability, cost, data gravity, and operational fit.
Identity alignment
Consistent authentication and access patterns across clouds, usually anchored on Entra ID.
Hybrid and inter-cloud networking
Secure, monitored connectivity between on-premises sites and multiple cloud platforms.
Unified operations and cost control
One monitoring and reporting view, with tagging and budgets applied consistently.
Delivery
How the engagement runs
Phases with clear entry and exit points, so you always know what is being decided and what happens next.
Discover
Identify every cloud account, its owner, its spend, and what it actually runs.
Decide
Agree which platform hosts which workload, and what gets consolidated or retired.
Establish guardrails
Landing zones, identity integration, tagging, and budget alerts implemented.
Operate
Single operational view with clear ownership and regular cost and posture review.
Who this is for
The people who usually sponsor this work
CIOs and IT managers
You need architecture that your team can actually run, vendors consolidated, and a partner who escalates instead of deflecting.
CFOs and finance leaders
You need licence spend that reconciles, renewals without surprises, and a cost model you can defend in a budget review.
COOs and operations leaders
You need uptime, continuity that has been tested, and fewer working days lost to technology friction.
Founders and SME owners
You need enterprise-grade security and collaboration without building an internal IT department to run it.
Risk and compliance leads
You need identity controls, retention policies, and recovery evidence that stand up to an audit.
Questions
Frequently asked
The questions clients ask before committing to this service.
No. Multi-cloud adds real operational cost — more skills, more tooling, more governance. It is worth it when there is a specific capability, resilience, residency, or commercial reason. Otherwise consolidation is usually the better decision.
Works well with
Related services
These practice areas are commonly delivered alongside this one.
Like to know more?
Talk to us about multi-cloud
Send a short brief and we will come back with a considered response, not a generic brochure.