Multi-Cloud Infrastructure and the Future of EDA

Some individuals claim that cloud services are prone to failure and are thus equally as efficient as an on-premises setup. Though there are practical examples of cloud outages, the cloud industry has developed a myriad of solutions to address such claims using multi-cloud architecture. 

Multi-cloud architecture allows enterprises to distribute their workload between multiple cloud environments, therefore reducing the risk that an individual cloud failure affects total uptime and accessible resources.

What is Multi-Cloud Infrastructure?

Multi-cloud architecture utilizes multiple cloud Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) platforms. You can improve your infrastructure capabilities, uptime, and cost by using multiple cloud computing and storage services from different vendors under a single architecture. 

Through this model, applications and operational procedures work smoothly across all cloud environments. Businesses can then reap the benefits of each cloud provider without the associated risks of depending on a single provider. 

Multi-cloud infrastructure also refers to the distribution of cloud assets, applications, software, and more across several cloud-hosting environments through two or more public or private clouds. Organizations can use different infrastructure providers depending on the workload. You can either implement an active-active approach where you balance a single workload across multiple providers or an active-passive approach where you deploy a single workload on one provider with a backup on another. 

The Future of EDA and Multi-Cloud Infrastructure

Modern ICs are now more complex than ever. With the increase in foundry rule decks, fabless companies may feel as though they are perpetually trying to catch up. Designing semiconductors often requires additional intense compute resources to maintain development speed and ensure quality development. 

Continuing to deploy new infrastructures at this rate, however, can be difficult for IT teams that also support development and verification. As a result, engineers are compute constrained. With multi-cloud infrastructure, however, chip designers can connect their on-premises workflows to various clouds, creating hybrid multi-cloud architectures. 

Modern EDA chip development requires powerful storage with suitable throughput, latency, and capacity to eliminate bottlenecks in access. With a multi-cloud infrastructure, engineers experience:

• Flexibility. Systems must be able to scale with phases of development. They also must be able to handle intense workloads to meet deadlines. With the stability multi-cloud infrastructure provides, including selectable core types, engineers can match their workload for even faster processing.
• Security. Cloud providers are well aware that multi-cloud may be the largest factor that organizations consider before adopting a cloud-based environment. For this reason, cloud companies invest heavily in research and development to ensure top security. Cloud-based environments experience 60% fewer security incidents compared to standard data centers.
• Design Process Acceleration. Utilizing EDA in the cloud enables semiconductor companies to create more iterations faster, producing a competitive advantage in time-to-market. 

Running an EDA environment in a multi-cloud architecture allows for the seamless relocation of workloads from one provider to another as business strategies dictate. Administrations experience real-time transparency reports regarding the security and compliance that continuous monitoring of cloud resources achieves. This process ensures adherence to industry standards and compliance requirements. With a multi-cloud approach, organizations can negotiate better pricing with cloud providers. They can also switch to another provider if needed, as the platform allows for easy switching, avoiding vendor lock-in.