What Is Cloud Agnostic?

Learn more about the pros and cons of cloud agnostic tools for your organization. In this article, you will learn about:

• The flexibility of cloud agnostic strategies.
• The unique features you can get from cloud agnostic tools.
• The potential drawbacks to consider.

Table of Contents

• What Does Cloud Agnostic Mean?
• Benefits of Cloud Agnostic Tools
• Drawbacks of Cloud Agnostic Tools
• Choosing a Reliable Cloud Agnostic Solution fir Docker Containers

What Does Cloud Agnostic Mean?

At the general level, “cloud agnostic” means that your applications and workloads can function on any cloud platform. Instead of getting stuck with one platform, you can seamlessly move applications to other options that better match your needs.

Basically, the service, application, or workload doesn’t rely on a specific operating system or infrastructure. Instead of getting forced to run your tools on a platform like Microsoft Azure, you can run it from AWS, Google Cloud, or any other platform that meets your needs.

In many cases, you can even use your cloud agnostic applications on multiple platforms at once.

The definition doesn’t just apply to public cloud platforms. You can also move your cloud agnostic services to an on-premises server.

Benefits of Cloud Agnostic Tools

Organizations often find that these tools offer numerous benefits that help them work more efficiently, save money, and make changes when necessary.

Flexibility

Flexibility stands out as a leading benefit. When you have cloud agnostic tools, you can move them to other cloud service providers without interruption. You may decide to switch cloud solutions because you discover an option that gives you better services at lower prices. You may also determine that you prefer a different cloud server’s security protocols, location, and speed.

As long as you have cloud agnostic tools, you can switch to the more appealing service provider. The process shouldn’t take much time. If you plan the migration properly, you will experience minimal – if any – interruptions in service.

Scaling

These tools can also make scaling easier for your evolving business needs. For example, a retail store likely expects that it will do more business during the winter holidays. If it uses cloud applications, then it will need to expand its processing power to keep up with changes in demand.

While most cloud solutions say that they offer excellent scaling options, you may run into issues when the time comes to take advantage of the opportunity. Suddenly, you find out that it will cost more than expected or that other companies have already increased their processing power so much during the same time that you don’t have much room for expansion.

With cloud agnostic tools, you don’t need to worry about one service provider’s ability to match your needs. Instead, you can recruit another company to fill in the gaps. A cloud agnostic application can run simultaneously from two cloud platforms. That practically eliminates any concerns you might have about rapid scaling.

More Unique Features

If your company needs a cloud application with unique features, you may have a limited number of platforms that meet your requirements. Cloud agnosticism makes it easier for you to build the exact features that your business needs to streamline processes, improve efficiency, lower costs, and dig deeper into your data.

Pricing and Services

Has your cloud provider let you down? You don’t have many options when you rely on cloud native tools. Cloud native tools are built to function on the platform’s specific architecture. You can’t move without significantly retooling the app.

The cloud agnostic approach, though, lets you move freely to other providers that can offer lower prices and better services. Why get trapped with one provider when you can get the freedom to move when you want?

Drawbacks of Cloud Agnostic Tools

While there are several benefits, you should consider a couple of drawbacks that may affect your organization.

Greater Complexity and Development Costs

Once you have your cloud agnostic tools, they give you exceptional flexibility. Getting those tools, however, can create difficulties, especially when you need a team to build applications from the ground up.

It’s easy to adopt an existing cloud native application. You just pay the subscription fee and use the product. If you have to make your own cloud agnostic application, though, you need to consider the difficulty of designing and testing the tool. Plus, building a new tool can cost quite a bit of money. You may save money in the future, but the development costs look intimidating at the beginning stages.

Missing Unique Features From Established Platforms

Since cloud agnostic tools cannot rely on the built-in features of a specific, established platform, you may miss opportunities to add new features to your tool without much work. For example, if AWS offers a feature that you like, you have to resist the temptation to keep your application cloud agnostic. Taking advantage of it would mean tying your tool to AWS.

What if you want to move to Google Cloud in the future? You can’t guarantee that the AWS feature will still function. That can leave you in a difficult position that requires retraining staff or redeveloping aspects of your tools.

Choosing a Reliable Cloud Agnostic Solution for Docker Containers

Plenty of solutions promise to give you the features needed for improved flexibility, scaling, and unique features. In terms of a cloud-agnostic solution for Docker containers, IronWorker stand out as a popular choice to manage your Docker containers. One of the key beneifits of IronWorker is it lets you run applications from the public cloud, a dedicated server, an on-premises server, or even a hybrid of these options. If you want the flexibility to move your tools to different servers, it makes more sense to choose IronWorker.

Are you ready to get the most out of cloud agnostic options? Contact Iron.io today to get your project up and running using IronWorker for free for 14-days.