Hybrid cars, hybrid work, hybrid cloud – what do they all have in common and why have they become so attractive? There is only one explanation: it combines the best of two different worlds and offers the beneficiaries the highest level of versatility. The hybrid cloud, for example, represents an innovative IT infrastructure that combines both a company’s local (on-premises) IT resources and public cloud services. This approach provides increased flexibility and scalability, enabling organizations to optimize their resources, improve operational efficiency and respond quickly to fluctuating business demands.
In essence, hybrid cloud allows companies to build a dual IT environment that leverages existing investments (servers, storage, networks, applications), but also benefits from public cloud services (zero upfront investment, pay-as-you-go) subscription, resources on demand, no administrative effort).
What does hybrid cloud mean?
Hybrid cloud refers to an IT infrastructure that combines both private cloud, where data and applications are stored in the company’s own data centers, and public cloud, where data and applications are stored and managed by third-party providers in the centers their data. By adopting a hybrid cloud, companies can retain control of sensitive data and critical applications in their on-premises environment while benefiting from the flexibility and scalability offered by the public cloud.
When multiple providers are contracted, the model becomes hybrid multi-cloud. This means that a company can use public cloud services from multiple providers, such as M247’s Disaster Recovery as a Service and Microsoft’s Azure Active Directory. Both services excel at a certain functionality and extend the beneficiary’s IT infrastructure in a fluent and non-overlapping manner. This approach provides the opportunity to choose the best services for different needs and tasks, thus avoiding being locked into a single ecosystem.
Cloud investments are growing rapidly
The analysis company 451 Research produced a report for Cisco on the trends in the cloud market in 2022. The results show that 82% of the IT leaders surveyed have already adopted the hybrid cloud, which demonstrates a significant increase in the adoption of this technology. Furthermore, 47 percent of organizations use two to three infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) services from the public cloud. This trend shows that more and more companies are diversifying their resources and building their own cloud infrastructures tailored to their specific needs. The study also shows that only 8% of organizations use only one IaaS provider. The 2022 Global Hybrid Cloud Trends study was conducted with the participation of 2,500 IT professionals from 13 countries.
The benefits of hybrid cloud
Companies around the world are rapidly adopting hybrid cloud services because the benefits are obvious and easy to quantify. CIOs consider the following more important:
- Flexibility and scalability: Companies can scale resources according to business requirements, using the public cloud for resource-intensive tasks such as peak periods, and the private cloud for more constant and critical tasks.
- Control over sensitive data: By keeping sensitive data (data categorized as PII/Personally Identifiable Information) in the private cloud, companies can have tighter control over data security and protection, which is crucial in industries with strict regulations (like would be the financial and medical sectors).
- Reduce technology costs: Hybrid cloud adoption enables cost optimization as companies can use the public cloud for less critical tasks and thus avoid massive investments in on-premises physical infrastructure.
- Resilience and redundancy: Using the hybrid cloud for backup and disaster recovery plans provides greater redundancy and the ability to maintain business in the event of adverse events.
How you can use the hybrid cloud in your current business
If the above benefits seem too general to you, let’s identify a series of concrete activities in which you can combine private and public cloud services:
Digital transformation: Many organizations want to modernize their IT infrastructure by adopting public cloud services, but legacy applications and certain industry regulations can prevent the complete shutdown of on-premises data centers. The hybrid cloud allows moving some non-critical applications to the cloud and maintaining the “core business” ones on the own infrastructure.
Disaster Recovery: The hybrid model helps organizations mirror certain applications and workflows in the cloud and back up data. In the event of a failure in the data center, users will access the necessary applications in the cloud to keep business running normally.
Development and testing environment: Developing and testing applications in the public cloud is cheaper and faster because it does not involve purchasing and configuring physical equipment. The required resources are configured on-demand in a self-service model, which helps developer teams to be more efficient and finished products to be delivered in a shorter time.
Analyzing large volumes of data: The hybrid cloud allows for temporary/ad hoc analysis of large data sets stored locally to be processed using superior processing power in the cloud.
Seasonal workloads: Applications with dynamic workloads that have seasonal load peaks are the best candidates for the hybrid cloud. An e-commerce platform during the holidays, a payroll application at the end of the month, a financial management system that must generate an annual tax, are just a few examples. These applications can benefit from additional resources in the public cloud to cope with the increase in demand, the process is called cloud bursting.
How can M247 help you?
Shifting to the hybrid cloud brings numerous advantages no matter what field your company operates in. It provides the flexibility and agility they need to meet dynamic market demands and limit IT spending. By combining on-premise and public cloud infrastructure, companies can benefit from scalability, operational efficiency and improved security.
The diversity of usage scenarios and adaptability of the hybrid cloud make it a smart choice for today’s and tomorrow’s organizations. With continued growth in adoption and constant evolution of technology, hybrid cloud is the future of IT infrastructure, opening up new opportunities and optimizing the way businesses manage their resources and deliver services. Therefore, it is essential that organizations keep pace with this trend in order to reap the full benefits of hybrid cloud and ensure their long-term success in an increasingly digital world.
If you need scalability and flexibility, M247’s cloud services can always become an extension of your IT infrastructure. We offer you both the necessary resources and the consultancy you need to configure a performing and efficient hybrid cloud.
