Today, enterprises are demanding strong application interoperability and mobility. Most are choosing to go with hybrid cloud infrastructure – a combination of public and private clouds. The public cloud has taken the world by storm. But hybrid cloud capabilities are the next step in giving enterprises the freedom to manage and dynamically provision applications.
The hybrid cloud is good for enterprises, but it’s also complex. Hybrid cloud management requires proper planning, the right tools, and pinpoint execution. It is the process of controlling the multiple cloud infrastructure deployments of the enterprise. The use of third-party software to implement hybrid cloud helps integrate infrastructure from different cloud providers into a single platform. Administrators can control and view all assets from both the public and private cloud via a single UI.
Many enterprises struggle to come up with an effective hybrid cloud strategy. Today, we’ll go over five tips that can help IT administrators to implement the hybrid cloud model the right way.
1. Should You Go with a Single Infrastructure or Bimodal IT?
Gartner introduced the concept of Bimodal IT. This approach involves organizing IT into two separate groups – Mode-1 (traditional) and Mode-2 (next-gen). The Mode 1 group works in a traditional, familiar approach and is generally predictable. Mode 2 takes a more exploratory approach. It’s a leading-edge concept that takes on new challenges while at the same time embracing minor failures for experimentation.
The practice of supporting Mode-1 and Mode-2 applications with separate infrastructure is a very limiting and impractical process. For a more agile infrastructure for your enterprise, you need to support both modes seamlessly.
2. Never Overlook Development and Test Resources
Make sure to include all IT resources dedicated to the development work. This includes repositories, tools, build servers, and others.
3. Avoid Choosing Cloud Providers Too Soon
There’s no rush. Hybrid cloud management becomes easier if you plan. Consider the move to the hybrid cloud as a three- to five-year commitment. Before picking a cloud provider, make a list of all the environments you’ll need. This will give you a clear picture of your on-premises deployment. You’ll use this information to pick cloud providers that meet all your current and future needs.
4. Reconciling IT Ideals and Reality
IT is not perfect. Enterprises should take a more realistic approach and work toward optimizing it with a practical, tactical hybrid cloud management approach. This means keeping the lights on in your current environment as you work toward implementing the hybrid cloud.
5. Get Familiar with DevOps
DevOps refers to the practice of automating the processes between software development and IT teams. It helps enterprises build software much faster and more reliably. It is a necessity if you want to stay ahead of the curve in your industry. DevOps is important for successful hybrid cloud management.
Conclusion
The hybrid cloud is the future. Enterprises cannot afford to continue relying on legacy data center architectures. After all, getting locked into a specific infrastructure stack adds to technical debt, limits future flexibility, and increases operating costs. While a move to the hybrid cloud can seem daunting, with proper hybrid cloud management, it is a worthwhile investment.
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