The Foundations of Hybrid and Multi-Cloud (2009-2013)
This early period marks the foundational discussions around what would become the multi-cloud paradigm. The focus is on recognizing and defining the concepts of hybrid and multi-cloud, alongside initial considerations for managing virtual infrastructure within these nascent environments. Early on, concerns around security and collaboration in distributed cloud settings also surface.
Titles like "Virtual Infrastructure Management in Private and Hybrid Clouds" (2009) highlight the very beginnings of managing resources across different cloud types. By 2013, the acknowledgment that "Hybrid Clouds Move to the Forefront" signifies a growing industry recognition and interest. During this time, researchers began grappling with challenges such as "Collaboration in Multicloud Computing Environments: Framework and Security Issues" and the need for "QoS-aware and semantic-based service coordination for multi-Cloud environments," indicating an early awareness of the complexities involved in integrating diverse cloud services.
Expanding Capabilities and Practicalities (2014-2016)
Building on the foundational concepts, this period shifts towards the practical implementation and optimization of multi-cloud and hybrid cloud environments. The discussions evolve from defining these architectures to actively designing, deploying, and managing applications within them, with a strong emphasis on performance, quality of service (QoS), and economic viability.
There's a clear move towards orchestrating complex deployments, as seen in "Orchestrating Hybrid Cloud Deployment: An Overview" (2014). The need for high-performance computing ("HPC management and engineering in the hybrid cloud," 2015) and secure data processing ("Using Hybrid Clouds for Secure and Efficient Data Processing," 2015) becomes more explicit. Monitoring and benchmarking also gain prominence, with titles like "Cross-layer multi-cloud real-time application QoS monitoring and benchmarking as-a-service framework" (2016) and "Holistic Performance Monitoring of Hybrid Clouds: Complexities and Future Directions" (2016). Furthermore, the ecosystem begins to professionalize, exploring "Emerging Hybrid Cloud Patterns," "Hybrid Cloud Economics," and the role of "The Hybrid Cloud Security Professional" (all 2016), signaling a broader adoption beyond theoretical frameworks.
Deepening Maturity and Brokerage (2017-2019)
As multi-cloud adoption matured, this period sees a significant focus on enhancing resilience, managing resources efficiently through brokering, and addressing advanced security concerns. The conversation moves from basic deployment to sophisticated mechanisms for managing diverse cloud environments.
The concept of a "Cloud Service Broker" becomes a recurring theme, facilitating resource allocation and demand response, as evidenced by titles like "A transfer learning-aided decision support system for multi-cloud brokers" (2017) and "The Cloud Service Broker in Multicloud Demand Response" (2018). Reliability and high availability are now explicit design goals, with efforts such as "On the Design of Resilient Multicloud MapReduce" and "NoMISHAP: A Novel Middleware Support for High Availability in Multicloud PaaS" (both 2017). Security concerns continue to evolve, addressing "Authorization Policy Federation" (2017) and "Secure and Dependable Multi-Cloud Network Virtualization" (2019), alongside secure data storage and dynamic access. Energy efficiency in multi-cloud systems also emerges as a notable consideration during this time ("Energy-aware scheduling in decentralised multi-cloud systems," 2018).
Operationalization, Automation, and New Frontiers (2020-2022)
This period highlights a critical shift towards the practical operationalization of multi-cloud environments, with a strong emphasis on automation, streamlined management, and integration with emerging technologies. The focus is on making multi-cloud architectures more robust, scalable, and manageable in real-world scenarios.
The need for comprehensive management and orchestration becomes paramount, as shown by "Supporting management and orchestration of cloud resources in a multi-cloud environment" (2020). There's a clear move towards integrating multi-cloud with modern development practices and new technological paradigms. "A DevOps Reference Architecture for Multi-Cloud IoT Applications Deployment" (2020) illustrates the convergence of multi-cloud with IoT and the adoption of DevOps principles. Furthermore, multi-cloud capabilities are extended to serverless computing ("Toward Multicloud Access Transparency in Serverless Computing," 2021) and edge environments, with a focus on fault-tolerant workflow automation ("A Fault-Tolerant Workflow Composition and Deployment Automation IoT Framework in a Multicloud Edge Environment," 2022). This demonstrates a broader application of multi-cloud to distributed and specialized computing landscapes.
Specialization, Efficiency, and Governance (2023-2024)
The most recent period reflects a highly specialized approach to multi-cloud, focusing on optimizing for specific workloads, enhancing efficiency through advanced automation, and addressing the critical need for governance. The maturity of the multi-cloud landscape means discussions have moved beyond general management to fine-tuned operations and developer empowerment.
A significant trend is the application of multi-cloud to machine learning workloads, including federated learning, as seen in "Multi-FedLS : A Scheduler of Federated Learning Applications in a Multi-Cloud Environment" (2023) and "Automated and Efficient Multi-Cloud Configuration for Machine Learning Workloads" (2024). This indicates a move towards workload-specific, highly optimized configurations. Developer enablement gains prominence, with titles like "Enabling Developers in a Multi-Cloud World" (2023) appearing multiple times, suggesting efforts to simplify the complexities for practitioners. Critically, governance emerges as a distinct and vital concern ("Multi Cloud Governance," 2023), reflecting the strategic oversight required for sprawling multi-cloud deployments. The focus on "Easy Multicloud Task Execution" through APIs in 2024 further underscores the drive for seamless, automated operations.
