In order to host and store their data, in the age of digital transformation, a growing number of companies have turned to cloud computing technology. According to a recent Gartner report, the impact and importance of the cloud for businesses can be compared to that of the Internet. Among its benefits we can mention the flexibility and lower costs of their infrastructure. However, not all businesses use the same type of cloud hosting. In the last few years, we have seen a trend that is growing rapidly and will become even more important in the years to come: the hybrid cloud.
If you want to know a little more about this hybridization, and its differences from other types of clouds, if you want to know why more and more companies are integrating this hybrid model for backup and data storage, and when to adopt it within your company, this article is intended for you.
What are the different types of Cloud?
Public Cloud
With the public cloud service, all services are located on external servers that can be accessed publicly from the Internet.
- Advantages: large computing capacity and cloud storage without the need to install anything locally. Minimal initial investment.
- Disadvantages: you will be dependent on these third party services and you will share them with other companies.
Private Cloud
The private cloud is yours, you own the servers and networks.
- Advantages: total control over services, users and data involved, enhanced privacy.
- Disadvantages: you will have to initially invest a significant amount of money to acquire the hardware needed to create the infrastructure, develop all systems and ensure scalability and maintenance.
Hybrid Cloud
With a hybrid cloud, you will be able to choose which data and applications you will keep private and which you want to be handled by third party services.
- Advantages: You will have the advantages of both private and public cloud solutions.
- Disadvantages: This is not really an inconvenient, but you will need to recruit a data team that is able to manage the cloud system and the compatibility between IT infrastructures.
To sum up, you’ll have a range of benefits when you choose a hybrid cloud data center:
- Flexibility: you will have a whole range of options when it comes to launching a service, once the needs have been identified. You will be able to benefit from the innovative services that the cloud providers offer, without having to rely on them.
- Security: You will be able to preserve the governance and control of your data and production environments through on-premise hosting while taking advantage of the services associated with the public cloud.
- Scalability: you will have an infrastructure that will suit your needs for space, memory and computing speed as you benefit from the flexibility of the public cloud. However, the implementation and maintenance burden associated with cloud providers will be reduced.
- Reduced costs: you will make economies in comparison to the implementation of the infrastructure as well as the maintenance of the applications, some costs related to storage or processing will be optimized.
With a hybrid cloud, you will have the advantages of both the public and private cloud at the same time.
Why are more and more companies choosing the Hybrid Cloud?
As we discussed last year in our retrospective, the hybrid is the option that companies are turning to more and more. The advantages mentioned above are critical in the choice of a cloud. But the reason why the hybrid cloud is increasingly developing is much more important, and is part of the business model used globally by technology companies and their digital transformations.
Indeed, companies are facing extremely rapid changes in the way they do business and are grappling with the digital world. In order to become a digital company, it is essential to be able to adapt to the current business model whereby it is more important to make a few investments in order to make a quick profit (and this requires adaptability), rather than trying to reduce costs with a fixed digital structure. The hybrid cloud allows you to be flexible and agile. You will be able to change, combine and select clouds according to your needs.
Likewise, calculations in a big data context are becoming the general practice for digital organizations. The Hybrid Cloud is the perfect answer to the needs of companies that need to deal with data science topics. On the one hand, you will have flexible and almost unlimited resources in terms of computing power, and on the other hand, you will be able to guarantee data security and keep the most sensitive information behind the private firewall.
Which companies should benefit from it?
We have seen the benefits of a hybrid cloud and why more and more companies are making the move to such a cloud. But is it suitable for all types of businesses?
The hybrid cloud can be used for any type of business. However, it is ideally suited for SMEs. Indeed, large companies can afford to have a very large private cloud with private services that allow them to be less vulnerable than in a public cloud. As for start-ups, they can start with a public cloud before investing in another type of infrastructure.
Regardless of size and challenges, the hybrid cloud will be essential at some point in the life of your business if you want to follow a scalable, flexible, reliable and economically viable model over time.