Public, Private, and Hybrid Cloud:  5 Reasons Why Hybrid Cloud Is the Best Choice

There’s no doubt cloud computing has risen as a popular but somewhat complex business trend. Many industries and organizations have adopted, or are at least in the process of pursuing this new technology based on the return on investment, productivity, and unparalleled value.  

When talking with customers, it’s very rare to encounter one who is “all-in” with private or “all-in” with public cloud, mainly because they have come to realize a single model cannot deliver all the capabilities required by applications, businesses, and IT departments. Developers want fast access to the cloud infrastructure and the ability to create apps on their own; while IT needs control.

As more applications move to the cloud, companies are seeking a solution that delivers a choice of cloud platforms and can ensure best pricing and performance for all workloads while meeting customer needs. The result is the rise of hybrid cloud.

Cloud Models in a Nutshell

If you’re new to the cloud, a hybrid solution is the best choice. But first, here’s a breakdown of all three types of cloud models:

Private Cloud

In a private cloud environment, the infrastructure and network are dedicated to a single client or company. In a private cloud scenario, there’s significant demand on resources to specify, purchase, house, update, maintain, and protect the physical infrastructure.

Financially speaking, deploying a private cloud can also create a large initial capital expense of up to $500,000—and this doesn’t include professional services, as usually the businesses that choose this model have the technical expertise to deploy and support, not to mention the subsequent investment required as new equipment and capacity is added¹. This is commonly referred to as a data center, where a company hosts its business applications and data.

Public Cloud

Public means exactly that – public, which means the vendor owns the infrastructure and permits access to its resources to multiple customers across the network.  This type of cloud environment is cost effective and provides high scalability. Additionally, customers only have to pay based on usage. Microsoft Azure is an example of a public cloud offering.

Hybrid Cloud

Hybrid cloud is a holistic approach to the consumption of IT. This model includes a mix between public and private options combined to work together seamlessly as one platform. An example of hybrid cloud would be to leverage Microsoft Azure as your public cloud element, along with a private cloud platform designed for use by a single organization.

This model minimizes tradeoffs and breaks down technical barriers so that you get the maximum benefits and performance from each component.

Why Hybrid Cloud Works Best for New-to-Cloud Business Models

Now that you are familiar with the different cloud models, let’s take a deeper dive into why hybrid cloud works best. 

1. Cost Savings: Reducing costs by using a hybrid cloud solution is one of the most important benefits. Instead of having to replace your legacy technology, a hybrid cloud model allows companies to bridge the gap between old and new systems. By leveraging the benefits of hybrid cloud, businesses can reduce overall cost of ownership and improve cost efficiency.

2. Improved Security: There’s a perception the cloud is insecure, but industry reports from Infor Cloud Computing show that on-premises users actually suffer more attacks than service provider environments do². Hybrid cloud technology allows for specified servers to be isolated from these threats. An organization’s devices can be configured to communicate with these servers over a private network. 

3. Enhanced Agility: Hybrid cloud technology allows the IT team to organize workloads in the most efficient way possible. This set up can be easily tweaked and adjusted as the situation mandates.
   
   The mixture of public and private cloud deployments allows organizations to transition apps, resource, and data deployment between public and private infrastructure based on evolving IT needs.
   
   In this scenario, both on-site servers and off-site cloud resources are available and can also be integrated to provision resources for changing IT needs, based on varying business policies such as file storing and sharing or the type of applications and data that can be moved to the cloud.
   
   
4. Improved Redundancy: Because you have the best of both worlds—public and private—you can store critical applications and data inside of both to improve user access, increase redundancy, and reduce overall risk. If one portion of the cloud is down, you have the ability to fall back on the other part. Maintaining consistency between both clouds can get tricky, depending on the resource, but it certainly isn't impossible.

5. Faster Innovation and Production: Depending on resources in the private cloud, and with whom you've partnered on the public cloud side, you have the ability to choose to deploy new applications and tools in either. If time is of the essence, one cloud model likely will be faster than the other. This gives IT greater control over deployment when it comes to new, unexpected projects.

Past success is no guarantee of future success. An effective business has the ability to constantly adapt to new market opportunities. It’s time for all businesses—both large and small—to embrace the transformation era and become an IT-led organization. Companies that do this will be more profitable, will have higher levels of customer loyalty, and will leapfrog their competition.

Cloud computing itself is a game changer, and though hybrid cloud environments can sometimes become a bit challenging to manage, the overall benefits are definitely worth every buck.

To take full advantage of such technologies, you will need new skill sets and capabilities that weren’t required five or 10 years ago. Tech Data can help you begin your journey to the cloud, as partnering with the right resources can help you capitalize on opportunities faster.

If you’re interested in partnering with Tech Data on your cloud journey, the Tech Data Cloud team is ready to help you start capturing new opportunities.

Please contact us at tdcloud@techdata.com.

Sources:

¹http://airccse.org/journal/jcsit/0412csit02.pdf

²http://www.infor.com/content/industry-insights/security-of-cloud-vs-on-permise-deployments.pdf

About the Author

Raquel Acuna is a Tech Data Solutions Consultant at Tech Data Corporation. Currently, she is focused on Cloud Partner Enablement, and prior to this focused on leading Cisco's Go-To-Market strategy. She has been working in the channel for over eight years and has held various roles within the organization such as sales, operations, training, and marketing.