Over the last few years, we have seen cloud computing becoming an everyday concept and an important asset of most business and IT discussions. Even though the cloud generally has many possible interpretations and applications, most IT experts seem to agree that hybrid cloud is one of its most viable incarnations and a model that is to become a norm in a growing number of companies.
Possibilities with hybrid cloud
Hybrid cloud models are forms of customized deployments of both private and public cloud servers. Therefore, they are frequently seen as the easiest ones to implement and manage. With hybrid cloud, companies have a greater freedom to distribute their IT applications across multiple servers and are in charge of their data security. Public cloud has never been an option for every company but it does offer lots of perks for those who learn how to make use of this cost-efficient platforms.
The best practices related to implementing public cloud solutions in business processes are definitely related to hybrid cloud because it is a mediate solution between traditional infrastructures and public cloud innovation. Thus, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that the hybrid cloud is seen as the fastest growing cloud market and that cloud experts increasingly regard it as a future of the IT.
60% of companies see the future in hybrid cloud
One of the latest studies into current cloud practices reported that the greatest number of companies in the US and the UK see their future in hybrid cloud. The Rackspace study conducted by Vanson Bourne carried out 400 interviews with IT decision-makers in these two countries and found out that 60% of them have either moved or are thinking of moving their mission-critical applications to public cloud. Interestingly, 19% of respondents said they’d move their IT infrastructure only partially to public servers, while 41% is ready to shift to the public cloud completely despite the security issues.
Even though hybrid cloud is often seen as a stepping stone for wider public cloud adoption, the study reveals that users’ perception about it substantially changed. In fact, as the research shows, hybrid cloud is often set as a final destination among companies of all sizes. This is because it provides them with possibility to combine the best features of both public cloud and dedicated servers, while at the same time enabling them to tailor an infrastructure model that best suits the needs of their business.
Jon Engates, CTO of Rackspace points that “The findings of our study indicate that the hybrid cloud is the next cloud for many organizations. They may have started with a public cloud-only architecture, but have come to realize the limitations of this approach as they’ve continued on their cloud journey.”
As opposed to public-cloud-only infrastructure, hybrid cloud brings less security concerns, more control over a company’s applications and is generally considered more reliable. All these in combination with maximum performance clearly position hybrid cloud as the trend for the future.
The cloud may have gone through a long process of establishing itself as a tech trend of the decade and now it seems this goal has been reached. Company managers have achieved greater understanding for the cloud and with the knowledge of its potential, they can more easily adjust it to their own needs.
Leana Thorne is a passionate blogger and a regular contributor to several tech blogs. She enjoys exploring new internet technologies and sharing newly found information, and her specialty is cloud computing, web and server hosting.