Who should enter the ‘Hybrid and Multi-Cloud Solution of the Year’ category?

The ‘Hybrid or Multi-Cloud Solution of the Year’ category recognizes the strategic integration of private clouds, on-premise legacy systems, and multiple public cloud providers (such as AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud) into a single, cohesive operational fabric.

Entries may showcase how the solution utilizes cross-cloud orchestration and advanced connectivity to break down provider lock-in, allowing workloads to move dynamically based on cost, performance, or data sovereignty requirements.

Submissions should demonstrate how the architecture maintains a consistent security posture and operational “look and feel,” regardless of where the underlying infrastructure resides.

In addition, submissions should highlight innovations in unified management and observability, demonstrating how the solution provides a “single pane of glass” for monitoring resources, managing identities, and controlling costs across a multi-vendor landscape. Judges will look for evidence of how the solution balances the scalability of the public cloud with the control and compliance of private infrastructure, particularly for highly regulated industries.

This category is open to systems integrators, software vendors, and enterprise IT teams who are mastering the art of the “best-of-breed” cloud strategy to drive business agility.

data center

Example Use Cases

Hybrid or multi-cloud solutions eligible for this award may either provide an outstanding broad solution, or exceptional specialized solutions in one of these areas (among others):

Business professional analyzing dashboards Providing centralized control across public, private, and hybrid cloud environments. Hybrid and multi-cloud solutions enable organizations to manage workloads, monitor performance, and enforce governance policies through a single control plane.

Typical use cases:

  • Centralized dashboards for cross-cloud monitoring
  • Unified policy management and governance controls
  • Cross-environment cost tracking and optimization
  • Workload orchestration across multiple cloud providers
  • Consolidated logging and performance analytics

Some examples of results from this application:

  • Reduced operational complexity across cloud environments
  • Improved visibility into workload performance and spend
  • Stronger governance and compliance consistency
  • Faster issue detection across distributed systems

Business professional analyzing data on digital tablet dashboard with calculator and laptop Enabling organizations to deploy and migrate applications seamlessly between on-premises infrastructure and multiple cloud providers. These solutions reduce vendor lock-in and improve operational agility.

Typical use cases:

  • Containerization and Kubernetes-based orchestration
  • Cross-cloud workload migration tools
  • Hybrid application modernization
  • Disaster recovery across cloud environments
  • Automated environment replication

Some examples of results from this application:

  • Increased flexibility in workload placement
  • Reduced downtime during migrations
  • Lower risk of vendor dependency
  • Greater resilience through cross-cloud redundancy

Office Setting Features Team reviewing dashboard Improving financial control across complex cloud estates. Hybrid and multi-cloud platforms provide transparency into usage patterns, enabling smarter allocation of workloads and better cost governance.

Typical use cases:

  • Cross-cloud cost monitoring dashboards
  • Automated resource scaling and rightsizing
  • Reserved instance and commitment management
  • Budget forecasting and anomaly detection
  • Chargeback and showback reporting models

Some examples of results from this application:

  • Reduced cloud spend through workload optimization
  • Improved cost predictability across environments
  • Greater accountability across business units
  • Increased ROI from cloud investments

Scanning access card for security authentication Ensuring consistent security posture and regulatory compliance across diverse infrastructure landscapes. Hybrid and multi-cloud solutions embed monitoring, access control, and policy enforcement across all connected environments.

Typical use cases:

  • Unified identity and access management (IAM)
  • Cross-cloud security monitoring and threat detection
  • Centralized compliance reporting
  • Encryption and key management across providers
  • Continuous configuration compliance checks

Some examples of results from this application:

  • Improved visibility into security risks across environments
  • Reduced compliance gaps between cloud providers
  • Faster incident detection and response
  • Stronger overall governance across hybrid infrastructure

Young Female Manager Dealing with Cloud Based Network Research and Development Enabling seamless data flow and application interoperability across platforms. Hybrid and multi-cloud solutions ensure consistent connectivity, data synchronization, and operational continuity.

Typical use cases:

  • Secure data replication between cloud environments
  • API-based integration across platforms
  • Hybrid database connectivity
  • Cross-cloud analytics integration
  • Unified monitoring of distributed applications

Some examples of results from this application:

  • Improved data consistency and availability
  • Enhanced cross-platform collaboration
  • Reduced data silos across environments
  • Greater operational agility and innovation capacity

Hall of Fame: Previous Winners

Virtana Logo

Virtana stood out for delivering true hybrid cloud observability across infrastructure, services, and AI workloads. Its ability to correlate performance, cost, and risk in real time reflects the realities enterprises actually face. The judges saw a platform built for modern hybrid complexity. This made Virtana a standout winner at The Cloud Awards.”

The Cloud Awards COO, Annabelle Whittall

Best Hybrid Cloud Solution 2025/26, Virtana
Singlestore Logo

SingleStore stood out for delivering a cloud platform that truly embraces multi-cloud architecture in practice, not just in principle. SingleStore Helios enables organizations to run high performance, real time data workloads consistently across major cloud providers. The judges were particularly impressed by how multi-cloud flexibility is built into the platform’s core design rather than treated as an afterthought. This made SingleStore a clear winner at The Cloud Awards.”

The Cloud Awards COO, Annabelle Whittall

Best Use of the Cloud in a Multicloud Environment 2025/26, SingleStore
LogicMonitor Logo

By delivering hybrid observability through its LM Envision platform, LogicMonitor provides businesses with a unified view of their on-prem and multicloud environments, enabling operational clarity and efficiency. Its agentless technology and intuitive dashboards allow organizations to overcome the complexities of multicloud operations, optimize costs, and focus on delivering outstanding experiences. This recognition celebrates LogicMonitor’s commitment to empowering businesses with the tools they need to thrive in today’s dynamic cloud landscapes.”

The Cloud Awards COO, Annabelle Whittall

Best Use of the Cloud in a Multicloud Environment 2024/25, LogicMonitor

Areas to Highlight in Your Submission

Judges score nominations across these five key areas:

  • Innovation: The features or technology that makes your hybrid or multicloud solution unique - or transformed your market.

  • Impact: Evidence of the positive effect your hybrid or multicloud solution has brought to your customers.

  • Scalability: How your solution grows or adapts to changing business needs, without significant upgrades or overhauls.

  • User Experience: How intuitive your hybrid or multicloud solution is to use for users of varying roles or skill levels.

  • Relevance: What makes your solution a worthy winner in this particular category.

Although not formally scored, focus on these areas specific to this category, can help your nomination stand out:

Cost Management

The solution’s capabilities for tracking, analyzing, and optimizing cloud spending across multiple platforms.

Business Continuity

Evaluating backup and recovery options, data replication, failover mechanisms, and resilience strategies.

Customization

Should provide flexibility in terms of deployment options, resource allocation, and policy management.

More Cloud Awards Categories

Next Steps to Enter The Cloud Awards

To enter this Cloud Awards category, or any other category in The Cloud Awards, please follow these three simple steps:

  • Download the entry form. Open up the ‘Cloud Awards Simple Form’ document.
  • Complete your form. You only need to complete the form once, even if entering multiple Cloud Awards categories.
  • Submit your entry. Head to the ‘Submit Now’ section on our website, select ‘The Cloud Awards’ and the category/categories you are entering from the list, upload your form and any other materials you would like the judges to review, and process your fees.

Since 2011, The Cloud Awards been helping organizations across the globe gain the recognition they deserve for market-leading innovation in the cloud computing and software sectors.

For a detailed breakdown of all the benefits you receive as an awards entrant as either a shortlistee, finalist or ultimate winner, please see our “Why Enter?” page. The many benefits are replicated across all international awards programs. If you have any questions about this category, please contact us.