In less than a decade, technological innovations have substantially impacted companies, especially in using solutions such as the hybrid cloud.
These new tools have generated a breakthrough in the digitization of operations, but above all, in the localization strategies and availability of resources.
The financial, healthcare, mining, retail, and even governmental areas have increased the need for hybrid cloud solutions to comply with a more demanding market.
Enhancing the development of these new solutions will allow the organization to improve its business relationship, generate new sources of revenue, and deliver a better service experience to its customers.
Currently, hybrid cloud solutions are becoming one of the most agile and less complex solutions to implement, with a tremendous positive impact on companies.
What is a hybrid cloud?
Cloud solutions are not new, but their impact on business has been projected exponentially in the last decade.
Although at present, there are several possible solutions offered by many professional managed IT services for the management of enterprise data and applications, such as:
- Private Cloud. Cloud-enabled infrastructure running in an enterprise data center that privately hosts information through an external provider.
- Public Cloud: IaaS service infrastructure and PaaS service platforms, belonging to third-party cloud service providers. Examples of these providers and clouds are Microsoft Azure, Amazon Web Services (AWS), and Google Cloud Platform.
- Hybrid Cloud: Combined infrastructure between a public and a private cloud.
- Multicloud: An IT environment that manages several public cloud services but with some level of interconnection between them.
- Traditional Datacenter: Location that centralizes the location of computing and storage equipment and networks, where the company’s data is collected, and the information is processed without third-party intervention or processing in the cloud.
This technological standardization and the emergence of flexible solutions have allowed hybrid clouds to gain ground in a highly competitive world.
This combination highlights some operations exclusive to the private cloud and others to the public cloud, depending on the information and resources being used.
For example, data that may have a required level of security or confidentiality will be handled within a private cloud.
Although it is not mandatory, under the laws of personal data protection (LOPD), which regulate some countries and organizations in handling such information, the privacy of such data must be guaranteed.
On the other hand, public clouds usually contain information, more for the storage capacity and scalability of the infrastructure than for its privacy.
Factors that lead to a hybrid cloud
A report by the telecommunications company Entel details some factors that influence switching to a hybrid cloud.
It reduced flexibility and scalability in the current infrastructure.
The gap between the technological expansion possibilities of a private installation and a hybrid cloud over on-premise IT solutions is vast.
One of them is the physical space to continue growing in capacity, both within the servers (incorporation of processors, memories, etc.) and other necessary storage and hosting equipment.
The relationship between the systems used in the data centers and the applications hosted in the cloud is crucial to balance the existing resources.
Increasingly demanding security levels.
In this aspect, companies can be vulnerable if they do not have all the tools and Cloud solutions to protect their infrastructure.
This weakness can put the company’s assets at risk and expose it to unwanted service interruptions.
This constant monitoring of operations and facilities costs time and hours that must be considered when you have a private cloud-only.
Additionally, one must keep up with updates and innovations in cloud security solutions to ensure the stability of the information and the company.
CAPEX decrease
With the implementation of a Cloud solution, this issue can be easily overcome since this issue is transferred to the cloud provider you hire.
Technological investments generate an excessive charge in capital expenditures (CAPEX), especially for medium or small companies.
In this case, they seek to replace this expense through monthly or annual service payments tailored to their needs.
This flexible way of spending (OPEX) allows you to keep your company up to date at any time, leaving the responsibility for upgrades to Cloud solutions to the selected provider.
The hybrid cloud implementation process
Although not an extremely complex process, implementing a hybrid cloud requires specific parameters to be fully complied with.
It is because the hybrid cloud does not have a single or “plug and play” configuration. It is why some implementation models are mentioned to understand the process.
- Full hybrid solution. A single package of services is configured, which is distributed through a cloud service provider.
- Proprietary private cloud network solution. The company is responsible for directly managing all services through the public cloud or with the personal cloud infrastructure integration.
- The integrated solution of several SaaS applications or tools. These applications are located in the company’s data center to manage resources and distribute information to the hybrid cloud.
Hybrid cloud usage rate
Everyday technology shows us innovations, and in the field of cloud solutions, they are not left behind.
The use of SaaS tools is increasing with the applicability of hybrid clouds, as new customers and providers join the market and the cloud itself.
According to a survey conducted by BBVA, 64% of respondents are adopting a hybrid cloud solution because of its agility and security.
Among this percentage, those companies directly related to technologies such as banking, finance, retail, and others stand out because their economies revolve, for the most part, around consumption through cloud solutions.
Only a low percentage (22%) feel confident about migrating to the public cloud-only, motivated by the security factor, the main concern when migrating data.
Advantages of the hybrid cloud
Each company represents a technological challenge for any IT specialist, as it has specific needs that must be adapted to the possible solutions on the market.
Among these challenges is implementing a hybrid cloud solution based on the company’s own needs and the financial or space capabilities of the company.
But the advantages of those organizations that have made the switch versus those that are still thinking about making the change are constantly observed, such as:
- Immediate scalability once the solution is implemented, with no impact on infrastructure costs.
- Managed management of available resources, centrally and in real-time.
- Possibly acquiring services on demand, or stop using it when it is no longer required, under the terms and conditions of the contract.
- More efficient redistribution of the initial investment when implementing similar projects.
- Control of information and its more accurate and secure location through the tools used in hybrid cloud applications.
Conclusion
There will always be some considerations regarding using hybrid cloud solutions, for example, will you be utilising Kubernetes management tools to ensure you are correctly observing clusters, potentially across multiple infrastructures, whilst implementing a hybrid cloud. You need to understand how to make this operate smoothly to avoid mitigating the decision to change the technological infrastructure.
One of these potential drawbacks is that the use of public and private clouds involves having different providers. It can generate dependency since any problem with one provider could impact the entire organization.
There is also the use of hybrid cloud connection nodes that can cause a security vulnerability. It is why it is recommended to check each point to avoid susceptible data loss.
