Expanding Cloud Horizons: New Zones, Containers, and Multicloud Strategies

Cloud vendors and users alike are continually pushing the limits of adoption. In the latest Building More Data Centers update, Google Cloud Platform unveiled a third availability zone in Oregon. Alongside the new zone, Google added CloudSQL and regional Managed Instance Groups, allowing customers to distribute VMs across multiple zones for enhanced business continuity. With each additional public‑cloud zone, IT teams gain more options to reduce distance—and latency—between end users and the services they need. While Google Cloud’s revenue growth doubled last year, it remains behind AWS, Microsoft Azure, and IBM Cloud.

Containers are moving from niche to mainstream, especially as enterprises adopt multi‑cloud environments that lack uniform integration or API support. A recent industry study, sponsored by a leading container provider, found that nearly 75% of respondents use Kubernetes—a container orchestration platform—to manage workloads. The research also revealed that IT operations teams are the primary users of container technology, challenging the earlier notion that containers were mainly a developer tool. For organizations seeking to avoid lock‑in and match cloud resources to specific workloads, containers represent the most viable path forward.

Another smart approach to cloud adoption is sandbox development environments. By replicating an on‑premises production setup in the public cloud, IT teams can test and model changes with minimal risk. This controlled, small‑scale methodology can also reduce upfront costs before a full application rollout. While sandbox testing has long been a cornerstone of public‑cloud strategy, careful planning and documentation are essential to ensure accurate replication and to capture lessons learned.

F5’s recent application‑delivery report highlights how on‑premises application delivery controllers are evolving as the industry shifts toward cloud. The study indicates that, on average, organizations deploy 14 application services—such as network firewalls, secure VPNs, and load balancers—to optimize and secure their multi‑cloud environments. F5 is now expanding its portfolio to meet these emerging needs across both public and private clouds.

Delivering cloud and SaaS applications has become a reality for many businesses. Office 365, one of the most widely adopted business SaaS platforms, is placing significant strain on corporate networks. A recent survey found that nearly 80% of respondents use or plan to use Office 365, and 70% of current users report weekly latency issues. These challenges translate into a high volume of help‑desk tickets and higher-than‑expected network upgrade costs. Monitoring is therefore critical; understanding the Office 365 network path can help teams quickly diagnose and resolve performance problems.

Take the next step: think big about your cloud strategy and explore how new zones, containerization, sandbox testing, and robust application delivery can drive success.