The fact that more and more companies are turning to cloud computing as a mass storage and process management tool is nothing new.. Y, since each company has its own needs, hybrid cloud has become one of the most requested alternatives on the current market.
This cloud environment uses a combination of private cloud on company premises with public cloud from a third-party provider. By allowing workloads to move between the two based on current needs and costs, hybrid cloud offers great flexibility and more data deployment options.
What is a hybrid cloud?
The Dictionary of the Spanish language includes the next definition of cloud in its eighth meaning:
Data and file storage and processing space located on the Internet, which the user can access from any device.
Taking this into account, and knowing that something hybrid is the product of items of a different nature, you could say that a hybrid cloud is a computing environment that combines a public cloud and a private cloud, and makes it possible to share data and applications with each other.
If the demand for computing and processing resources varies, hybrid cloud computing enables companies to seamlessly scale their on-premises public cloud infrastructure to manage any workflow, without third-party data centers accessing the data.
Companies benefit from the flexibility and computing power of the public cloud for less sensitive and basic computing tasks, while keeping organization-critical data and applications on-premises, safe behind your own firewall.
Using a hybrid cloud also eliminates the need for significant capital expenditures to support short-term spikes in demand., or when you need to free up local resources for more sensitive applications or data.
Companies only have to pay for the resources they use temporarily instead of having to buy, schedule and maintain additional resources and equipment that could be idle for a long time.
Hybrid cloud computing is “the best of all possible worlds” and offers all the benefits of cloud computing (flexibility, scalability and profitability) with the least feasible risk to the data.
5 main characteristics of a hybrid cloud
To better understand how a hybrid cloud works, need to know main features of this cloud computing environment.
1. Security
With this kind of cloud, you can select in which cloud the critical workload is stored and where the less important one is stored. This enables greater data control they have to be protected. A well-designed hybrid cloud, integrated and managed is totally secure.
2. Scalability
With a hybrid cloud can be scaled more easily horizontally (scale) the vertical (increase proportionally) according to the needs of the company. There are cloud-native applications that enable more workloads through virtualization.
3. API
An API (application programming interface) enables Necessary contact points between the public and private cloud. It is composed of software intended to manage and control the execution of applications, cross-platform integration, resource deployment and workload migration.
4. Interoperability
If a company uses a public and a private cloud, but they don't have any kind of contact, it is illogical to consider it as a hybrid cloud. And it is that the base of all hybrid cloud is summarized in a definition: interoperability. Should have points of contact between the two, as shared software and being able to upload or migrate between the two.
5. Personalization
A hybrid cloud enables you to use a certain strategy according to the needs of the organization, Given the increase choice selecting the data and workloads that are in each cloud, as well as creating access restrictions to its users.
3 advantages of a hybrid cloud
Of course, a hybrid cloud implies certain benefits like the following.
1. Cost effectiveness
This type of cloud enables great cost savings, either in infrastructures or in applications. And no need to expand internal servers, since the public cloud has a greater storage capacity. This way, financial resources can be allocated to other tasks.
2. Easy to administer and manage
The migration between the public and private cloud is quite simple to execute and, the most important, can be done at any time.
3. Drive innovation
Combine existing traditional business capabilities with the latest strategies Is the order of the day. Teleworking has made companies open their eyes to this reality, so virtual services for both workers and clients are on the rise more than ever.
Hybrid cloud, the best way to work
Hybrid model is very effective in aligning IT priorities with business needs, leveraging the greater flexibility of hybrid clouds versus public and private. Despite this, the level of flexibility will vary depending on the goals set and whether needs may change in the future.
Institutions looking to better protect data without giving up the power of a public cloud such as Microsoft Azure can benefit from moving confidential information to a private one and interacting with public resources.
As a last resort, a hybrid cloud is great value for companies with dynamic workloads, large amounts of data to process or a combination of IT services. Security, scalability, customization and profitability are its strengths.
