What is hybrid cloud?

A hybrid cloud is a cloud computing environment that combines on-premises, private cloud, and third-party public cloud services, allowing for composition. Companies can deploy workloads in either private or public clouds and turn back and forth as their computing needs and costs change with a hybrid cloud model. The hybrid cloud becomes multi-cloud when more than one public cloud architecture is integrated with private cloud services.

According to Forrester, 81% of global technology decision-makers at cloud-adopting companies claim they're already in a hybrid cloud setting, although definitions of hybrid cloud differ. Identifying these requirements is necessary before deciding on the best hybrid or multi-cloud setup.

Business drivers and constraints

Reduced CAPEX and OPEX, as well as the need to adapt quickly to changing consumer demands are key drivers in fast-tracking organizations’ move to cloud adoption. They need to continuously search for and set up cutting-edge analytical services to understand their ongoing processes and zero-in on areas for improvement.

Another reason why organizations are keen on hybrid cloud strategies is to ensure they are compliant with laws and regulations pertaining to data control and privacy. Vendor lock-ins can be expensive and restrictive in many ways. Hybrid cloud adoption can help organizations avoid or decrease this.

Design and development drivers

Streamlining and automating technology rollouts may reduce development time and accelerate time to market. Organizations can also use high-level APIs and services and increase the speed at which they compute to accelerate their growth.

Operations requirements and constraints

It is critical that IT stakeholders should work toward authentication, authorization, auditing, and policies that are consistent across computing environments. This can provide visibility across environments.

Consistent tooling and processes limit complications and go a long way in streamlining operations to enable a smooth cloud transition.

Architecture constraints

Some digital architectures depend on hardware or operating systems that aren't already available on the cloud. This may pose a challenge for the users.

Removing technical framework and infrastructure constraints allows portability and scalability regardless of technology vendor.

Additionally, performance and latency are important for communication between application systems. Licensing limitations form another part of the constraints in the IT architecture.

Hybrid cloud systems are becoming more specialized. Hybrid stacks built by vendors hold a lot of promise. Three such solutions are Google Anthos, Microsoft Azure Stack, and AWS Outposts, all of which aim to make job migration between public cloud and on-premises systems far simpler.

Google Cloud Anthos

Anthos is a cloud and on-premises application management framework that provides a clear development and operations experience. Designed specifically for application modernization, its managed services enable customers to configure and manage Kubernetes clusters, improving security, enforcement and monitoring. Anthos can be used in both hybrid and multi-cloud scenarios.

Azure Stack

Azure Stack allows users to access Azure cloud services from their own data center, making the cloud transition simpler for companies who want to keep things under control. Applications can be optimized for Azure cloud and deployed on Microsoft cloud infrastructure or within the confines of your own data center without having to rewrite any code. Azure Arc is a multi-cloud management layer that connects Azure Stack to AWS and Google Cloud Platform. Customers will be able to access all their apps and services in one location, no matter where they are.

AWS Outposts

AWS Outposts is a fully managed service that extends the same AWS infrastructure, services, APIs and tools to virtually any data center, co-location space or on-premises facility — resulting in a true hybrid experience. AWS Outposts is ideal for workloads that require low latency access to on-premises networks, on-site data processing, data residency and system relocation with local system interdependencies. Outposts run AWS compute, storage, database and other resources locally, and you can create, manage and scale your on-premises applications using the full range of AWS services using familiar AWS services and software.

There is also a growing desire for cloud-agnostic solutions that can conceal the choice of public cloud providers. Here are few examples:

VMware Tanzu

With VMware Tanzu, you can develop new cloud-native applications while transforming applications and infrastructure at your own pace. VMware Tanzu makes it possible to containerize workloads for cloud deployment while enhancing security and manageability. Current apps can be refactored to deliver more consistently and efficiently. You execute and manage your applications consistently, on a robust and scalable infrastructure powered by a Kubernetes-compliant runtime.

OpenShift

OpenShift is a Kubernetes-based framework with fast, flexible installation and extensive API support that allows developers to tailor the platform to their individual needs. Containers are expected to run as non-root users. and if this isn't the case, OpenShift requires an explicit override to execute the container.

IaaS solutions like Azure Stack, AWS Outposts and Google Anthos all strive to combine on-premises infrastructure with public cloud services. For both on-premises and cloud-based environments, these hybrid cloud systems provide a standard workload deployment mechanism and APIs. They also provide unified control and management tools for orchestrating hybrid cloud workloads, whether they are hosted on-premises or in the cloud. Containerization capabilities also make applications more powerful at the application level, as it allows cloud providers to be agnostic.

Public cloud adoption trends that will shape 2022

Public cloud spending is outstripping that of private cloud, and organizations are using the opportunity to leverage both platforms to innovate and create competitive advantage. However, navigating the journey to public cloud and managing the complexities of migration, cost control and visibility can be challenging.

To address these issues, we believe it is important to design the right approach and delivery roadmap that ensures a smooth alignment with your business strategy while balancing cost-efficiency with (multi)cloud capabilities.

In the next installment of this series, we will examine how cloud services can fit into your secure, low-carbon digital transformation strategy.