Hybrid clouds: how mixing services is keeping the cloud alive

Hybrid clouds: how mixing services is keeping the cloud alive

VHS replaced Betamax. This was replaced by DVD. Then came Blu Ray, then digital. Nothing is static in technology: some believe cloud computing is endangered.

Many businesses use at least a few cloud computing capacities. With the cloud still in use for many, the natural question is, what’s next? Experts predict the next wave could be more like a huge, interconnected network than a cloud. Cloud computing isn’t as efficient as it appears. There’s one significant flaw: it’s slow, possibly much slower than some companies need. That, plus security problems, could explain why some companies are slow to adopt the public cloud, opting for the cheaper private cloud storage instead.

Speed is everything to some. Andreessen Horowitz’s Peter Levine considers latency as a principle issue of cloud computing. He talks about the relationship between devices when it comes to the cloud. So-called immediate information actually moves with a delay, which many believe is unacceptable when it comes to modern practices.

Still, the cloud is a vital model. Data needs to be stored, after all, so a hybrid solution is much more likely than the complete withdrawal of all things cloud. What that means for a full general public cloud migration is anyone’s guess right now. The private cloud, even with the expense, is a sound choice depending upon the needs of the company.


Private clouds offer optimum privacy and security and increased service-level agreement (SLA)


There’s probably no need to worry right now about your own cloud storage becoming extinct yet. Every storage version in use today has a purpose tomorrow. The New York Times reflected on the era of the own cloud back in 2010. With a hybrid cloud plan, companies get a fit for purpose solution, says Rackspace. There might be no such thing as a single solution in the future, however that can also be the whole point.

Between public and private cloud and dedicated servers for the highest security information, and whatever edge computing systems have on the horizon, companies could then get the best of both worlds.

What are the benefits of a hybrid cloud?

Hybrid is a cloud computing strategy which combines cloud surroundings. This usually consists of private and public cloud, though it may comprise of any mix of virtualised infrastructure with orchestration between them.
The hybrid model is often considered a way for a company to hedge its bets with cloud computing by straddling options. For example, Dropbox had hybrid aspirations, a development for the business which relied almost completely on Amazon’s AWS public cloud.

There are plenty of examples of how a company could adopt a hybrid cloud. One way could be for to dedicate private cloud servers for the hosting of sensitive workloads, whilst using a public cloud supplier for less critical information. Some companies use the public cloud for their test and development applications, email, and CRM. Public is also increasingly being used for business functions such as HR and accounting. Private cloud workloads alternately can be mission-essential. They can be perfect for sensitive items, such as data analysis software.

Hosting might be adaptable, with workloads switching between private and public hosting. A hybrid cloud system allows you to combine some of those benefits, while also allowing you to circumvent a lot of the disadvantages.

While public cloud can offer considerable flexibility, scalability and significant economies of scale. There are workloads that are best kept on premises for maximum security and control, after all. Furthermore, unless an application has been created especially for Azure or AWS’s Public Cloud, there’s no reason to run it there, especially.

Of course, you can shift an application from a private cloud to the public cloud. If it is not written for public cloud functionality though, there’s no advantage to running it there and it might well be more expensive.
Private clouds offer optimum privacy and security and increased service-level agreement (SLA). It can be overkill though for many workloads, particularly where demand has significant peaks and troughs.

Hybrid cloud adopters can balance their need to be cost-efficient by the security of maintaining their most very sensitive and essential workloads on private cloud.

Edge computing threatens to send the cloud the way of Betamax tapes. For now, however, hybrid clouds look to be the chosen method for businesses.

Luke Conrad

Technology & Marketing Enthusiast

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