The Benefits of Hybrid Cloud
Investing in cloud solutions may be a priority if your company is looking for ways to cut costs and equip remote workers with easy access to company resources. However, suppose security and compliance are high priorities. In that case, your company may find that a hybrid cloud environment offers the best mix of public and private cloud in addition to your on-site, legacy systems.
Before diving into the benefits of selecting a hybrid cloud solution, it’s essential to define terms and describe the overall advantages and drawbacks associated with each option that could be present in a hybrid environment:
Public Cloud: When your company chooses a public cloud, you purchase a service provided by an outside vendor. You rent space in a data server and access services and data over the internet. The vendor handles the hardware and infrastructure. The public cloud offers cost savings, reliability, and easy scalability, but you tend to give up some control over security.
Private On-Site Cloud: This is similar to the public cloud in some ways, but the hardware housing the cloud services is on site. It offers greater control over security, but the cost is higher than with public clouds.
Hosted Private Cloud: A third-party provider hosts the cloud service, but the servers are dedicated to a single client. You will enjoy improved security and easy scalability, but the cost will be higher than a public cloud option.
On-Premise Legacy System: You may never have called it this, but it’s your on-site systems that you’ve traditionally used for all aspects of the business.
What Hybrid Cloud Offers
Many companies find that some combination of the above offers creates an ideal environment for their business. A hybrid cloud solution is often a perfect fit for companies in a variety of situations:
- You’re planning to increasingly invest in cloud solutions, but you would like to gradually migrate rather than move every aspect of your business at once.
- You work in an industry, such as finance or healthcare, that comes with requirements around compliance and data security.
- You use a highly-customized legacy system uniquely designed for your industry that requires extensive time and coding to move to the cloud.
No matter what your motivation is for choosing a hybrid cloud environment, you can expect to see some measurable benefits:
Security: You have the option to keep mission-critical applications or highly-sensitive data in your on-site legacy systems while shifting less sensitive business processes to the public cloud.
Flexibility: A hybrid cloud environment equips you to place workloads where they operate most effectively. Using a mixture of public and private cloud, as well as on-site systems, allows you the flexibility to move workloads where they make the most sense.
Scalability: One of the most significant benefits of cloud solutions is their scalability. Whether there is a seasonal component of your company’s business or if you are in a growth phase, a hybrid cloud allows you to effectively scale up and down as needed.
If you’ve been weighing cloud options and trying to determine whether a hybrid solution might be right for you, contact us at One Connect. We can assist you in completing a needs assessment and leverage the best cloud solutions for your business objectives.