As a rule, companies use various cloud technologies and services from various service providers in their IT infrastructure. This means that the hybrid cloud has long since arrived in organizations. Originally defined as a combination of public and private cloud, the term is now used more broadly: In the meantime, various cloud services have been combined in the hybrid cloud. In order for the individual components of a hybrid cloud to interact optimally, it is advisable to systematically coordinate, administer, operate and maintain them.

Our experience shows that IT applications are becoming more and more agile and at the same time the flood of data is constantly increasing. As a result, valuable storage capacity is being used so that companies are looking for new solutions to deal with data volumes as part of Big Data. One possibility is the use of a hybrid cloud.

The solution, in which critical IT services are shifted to both the private cloud and the public cloud, is currently experiencing an absolute boom.

Why the Hybrid Cloud is being used in companies

• The hybrid computer cloud offers various application possibilities. These range from the expansion of internal virtualization to cloud services based on Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) and solutions implemented with the help of Software-as-a-Service (SaaS).
• IaaS as a component of hybrid cloud approaches is a particularly popular solution. If companies expand their server capacities externally or relocate complete applications to cloud services, they can then react flexibly to capacity bottlenecks.

Managed AWS Cloud

Put simply, the approach of a hybrid IT infrastructure aims to combine common variants of your company’s own technical resources with services from external service providers (primarily in the form of public and private clouds). In companies, such structures have grown over the years – mostly due to different needs of users and departments with regard to flexible and quickly available IT resources. As the terms already suggest, in a hybrid structure some resources are operated internally, while others are operated externally. The goal is to enable an organization to satisfy the requirements of internal customers for server and application resources in an agile and demand-oriented way.

Public versus Private Cloud

Public and private clouds are based on the same basic technical concepts. The difference lies in the way a service is delivered. In the private cloud, a dedicated infrastructure is built for the customer, in which resources and networks are completely separated from other customers and users. The storage and computing resources are ideally located behind a dedicated firewall. This leads to greater security and better control of the cloud and the data stored in it.

In the public cloud, on the other hand, a third-party provider such as Amazon Web Services (AWS) or Microsoft Azure makes the computing resources available externally on servers. Many different virtual machines run side by side on the hardware, and other customers use them at the same time. The cloud environment behaves like a black box: the individual customer does not know how many other customers are on the platform, what applications they are running there or how vulnerable the system is to attacks. The security precautions of the other users remain hidden. Since control of the cloud environment is not fully possible, there may be conflicts with security standards and compliance.

Clear advantages of the public cloud are the good scalability, the high reliability and the possibility to distribute the use of cloud resources to several data centers or zones with a secure disaster recovery concept. If a company decides to implement a hybrid cloud, it benefits from the advantages of the private and public clouds.

At the same time, the disadvantages of both individual solutions are minimized. For example, sensitive data can be stored in the private cloud and less confidential data in the public cloud. In addition, internal computing power can be optimized at peak times by temporarily outsourcing individual tasks to the public cloud.

Setup of a hybrid cloud: advantages and disadvantages considered

1. Companies today are increasingly relying on modern and agile IT solutions, and are increasingly opting for a cloud solution.
2. The implementation of a hybrid cloud in this context often offers clear advantages in terms of security, scalability, cost, speed and compliance compared to the setup of a purely private or public cloud solution.

More security in the private cloud

A customer operating a private cloud or on-premise system does not share its environment with other customers and users. The platform is strictly shielded from the outside world and third parties. As a result, these solutions offer greater security than the use of a public cloud. The private cloud is particularly suitable for critical data (e.g. research and development data or personal information) than the public cloud.

Flexible scalability through Public Cloud

Private clouds often offer less flexibility in terms of scalability because the scope of hardware resources is already defined in the concept. If the scope increases, additional hardware is required. In the case of public cloud services, on the other hand, scaling is much faster because the service provider constantly reserves additional resources. So there is much to be said for securing critical services in the private cloud and moving the remaining data and services to the more scalable public cloud.

When public and private cloud services merge, it’s a #HybridCloud.

In almost all companies, the use and evaluation of the data have an increasing influence on the value added. This development is associated with an exponential increase in structured (databases) and unstructured data (especially office documents and images), which is a major challenge for internal IT departments. So a strategy is needed to meet the growing volume of data. The solution to move non-critical data to the public cloud is a quick and easy way to provide the space you need.

Getting the most out of the cloud

• Our various managed cloud products offer you the right solution for your hosting.
• Find out more at an individual consultation via chat, e-mail or telephone.

In principle, the public cloud is not cheaper than dedicated servers like the ones at http://www.DigitalNibbles.com/dedicated-cloud-server/ or the private cloud. Rather, it depends on the specific project and the individual application. Cost advantages can usually only be exploited with public clouds if both the project and the application and the development processes are geared to the specific public cloud.

Optimum speed and latency in the cloud mix

One reason that prevents the use of the public cloud in back-end or workplace applications is that every data access requires a high-performance Internet connection. In most cases, this is not a problem, but if it is, then the hybrid cloud will play out its advantages: For applications or data for which the bandwidth is insufficient or which are used very intensively internally, an integrated private cloud is operated in the local data center. Other applications that are accessed frequently from outside can be operated scalably and with fast access times in the data center of a cloud service provider.

Individual consideration of legal requirements

Choosing the right cloud environment can be critical for organizations that work with sensitive data or need to comply with specific regulatory requirements. A private cloud offers a high level of security and control, which can help meet legal or regulatory requirements for data processing. At the same time, the public cloud can be accessed with better scalability for less sensitive data that is not subject to the same regulations. However, connecting to the public cloud makes it more difficult to manage risks such as unwanted data leakage.

Migration only after careful planning

The benefits of the hybrid cloud are best exploited when the concept is carefully planned. The pure “lift-and-shift” of resources – i.e. the simple replacement of dedicated or virtual servers on-premise with Public Cloud vServers – does not bring the desired added value. If data is to be moved from dedicated servers to the cloud, it is necessary to adapt the development concepts and application operation accordingly. This ensures that peak loads can be automatically intercepted.

One challenge in automatic load migration between private and public clouds is the lack of standards for virtualized environments. Although images can be converted between different systems, extended attributes such as security settings are often lost during this process. In addition, such a system change is associated with a higher effort of comprehensive and transparent management between internally and externally hosted applications.

Conclusion

The hybrid cloud is already a reality in most companies. Its use combines the advantages of the public and the private cloud. At the same time, the combination minimizes the respective disadvantages.

The more diverse the cloud landscape, the more important cloud strategies are that define exactly which cloud model a company needs and which external cloud services should be integrated into its own IT.