CIOs have historically resisted moving their sensitive data on to the cloud. Many verticals have legal restrictions as well as compliance regulations prohibiting them from moving their customer data onto a public cloud platform. Data collection, storage, retrieval, access and management all play key roles in our digital world today and running all these processes on the cloud has proven to be much more cost-effective over the long-term. In cases where the public cloud is not a viable solution, a hybrid cloud architecture offers an excellent opportunity for CIOs to store non-sensitive data on the cloud and go a long way towards optimizing operational costs.
A global survey of 9,000 executives across 5,000 companies and 18 industries, indicates that almost 50% of the respondents reported using the hybrid cloud model for their current infrastructure.
Scalability, flexibility and reassurance on the security of their sensitive operations is what attracts people to a hybrid cloud
How is a hybrid cloud beneficial in meeting organizational cloud needs? A hybrid cloud allows a company to save costs by moving some of its applications/data to a public cloud. Sensitive data/applications can be stored on a private cloud providing better security and control of the data.
Do cloud vendors/service providers play a vital role in successful cloud migration? If organizations are unable to manage some or all their cloud applications internally, they would be better served by either using an external cloud management partner or leveraging extended support options from their cloud service provider. The type of support provided by a cloud vendor becomes an integral factor in an enterprise’s decision process relating to cloud adoption and migration. The cost and quality of support often makes or breaks the contract of a vendor, definitively affecting the success or failure of the cloud initiative. This point shines a light on the growing demand for cloud members to up their game in terms of not just providing supplemental support but also improving how they address end-to-end cloud management services.
Overall, the future of the hybrid cloud is bright with exciting innovations and an increased preference for cross-cloud management. Organizations should not completely scrap their old infrastructure companies and fully transition to something new. Instead, they can assimilate new capabilities into their current model from both public and private clouds. This more modest approach mitigates significant risk and supports future growth.