A hybrid cloud is a computing environment that combines public and private clouds by allowing the data and applications to be shared between them.
A hybrid cloud is a cloud computing environment that uses a mix of on-premises, private cloud, and third-party, public cloud services with orchestration between the two platforms.
By permitting the workloads to move between the private and public clouds as computing needs and costs change, the hybrid cloud gives enterprises superior flexibility and more data deployment.
When computing and processing demand varies, hybrid cloud computing allows corporations to seamlessly scale their on-premises environment up to the public cloud to manage any overflow without giving the third-party data centers access to the whole data.
Big companies like Netflix or Government Institutions like the CIA gain the flexibility and computing power of a public cloud for basic and non-sensitive computing tasks while keeping business-critical apps and data on-premises safely behind a company firewall.
Private clouds and on-premise environments allow companies greater control over their computing resources and security. The institution manages all of the infrastructure and can customize it to match its particular needs.
On the other hand, public clouds offer scalability and are easier to manage because the cloud provider takes care of the maintenance of the infrastructure. As a result, using the public cloud is cheaper, but it may provide less flexibility and control over critical factors such as storage security.
Private Cloud vs. Public Cloud
The cloud is just a collection of purpose-built servers.
The servers are dedicated to a single tenant or a group of related tenants in the private cloud.
The servers are shared between multiple unrelated tenants (customers) in the public cloud.
A public cloud is off-site, while a private cloud can be on-site or off-site or, in common, IT tongue, on-prem or off-prem.
A company might set up a rule that says all accounting files not touched in the last year are automatically moved off-prem to cloud storage to save cost and reduce the amount of storage needed on-site.
The files are still available; they are no longer saved on your local systems. The rules can be defined to match the organization’s workflow and data retention policies.
The hybrid cloud concept also contains cloud computing. For example, at the end of the quarter, order-processing app instances can be spun off-premises in a hybrid computing cloud to add to the on-premises volume.
Why use Hybrid Cloud?
We’ve arrived at the bottom line, and the question is, should you or your organization embrace hybrid cloud infrastructures?
According to 451 Research, by 2019, 69% of companies will operate in hybrid cloud environments, and 60% of workloads will run in some form of hosted cloud service (up from 45% in 2017). That indicates that the benefits of the hybrid cloud appeal to a broad range of companies.
Depending on an organization’s requirements, there are advantages to a hybrid solution.
While it might have been possible to dismiss the hybrid cloud in the early days of the cloud as nothing more than a buzzword, that’s no longer true.
The hybrid cloud has grown beyond the marketing hype to offer practical solutions for an increasingly complicated and confronting IT environment.
If an organization approaches the hybrid cloud with sufficient planning and a structured approach, a hybrid cloud can perform on-demand flexibility, enable legacy systems and applications with new capabilities, and become an agitator for digital transformation.
The result can be an elastic and responsive infrastructure that can quickly adjust to the growing demands of the business.
What Hybrid Cloud does?
All hybrid clouds should do the following things.
- Connect multiple computers through a network.
- Connect IT resources.
- Scale out and quickly provision new resources.
- Be able to move workloads between environments.
- Incorporate a single, unified management tool.
- Harmonize processes with the help of automation.
Understand Hybrid cloud architecture
The architecture of a hybrid cloud typically includes an Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) platform.
The leading IaaS platforms are Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud Platform.
A private cloud is one in which resources are. These can be stored on-premises or off-premises.
Lastly, a hybrid cloud requires a wide area network (WAN) to connect the public and private clouds.
Building a hybrid cloud requires the availability of the following components.
- Public infrastructure as a service (IaaS) platform, such as Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, or Google Cloud Platform.
- The formation of a private cloud, either on-premises or through a hosted private cloud provider.
- And adequate wide area network (WAN) connectivity linking those two environments.
Separate clouds become hybrid clouds when those clouds are connected as seamlessly as possible. That interconnectivity is the only way hybrid clouds work, which is why hybrid clouds are the basis of edge computing. In addition, that interconnectivity is how workloads are moved, centralized management, and organized processes.
How well-developed those interconnections are, has a direct influence on how well your hybrid cloud works.
However, the companies have no direct control over the architecture of a public cloud, so for hybrid cloud deployment, it must build their private cloud to address compatibility with the desired public cloud or clouds. These include implementing compatible hardware within the data center, including servers, storage, local area network (LAN), and load balancers.
The company must then deploy the virtualization layer, or a hypervisor, to create and support the virtual machines (VMs) and, in some cases, containers like Docker.
Then, IT teams must install the private cloud software layer, such as OpenStack, on top of a hypervisor to deliver the cloud capabilities, such as self-service, automation and orchestration, reliability and resilience, billing, and chargeback.
A private cloud architect typically creates a menu of local services, such as compute or database instances, from which the clients can choose.
The key to creating a successful hybrid cloud is to select the hypervisor and cloud software layers that are compatible with the required public cloud, ensuring proper interoperability with that public cloud’s application programming interfaces (APIs) and services.
Implementing cooperative software and services allows instances to migrate seamlessly between the private and public clouds.
A developer can also create advanced applications using various services and resources beyond the public and private platforms.
When to use Hybrid Cloud?
A hybrid cloud’s architecture presents companies with a balanced solution between the public cloud and the private or on-premise environment.
It could be the correct solution for a business that requires substantial agility. For example, this can happen when the company has a diverse client base with different security, regulatory, and processing needs.
In today’s regulatory climate change, this may be especially relevant. Also, it allows you to run SaaS solutions that can only be used on secure private networks.
Hybrid cloud architecture is also the correct solution for an organization that does not want to compromise on the advantages of public and private clouds.
Moreover, a hybrid cloud is strategic as it prevents you from being locked into a single vendor.
Your infrastructure will already be split between the two systems, and it will be easier to migrate to a different public cloud when the better model enters the market.
Hybrid cloud management tools
Cloud Management tools such as the RightScale Cloud Management, Cisco CloudCenter, Egenera PAN Cloud Director, and Scalr Enterprise Cloud Management Platform help companies manage workflow creation, service catalogs, billing, and other related jobs hybrid cloud.
Moreover, hybrid cloud management tools include BMC Cloud Lifecycle Management, Red Hat CloudForms, VMware vCloud Suite, IBM Cloud Orchestrator, and Abiquo Hybrid Cloud.
Given the absolute volume of potential tools available, potential adopters must test and assess candidates carefully in their hybrid cloud environment before committing to any singular device.
Hybrid cloud benefits
Flexibility and scaling
Hybrid solutions allow storing sensitive and frequently used data in your private cloud or data center while saving other data, such as file backups and archives, on the public cloud.
A hybrid solution also provides you with coordination if you need to increase or decrease your resources on short notice.
Suppose you suddenly need extra storage space for a few months due to increased seasonal demands. In that case, you can purchase the extra space on the public cloud with short notice and without being required to invest in servers that you only need temporarily.
Cost-saving
The cost of running and maintaining a private cloud or data center can increase quickly, especially as a business grows.
A hybrid cloud solution allows you to take advantage of the relatively cheap public cloud storage space while still using the private cloud for data that is frequently used or sensitive.
While hybrid cloud infrastructure is more expensive than just using the public cloud, it is considerably cheaper than singularly private cloud.
Infrastructure
A hybrid infrastructure provides a company to maintain its legacy on-premise servers while mixing with the public cloud in a way that is not disruptive to daily functions. This can be done by progressively integrating with the public cloud while managing the most critical operations from the private cloud.
Disadvantages of Hybrid Cloud
Less control over data security
You never know where and under what geographic or other restrictions your data operates.
Higher operational expenditure (OPEX)
As you scale the cloud performance, your cost-per-hour fees rise. As a result, you have to allocate a big budget to maintain cloud operations.
High-performance app
Depending on the cloud implementation, an application requiring the greatest possible speed might not be suitable for a hybrid. While latency does present a factor in the data storage for some clients, it is less of a factor for uploading and downloading the data than it is for companies using the hybrid cloud for cloud computing.
Conclusion
Hybrid cloud refers to the cloud environment of a mixture of on-premises private cloud resources combined with third-party, public cloud resources that use some orchestration among them.
Depending on whom you ask what is Hybrid cloud, that hybrid clouds setup may need to include:
- At least one private cloud and at least one public cloud.
- Two or more private clouds.
- Two or more public clouds.
- A bare-metal or virtual environment connected to at least one cloud: public or private.
Finally, you need to bridge the gap between the public cloud and the private cloud. This was typically done using the complex network of LANs, WANs, APIs, and VPNs. Many cloud service providers even give clients a preconfigured VPN as part of their subscription packages, such as:
- Google Cloud offers Dedicated Interconnect
- Amazon Web Services (AWS) gives Direct Connect
- Microsoft Azure offers ExpressRoute
- OpenStack provides the OpenStack Public Cloud Passport
Are you embracing a hybrid cloud, or are you still uncertain or hanging back because you are satisfied with how things are now? Maybe you’ve gone hybrid.
We would love to hear your comments below on how you’re dealing with the hybrid cloud.
That’s it for this article.
