The Benefits of Using Hybrid Cloud

You have heard of the cloud, and perhaps you are using it for your company’s IT needs, but have you considered hybrid cloud?

This technology, a combination of public cloud providers and private, on-premise hardware, is increasingly popular. In a 2016 Tech Pro Research survey, 68 per cent of companies surveyed said they are using or considering hybrid cloud. And according to MarketsandMarkets, the expected hybrid cloud market in 2021 is $91.74 billion, up from an estimated $33.28 billion in 2016. Clearly, this approach is taking off.

Many tech teams feel quite happy with their setup, often finding peace of mind in having in-office infrastructure to maintain, but there are many benefits to the hybrid cloud… and we’re here to cover them.

Exploring and Understanding Hybrid Cloud

To know why you should use hybrid cloud, first you have to understand the technology. Simply put, hybrid cloud marries public cloud services and private cloud infrastructure (hardware at the site of your company, running cloud software).

Both the private and public aspects of hybrid cloud run independently, and do not rely on one another to function, but with secure communication over an encrypted connection, the platforms pair well to give your company all of the advantages on offer.

Simply using some aspects of the public cloud and some aspects of the private cloud does not make for a hybrid cloud model. This is an important distinction. The cloud services need to communicate, such as using a public cloud service to send data to a private cloud, for it to be considered a hybrid approach. This allows for greater cohesion and the ability to view your infrastructure through a single pane of glass.

Why Use Hybrid Cloud? Flexibility

Because your company can use both private, dedicated and public cloud in a hybrid cloud setting, you can benefit from the flexibility of allocating data, applications and resources to whatever service can handle it best.

Your existing on-premise infrastructure, or the private cloud infrastructure in which you invest, will work for your company and make sure that your budget for hardware continues to be well spent. At the same time, you can scale various public cloud services up or down depending on your company’s evolving needs.

The private cloud infrastructure is the backbone of your system, providing regular support and performance, and the public aspect of hybrid cloud gives you flexibility, enabling your company to use resources and services as needed.

Better yet, you can continue to customise and optimise your private cloud infrastructure, ensuring reliability and security, while using public cloud services to set new projects without having to invest in on-site hardware or software, or store data without having to pay for the on-premise hardware to do so, which would be more expensive than using a public cloud service.

Essentially, the hybrid cloud model offers a high degree of flexibility to your company. You can use the public cloud, and your own private cloud, in whatever way is the most effective and cost-efficient for your business, adjusting as needed without having to pay the price for all new hardware and software.

Why Use Hybrid Cloud – Security and Compliance

Many organizations and businesses are working with sensitive or confidential information. This can make the public cloud seem like a poor choice, as it is generally easier to maintain private data on a private server.

A report from Bain & Company notes that “Safety-conscious customers are eager to adopt the cloud, but for a range of reasons – such as industry-specific regulation, national data sovereignty rules or the size of their companies – they prefer a private, dedicated cloud environment for most of their cloud applications.”

However, with the hybrid cloud model, businesses handling sensitive information can still benefit from the public cloud, using its resources to run any applications that require data — which is stored safely on the private cloud.

Businesses that have to meet certain compliance rules — such as healthcare operations and payroll processors — will find that this hybrid approach is ideal for ensuring security and meeting all regulatory compliance needs.
Why Use Hybrid Cloud – Cost Efficiency
The public cloud is attractive because it is generally far less expensive than investing in on-site infrastructure. However, it is generally less robust, in terms of speed and capability, when compared to a privately built cloud.

When you combine the two, you can use public cloud services to get things going and scale up as needed, and invest in longer term private infrastructure as required. Balancing these two approaches offers cost efficiency and allows you to plan out your budget knowing that you can easily scale services up or down.

Real Life Hybrid Cloud Examples

Use-cases show the benefits of using hybrid cloud in the real world. In a healthcare organisation, for example, public cloud services were used to process large amounts of data on a pay-as-you-go model, linking the public cloud services to their private data center. The cloud is used to migrate applications, workloads and data between public and private, while remaining HIPAA compliant.

Similarly, in another use-case, an organisation needed to bump up their resources during peak usage times. Scaling with public cloud resources, the company could easily boost their capacity so applications would seamlessly continue working for customers.

These are just a few examples of how the hybrid cloud can benefit companies of all types. Whether a business is large or small, front-facing with customers or working business to business, the combination of public and private cloud services can do a lot.

Using the Hybrid Cloud Model for Your Company
Now that we have explored some of the many benefits of using the hybrid cloud model, you can see how it could be beneficial for your business. If you are interested in hybrid cloud, consider managed cloud services to implement this technology.

A managed approach ensures that your hybrid cloud solution is perfectly customised to your business and its needs, creating a cost-effective, high-performance system that is the perfect mix of public and private services. Managed cloud services can help you design, build and migrate to the cloud with ease.