More companies than ever before are finding cloud computing to be a viable vehicle for cost-effective IT delivery.
However, the popular cloud models, the public cloud, and the private cloud on a standalone basis are found to be somewhat wanting if companies want to leverage both the resource provisioning attributes of the public cloud and the security features offered by the private cloud.
Fortunately, hybrid cloud is addressing this problem.
To explain this aspect in simple terms, the hybrid cloud allows for converging of both public and private clouds.
Before we make an attempt to understand hybrid cloud, let us first get to the basics of what public cloud services and private cloud services are.
Public Cloud
This is the most popular model familiar with individuals and enterprises alike. In the public cloud, services are provided in a virtualized environment built around shared resources and accessible over the internet for the public.
Public cloud is multi-tenant, where resources are delivered via the same shared infrastructure.
This cloud computing model involves a distinct and secure environment, which only a specific entity can operate. Similar to other cloud models, private cloud service offers computing resources as a service within a virtualized environment.
In other words, private cloud services are shared with restrictions on access.
Private cloud is the primary model used by enterprises today, but the use of multiple cloud deployment environments point to the substantial use of the hybrid approach.
Let us explain this further.
Today it is too limiting to think of only the private cloud and the public cloud. We are in an era of interconnected clouds.
For example, in the public cloud space, we have services like Microsoft Azure, Amazon Web Services and more. A business can also build a private cloud in a data center that is owned or rented by the organization.
This simply means an Information Technology company by using a mix of public and private cloud resources can choose where it can locate or process data.
What could be the considerations for choosing which cloud resources to use for a particular workload?
Most of the enterprises with plenty of experience in cloud computing have listed the following criteria:
Performance
Interactive processes do not work at their optimum from a remote data center, or by using a public cloud. Companies prefer to host planned workloads in a private cloud, hill placing other workloads in a public cloud space.
Scalability
Enterprises use public clouds when they need resources unexpectedly. This is because the pay-as-you-use model of the public cloud allows them to save on costs prudently.
Total Cost of Ownership
The costs of the public and private cloud services vary considerably. Sometimes large workloads can cost lower in a private cloud. With best hybrid cloud hosting, a company can choose from either the private or public clouds depending on the work processes or the workloads.
Risk Management
Certain kinds of regulations or the sensitive nature of data may force companies to move specific workloads to a private data center. Moreover, situations can change from time to time requiring the workloads to be transferred back to public clouds in the future.
As one IT manager rightly pointed out, “We think of a hybrid cloud service as a toolkit, allowing us to choose which tool to use for a service”.
By choosing a vendor that offers best hybrid cloud hosting, companies stand to benefit by the best of both the worlds – the private and the public cloud.
When you need high scalability and universal accessibility, the public cloud may seem more appropriate. On the other hand, if data security and control are of paramount importance the private cloud can be the way to go.
By choosing to maintain some workloads and data in-house, while using external services for others, the hybrid cloud can be leveraged to the maximum.
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