Hybrid Cloud: What is It and What Does It Do?

Cloud computing has been a hot trend for the past few years whether it be public, private or hybrid. But what exactly is the Hybrid Cloud? Essentially, the term refers to an environment that combines both private and public cloud services. Due to its flexibility, resource automation, and its low cost it is a very popular model. Add to that the way it maximizes containers and its testing and development benefits and it becomes even more clear why.

What is it?

Cloud computing is broken down into three classes: public, private and hybrid. The public cloud consists of publicly-available IT resources and compared to traditional hosting it provides better levels of automation and orchestration. The private cloud is similar to the first class; however it is only dedicated to one organisation. The final class, hybrid cloud computing, allows workloads to exist in tandem on either clouds run by vendors or customers. It’s called “hybrid” due to its networking. Networking connectivity in a hybrid cloud is achieved by software defined networking and hybrid WAN technologies.

Hybrid Cloud: Just a Buzzword?

Cloud computing has no definitive definition; therefore this type of cloud is in the same boat. Subject to interpretation it can have several definitions, depending on individuals. Some will define it as an extension of private cloud services and say that it depends on the way in-house and off-site cloud is used. Another definition is that it’s a model that uses automation and orchestration to extend the on-premises cloud/infrastructure to the public cloud. There is no one definition for this particular service, however everyone agrees that it’s far more complex than running workloads on and off premises.

Would it work for your business?

The model is attractive to a lot of businesses due to it providing better workflow agility, security and autonomy for departments. However, buyers need to assess the value versus costs. The business needs to understand which deployment and management tools are most needed and it also depends on what the intentions of use are as well. Cloud bursting, compliance and security requirements, testing and development, storage capacity and cost control are some of the most common hybrid use cases. Each use case however comes with its own challenges.

Hot in 2017

Hybrid cloud management tools have become the focus as the model gains momentum. Experts predict that 2017 will be a big year for hybrid cloud as the line between public and private cloud begins to blur. The hybrid model is rapidly changing and evolving in tune with the aforementioned models. Due to this more and more management platform products are being released.

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