Hybrid Cloud and it's benefits

What is Hybrid Cloud?

Hybrid cloud architecture is a cloud hosting environment that combines on-premises data centre (private cloud) with public cloud services, allowing data and applications to be shared between them.

This approach offers businesses the flexibility to keep sensitive or critical workloads on-premises for security and compliance reasons while leveraging the scalability and cost-efficiency of the public cloud for other tasks. It enables businesses to more effectively manage their IT resources according to specific operational needs, performance requirements, and budget constraints.

Hybrid cloud configurations come in various forms, including On-Premises to Data Center, where private on-site infrastructure is linked with external data centres for enhanced capacity and redundancy; On-Premises to Cloud, connecting local systems with public cloud services for scalable resources and flexibility; and Data Center to Data Center, linking multiple data centre environments to optimise resource utilisation and ensure business continuity.

Benefits of Hybrid Cloud

A hybrid cloud strategy involves making use of a combination of both public and private cloud hosting solutions and, in some cases, on-site infrastructure as well. Many businesses often see hybrid cloud solutions as a way to test out cloud computing services without committing to them fully, however, the hybrid cloud benefits extend well beyond serving as an introductory trial.

Below, we’ll take a look at the top benefits of using hybrid cloud solutions in order to help you determine if a hybrid cloud strategy is right for your business. Read our Guide to Cloud hosting.

By enabling you to leverage the benefits of both private and public cloud solutions, hybrid cloud solutions offer a number of advantages to small and large businesses alike. Some of the top hybrid cloud benefits include:

Scalability

Infrastructure on the public cloud is much easier to scale than private cloud or on-site infrastructure since cloud computing service providers who host a public cloud platform will already have all of the hardware and software necessary to enable you to scale your infrastructure up or down at will.

With a hybrid cloud strategy, you can move aspects of your infrastructure that need to demonstrate scalability to the public cloud while keeping more static aspects of your infrastructure on the private cloud. This enables you to build a complete infrastructure that is easily scalable while still not fully committing to a public cloud solution.

Improved Security

The security of the public cloud has improved, but the private cloud still offers more in terms of protecting sensitive data. Therefore, private cloud is still the recommended solution for businesses and organisations with high-security requirements.

With a hybrid cloud strategy, though, you can keep more sensitive data stored on the private cloud in order to assure that it is completely secure while remaining free to keep other, less sensitive data on the public cloud. Storing sensitive data on the private cloud may also help you more easily meet the standards of regulations regarding data handling and storage.

Enhanced Organisational Agility

Being able to transition between the public and private cloud at-will enables businesses to be incredibly agile. For example, a business may choose to use the public cloud more heavily during times of heavy usage in order to prevent overloading their servers and avoid downtime. Or, a business may choose to test and host new applications on the public cloud until they decide where they want to host them permanently.

All told, the combination of the private cloud and public cloud that a hybrid cloud strategy offers means that businesses will be able to move operations and data around at any time for any reason they see fit.

Cost Efficiency

In most cases, public cloud solutions are going to be more affordable than private cloud solutions since they don’t require you to invest in your own hardware or hire employees to manage them.

 Hybrid cloud strategy will enable the “best of both worlds” when it comes to security and cost-efficiency

Depending on the the environment required and the resource growth that you anticipate, though, there may be instances where a private cloud solution is more affordable.

With a hybrid cloud strategy, you can combine both solutions to create one that is as cost-effective as possible while also better securing sensitive data. In this way, a hybrid cloud strategy will enable the “best of both worlds” when it comes to security and cost-efficiency.

Flexibility

Flexibility is a trademark of hybrid cloud solutions. With a hybrid cloud strategy, you can build your infrastructure piece by piece, utilising the private or public cloud in any manner and any combination that you desire.

This high degree of customisation enables businesses to try out various options in order to find the solution that works best for their business rather than having to mould their business around a single, static solution.

Best of all, a hybrid cloud solution can be altered or shuffled around at any time, allowing you to easily mould your infrastructure as your business changes and develops.

A hybrid cloud solution can be altered or shuffled around at any time, allowing you to easily mould your infrastructure as your business changes and develops.

Enterprise Hybrid Cloud

Enterprise Hybrid Cloud refers to a sophisticated cloud computing model adopted by large organisations, integrating their on-premises data centres, private cloud resources, and public cloud services. This approach enables enterprises to achieve optimal balance between operational control and scalability. By maintaining sensitive or mission-critical workloads within private or on-premises infrastructure for enhanced security and compliance, while leveraging the vast computing resources and innovative services offered by public clouds for other tasks, enterprises can ensure data sovereignty and regulatory compliance.

Furthermore, this model supports agile development practices, facilitates digital transformation, and allows for cost-efficient scaling of IT operations. Enterprise Hybrid Cloud architectures are characterised by their complexity, requiring robust management tools and strategies to seamlessly orchestrate workloads across different environments, ensuring efficiency, security, and performance at scale.

Hybrid Cloud has many advantages

Both the public cloud and the private cloud each offer their own set of pros and cons. With a hybrid cloud strategy, though, businesses are able to pick and choose their solutions in a way that allows them to enjoy the benefits of both the private and public cloud while avoiding most of the drawbacks. This is a huge advantage and is one that has made hybrid cloud solutions an incredibly popular choice in recent years.