The term multi-cloud refers to the use of multiple cloud computing services from multiple cloud vendors in a single architecture, with the distribution of cloud assets, software, and applications spread across multiple cloud-hosting environments, both public clouds and private clouds, aiming to eradicate relying on a single cloud provider.

There are a number of benefits for building a multi-cloud environment, such as not having to depend on a single cloud vendor, the flexibility to choose the optimal service or feature from different cloud providers, preventing data loss, preventing downtime due to localized component failures, mitigating against disasters, not being locked into one vendor, the use of shadow IT, adherence to data sovereignty laws, and achieving optimal performance for end users by locating compute resources as close to them as possibles.