The Role of Hybrid Cloud Technologies in Today’s Business Climate

You will agree with me that the cloud has incredibly transformed business computing dynamics. Cloud technologies come with a vast range of windfalls, from little upfront costs to easy scalability and superior uptime availability.

Mike Shelah (Advantage Industries) is just one among the many Managed Service Providers who agree that “using the cloud presents many benefits to their clients.” He particularly singles out Microsoft SharePoint that “gives customers substantial storage for internal collaboration as part of their 365 licensing.”

Our focus today is the role of hybrid cloud technologies in today’s business climate. To put things into perspective, let’s look at the different types of clouds.

Public vs. Private Cloud

According to Google, cloud computing is “the practice of using a network of remote servers hosted on the Internet to store, manage, and process data, rather than a local server or a personal computer.”

If you have been probing cloud computing, you must be well aware of the longstanding debate on private vs. public cloud. Before you make up your mind, it’s essential to interrogate the differences between the two:

1. Private/Internal/Enterprise Cloud Solutions: Here, the cloud solution is hosted in the organization’s intranet. Alternatively, it can reside in the company’s private data center. It’s the best solution for enterprises with robust data centers since they will be using existing infrastructure. Private clouds provide a heightened level of security. This is because they share very few, if any, resources with other companies. However, a prominent drawback to using the private cloud is that the firm is responsible for installing, maintaining, updating, and managing data centers. With time, servers become outdated and need to be replaced, which can be quite costly.
2. Public Cloud: The primary difference between public and private clouds is that you aren’t responsible for the public cloud’s management. The company’s data is stored in a provider’s data center, alongside those of many other firms. Public cloud solutions providers manage and maintain data centers on behalf of their clients. This type of cloud environment is popular with many organizations since it saves on both time and costs of deploying new products — and maintaining them. However, some executives may be wary of security because they’re not in control of the storage facilities. There’s also the notion that data from different companies are stored together, which is wrong and misguided.

Get the Best of Both Worlds With Hybrid Cloud Technologies

We would generally define the hybrid cloud as a combination of private and public clouds and on-premises (bare metal) infrastructure, often with some level of integration or orchestration between environments.

So, How Does It Work?

At SemTech IT Solutions, clients “have the main physical server on-site, but the server is paired with Office 365 and a third party file sync solution.” This, according to Nick Allo, “allows users who are working remotely to still access their email/files from anywhere, anytime.” Besides being cost-effective, this solution enables business executives to have more control over their data.

The main drive pushing people toward cloud computing is the remote accessibility of data from anywhere. Ilan Sredni works with Palindrome Consulting in South Florida. He admits that “everyone is conscious of hurricane seasons and power outages, and so clients want solutions that give them the ability to get work done, even when the office may be completely inaccessible.” At the same time, administrators want to control their data and how it’s stored and managed. The only way out is to integrate both private and public clouds. In Ilan’s words, “Hybrid cloud seems to bring the best of both worlds.”

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