Many leaders hear “multi-cloud” and assume it’s a sign of maturity. In reality, most companies don’t need it. The complexity often outweighs the benefits—unless you have a clear reason.

When Multi-Cloud Makes Sense

• You must meet strict data residency laws
• Your customers demand deployment flexibility
• You have proven vendor lock-in risks
• Your service must remain available even if a major provider goes down

When Single-Cloud Is Better

• Small or mid-size teams
• Limited DevOps headcount
• Early-stage MVPs
• Workloads deeply integrated with one vendor’s proprietary services

Decision Framework

Ask three questions:

1. Do we have the operational maturity to support multiple clouds?
2. Are we solving a real business problem, or just following a trend?
3. Is multi-cloud cheaper, or dramatically more expensive?

Final Verdict

Start simple with a single cloud. Add multi-cloud only when your business requires it—not before.