The Truth About Hybrid Cloud

The Truth About Hybrid Cloud 

AWS never goes down…until it does. This happens more often than most people think but one way companies can avoid having to suffer at the hands of AWS or any hyper-scale CSP outages that affects their application and data is to utilize a hybrid Cloud architecture. In many ways, disaster recovery in hybrid IT environments combines the best parts of public and private Cloud disaster recovery approaches. Instead of putting all your proverbial eggs in the same basket, the hybrid architecture allows you to spread them out. Like anything else in technology, this comes with its own unique set of challenges and risks, but the benefits are undeniable. This is true of all thing’s hybrid Cloud. In my experience, it makes sense more times than not for a mid-market ad enterprise customer to utilize this type of architecture. 

To fully understand the power of a hybrid Cloud architecture, you need an overall understanding of what it is, what it does, and how it can benefit you when doing business. Also, make sure you know and understand the major public Cloud players in the industry. You probably already understand a general overview of the Cloud, but it is time to take a deeper look at hybrid Cloud.  

Hybrid Cloud Overview 

Hybrid Cloud combines both public and private Cloud and often incorporates on-premises equipment to make a tailor-made infrastructure that caters to your customers’ needs. If you want to dive a little deeper, the hybrid Cloud is a mixture of storage, computing, and service environments that uses private and public Cloud services, as well as on-premises infrastructure. Just as cloud computing revolutionized how companies function and do business, utilizing a hybrid Cloud architecture is crafting a much-improved approach allowing end-users to control their data and applications in the most efficient manner possible. 

Why are 92% of enterprise companies using some form of this architecture? Simple hybrid models are designed to offer greater affordability and flexibility than would ordinarily be available in a purely private or purely public Cloud environment. Using a hybrid Cloud computing model accomplishes several things for enterprise users.    

• Affordability. Hybrid Cloud architecture provides more affordability because they can take advantage of existing infrastructure and have a much smaller upfront investment. When creating a hybrid environment, one can use the public Cloud for things like data storage and certain computing functions while other more static workloads reside in a private Cloud or on-prem.
  
  
• Flexibility. Companies using traditional architecture for computing, server, and storage solutions may have complete control over their systems, but that level of control comes at a cost. The constant upkeep associated with maintaining the equipment created the frenzy for Cloud services in the first place. Scaling and updating such systems can be expensive and time-consuming, which means they tend not to change very quickly. On the other hand, Cloud computing is highly scalable and maintained offsite by third parties with nothing else to do but optimize the Cloud. Using a Hybrid Cloud allows the privacy, security, and stability of in-house solutions with the flexibility and scalability of Cloud servers to help companies achieve a great mix of the benefits of both options. 

• Security. While public Cloud services are getting more and more secure, they are not exclusive, so there is still a heightened chance of a security breach. Acknowledge this risk and manage it. Hybrid Cloud computing is a great way to deal with matters like compliance issues, performance requirements, and security restrictions by mixing local solutions with public ones. 
  

Key Advantages + Disadvantages 

Like with any service or solution, there are pros and cons that impact your customer’s decision on what they need from the Cloud. It is important to make sure that you understand the advantages and disadvantages so you can help your customers determine why they need hybrid Cloud services. Some companies may have budget constraints that can cause disadvantages, and others may have larger budgets where they have more freedom to expand their Cloud services. Let’s go over both to provide you with some further insight. 

Disadvantages: 

• Some continued in-house expenses, potentially complex implementation, some lack of visibility, compatibility, data integration, and security concerns with 3rd party involvement. 

Advantages: 

• Speed, flexibility, scalability & deployment, increased Mobility, increased data security, most of all, increased backup and disaster recovery design options. 
  

Backup and Disaster Recovery Benefits  

First, hybrid Cloud infrastructure allows for better data integrity. Backups can exist both on- and off-site, which means it is fail-safe if one of the backups is compromised. This redundancy also improves the speed of the recovery process without sacrificing accuracy in the event of a disaster. 

Second, hybrid Cloud is much better for compliance than a public Cloud-only approach. Sensitive data that is hosted only in the public Cloud — where third-party companies can access it — is often at higher risk of being breached. This makes it harder to comply with regulatory requirements such as GDPR, CCPA, and more that are on the way. Businesses have more control over how and where the data is stored and encrypted in a hybrid environment, ensuring compliance is a lot easier. 

Finally, the hybrid Cloud allows for better availability when implemented with a strong design strategy. Ideally a customer will design high availability between two zones within the public Cloud infrastructure, plus backup and disaster recover options to a private Cloud provider. This kind of multi-Cloud strategy not only offers the most robust data availability option, but also enables organizations to maximize business value from a hybrid Cloud.  

How To Figure Out If Hybrid Cloud Is Right For Your Customers 

The first thing to point out is that almost any company can benefit from using hybrid Cloud. Sit down with your customers to figure out what needs to be met for their business to start running smoother. Some important factors to consider are:  

• Application types  
• Budget  
• Data location
• Disaster recovery  
• Compliance and security  

Determining your customers’ needs can help you figure out the technological support that you need so you can provide them with the right solution provider.  

The ability to understand and discuss hybrid Cloud architecture with your customers is paramount as this continues to be the trend to help architect the best environment possible. Providing guidance and insight to customers as they navigate a digital transformation will be crucial since there are many options and trapdoors in which a design could fail. Companies are still failing 70% of the time in their efforts to complete a digital transformation. Providing companies with the education and support from Telarus, our suppliers, and partners is needed more than ever when it comes to deploying a Cloud strategy. We just covered one of the most important Cloud architectures currently being utilized, and I hope it gave you a better understanding of what a hybrid Cloud is and its benefits.