Hybrid Cloud – Offering the Best of Both

As all in the industry are aware, the rate at which cloud computing technology is being adopted has seen it firmly entrench itself as a vital platform for many organisations keen to develop innovative products and services. Analyst firm Gartner found that cloud computing ranks among the highest on its disruption scale, with these services set to continue to grow in popularity, acting as a necessary enabler for future disruptions. By Eltjo Hofstee, Managing Director Leaseweb UK Ltd.

Tuesday, 21st May 2019 Posted 5 years ago in by Phil Alsop

Some businesses however remain sceptical of cloud computing, despite the infrastructure proving to enhance or replace all parts of a business’s IT environment while promoting improved efficiency, the opportunity for expansion, and greater flexibility.

For those looking for the best of both worlds, hybrid cloud solutions have naturally become the ‘it’ thing. Hybrid cloud is a cloud computing environment that uses a mix of on-premises, colocation, private cloud and public cloud services with orchestration between all the platforms. Hybrid cloud solutions provide greater flexibility for companies seeking both hosting resources and the ability to run classified applications privately for example.

Many are already reaping the benefits of hybrid cloud, but if you are on the fence about making it the basis for your IT infrastructure, it is good to remember a few of its more notable benefits.

1. Easy and efficient scalability

Scaling IT infrastructure can be extremely expensive, making this difficult for most small or newly-thriving businesses.

Hybrid cloud environments, however, allow businesses to scale in order to accommodate specific workloads. Businesses can implement automation rules in the cloud that ensure the ability to scale resources up and down as dictated by business demand. This customisation ensures an optimised environment that performs efficiently to take advantage of unlimited resources based on demand-driven usage.

2. What downtime? Even during disasters

Keeping your business running at all times is crucial if you want your brand to succeed. Your data should still be accessible even during a disaster, but there’s more to this than simply backing up and replacing content on a cloud platform.

That’s why hybrid cloud solutions are often considered the key components in business continuity solutions. Hybrid clouds ensure critical data is replicated to a cloud in a different location, thus providing data insurance in the event of any natural or technological disaster.

3. Reducing your time to market

One of the primary reasons that organisations choose to move to the cloud is to make it easier to expand their business into new regions. Hybrid cloud platforms provide the agility needed to quickly enter new markets at affordable costs.

Companies of all sizes are able to get a jump on global initiatives, as the cost of investment is greatly reduced through on-demand self-service. Cloud resources can be automated and spun up swiftly to grow when needed without wasting any unnecessary resources. Thanks to the reductions in time and low costs of entry provided by hybrid cloud solutions, companies of all sizes can increase their competitive advantages.

4. Improved security

Although security fears are decreasing as cloud usage grows, security measures remain a top priority and an ongoing challenge that needs to be managed properly in any organisation.

Incorporating a private cloud solution within your hybrid cloud ensures you have more control over the design and architecture of the system, while providing a higher level of data security in comparison to public cloud solutions.

5. Gain the competitive edge

When it comes to innovative technologies, hybrid cloud solutions offer far more opportunities than any other type of infrastructure, providing benefits in the form of customer satisfaction due to more customised infrastructure.

Adopting cloud solutions can give your organisation a leg up on the competition, too — in fact, the Cloud Industry Forum’s most recent research indicates that 70% of respondents are either currently experiencing or anticipate having a competitive edge from using cloud services.

Cloud adoption is giving no sign of slowing down and business that don’t embrace it in some way, shape or form will undoubtedly be left behind. But cloud should work for your business not against it. Pick the right combination of cloud and dedicated servers for your business needs and reap the benefits of the flexibility it brings.