Cloud computing has completely changed the business environment. Organizations once confined their data and computing operations to on-premises data centers. Now, they have adopted virtualization and the use of multiple service platforms. This has made it possible for assets and activities to reside in public clouds. Organizations are now able to access their resources from anywhere at any time.
Concerns over privacy and control have led many companies to avoid going fully public with their IT infrastructures. For this reason, some companies have adopted the use of both public and private cloud environments. This is a hybrid cloud. A hybrid cloud is responsive and versatile, and it’s rapidly becoming a popular solution for enterprises looking to provide cloud-like services. Today, we’ll discuss hybrid cloud computing advantages.
Control with Hybrid Cloud
One of the major reasons why enterprises are opting for the hybrid cloud is to retain control. Rather than entrust all aspects of their IT infrastructures to a third party, enterprises are opting to keep part of the IT infrastructure private. This way, internal IT staff members can retain control of operations they deem critical. Some organizations stand to benefit a great deal by having direct control over their IT assets in a hybrid cloud model. They retain the ability to adjust and reconfigure the part of the cloud that contains their most critical data. This also makes it easier to make changes since there is minimal disruption. This can be done using security guardrails, role-based access control, governance policies, etc.
Cloud providers can change their terms and conditions abruptly. Such changes can easily disrupt your organization’s operations. The hybrid cloud helps to reduce the impact of such an eventuality since it gives you full control over critical data.
Speed
The hybrid cloud gives IT admins the power to optimize the network in a bid to minimize latency. This makes it easier for users to access data wherever they need it.
A hybrid cloud setup gives organizations the ability to use edge computing architecture to boost speeds and locate critical services closer to users. Public clouds usually need to spread out their resources to be many things for many customers. A private cloud is more purpose-built such that it minimizes resource demands. Organizations achieve this by offloading nonessential operations to the public cloud or configuring the network to exclusively handle critical traffic.
Organizations can use the private portion of the hybrid cloud to help users be more productive and work faster.
Security
Protecting data is always a challenge for enterprises. But this is particularly so for public clouds. Nevertheless, cloud providers often go to great lengths to secure customer data. But organizations cannot overlook the fact that public clouds are more open environments than a private network. Therefore, public clouds are more vulnerable to cyberattacks and other types of data leakages.
If your organization cannot risk having customer data or any other proprietary data in a public cloud, then the best option is a hybrid cloud. In such a setup, organizations can leverage the security of a private cloud and combine it with the power of the public cloud. You can store critical data in a private cloud environment and transmit it to a public cloud whenever the need arises.
Scalability
Scaling an on-premises private network can be extremely expensive and challenging at a short notice. It’s also inefficient and places a lot of pressure on a growing enterprise. In a hybrid setup, enterprises can scale out to a public cloud environment for specific workloads.
The hybrid cloud gives organizations the ability to scale resources up and down as business demands change. They get to take advantage of the unlimited resources of the public cloud while keeping part of their IT and computing needs on-premises.
With a hybrid cloud setup, your organization gets the opportunity to enjoy the best of both worlds. You get to keep critical data, assets, and operations in the private cloud. You also leverage the power of the public cloud to quickly and efficiently increase the operational capacity. This allows you to develop new apps and run powerful analytics on the fly.
Risk Management
Moving to the cloud can be risky. This risk is inherently lower with a hybrid cloud. Organizations can leverage the hybrid cloud as a testbed for moving to a predominantly public cloud environment. Organizations can move certain workloads to various public cloud providers to see how it works out for them. However, it’s important to plan this move carefully to avoid any mistakes.
Conclusion
A hybrid cloud comes with a host of benefits your organization can take advantage of. Hybrid deployments are becoming more popular. As a result, organizations will begin to see the benefit of combining private networks and public clouds. The private networks provide control and security, while public clouds provide versatility and power.