Cloud spending is skyrocketing, projected to hit a staggering AUD$1.1 trillion in 2024 and top AUD$1.6 trillion by 2027, according to Gartner. By 2028, cloud will no longer disrupt, but become essential for business survival. Yet, organisations embracing hybrid cloud benefits often falter in unlocking its full transformative potential.
This article delves into the hybrid cloud challenges faced by enterprises, acknowledging the complexities of blending on-premises and public cloud environments. It offers valuable insights, explores recent developments, and equips you with expert advice on all aspects of your hybrid cloud journey – from planning and implementation to ongoing maintenance.
What is a Hybrid Cloud?
A hybrid cloud environment blends on-premises data centres, private cloud infrastructure, and services offered by external public cloud providers. These components work together seamlessly, often through dedicated software tools, to form a single, unified system. Typically, a direct connection exists between the on-premises data centre and a public cloud provider, but the environment can also incorporate other private assets like edge devices or cloud-based storage solutions.
Four Key Components for Establishing a Hybrid Cloud
- Public Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) Platform: You’ll need a public cloud platform like Microsoft Azure to provide on-demand access to computing, storage, networking, and other resources.
- Private Computing Resources: This includes your on-premises data centre infrastructure, usually containing some private cloud capabilities. Here you host and manage your own IT resources.
- High-Performance Network Connection: Ensure a reliable and high-bandwidth connection between your private and public cloud environments. This enables seamless data and application flow.
- Unified Management Platform: Implement a comprehensive platform capable of discovering, operating, and managing both your private and public cloud elements. This centralises control, automates tasks, and enforces consistent policies across the entire hybrid environment.
Hybrid Cloud Use Cases
Explore these situations where a hybrid infrastructure approach delivers strategic advantages:
- Digital Transformation: Hybrid cloud allows businesses to modernise their IT infrastructure by migrating some parts to the cloud while retaining legacy applications on-premises due to compliance or other factors.
- Application Migration: Secure landing zones in hybrid clouds facilitate moving workloads to the best cloud environment for improved maintenance and scalability, although legacy applications may pose migration challenges.
- Development and Testing: Public cloud platforms offer cost-effective and rapid development and testing environments without the need for physical hardware setup.
- Cloud Bursting: Hybrid clouds offer flexibility for handling unpredictable workloads by seamlessly scaling resources, although careful execution is needed to avoid latency issues.
- Distributed Data Processing: Hybrid cloud environments speed up processing times by accessing data and applications across different locations, but maintaining consistency may require encryption and access controls.
- Backup and Disaster Recovery: Hybrid clouds enable seamless replication and backup of on-premises workloads, ensuring continuity during data centre disruptions with on-demand cloud resources.
- AI and Machine Learning: Hybrid cloud setups facilitate cost-effective deployment of AI and ML workloads, although they may introduce new security and privacy concerns.
- Edge Computing: Leveraging edge computing in hybrid clouds reduces latency and improves data protection by staging tasks closer to the source, requiring additional security measures for distributed environments.
- Mergers and Acquisitions: Hybrid cloud integration assists in merging different IT infrastructures, yet complexities arise from hardware and application differences across entities.
Why Companies Delay Implementation of Hybrid Cloud?
Hybrid cloud adoption offers businesses the potential for agility, flexibility, and scalability. However, many organisations hesitate to take the plunge, despite the potential benefits. Understanding hybrid cloud security challenges behind this delay holds the key to unlocking successful hybrid cloud implementation. Let’s explore the most pressing ones and delve into potential solutions:
1. Compatibility Mismatch
Challenge: On-premises and public cloud environments often suffer from compatibility issues, leading to integration difficulties and performance disparities. Data centre workloads may lag behind their public cloud counterparts, resulting in latency problems.
Solution: Bridging the compatibility gap requires embracing open-source technologies and APIs, leveraging hybrid cloud integration platforms, modernising your infrastructure, and adopting centralised management tools.
2. Data Handling
Challenge: Improper data placement and movement in hybrid environments raise security concerns and incur unnecessary costs. Encrypting data in transit is essential; without careful planning, it will result to excessive data transfer fees.
Solution: Secure data in transit with robust encryption. Implement data governance policies to optimise placement and minimise unnecessary transfers, leveraging cost-effective public cloud storage for specific workloads.
3. Complex Access Management
Challenge: Ensuring secure access to data across disparate environments can be a major hurdle. Authentication and authorisation procedures require careful attention to avoid security vulnerabilities.
Solution: Secure seamless access with centralised IAM and SSO solutions. Minimise risk by selectively granting permissions and enforcing strict password policies. Continuously address configuration errors and ensure compliance measures are always in place.
4. Network Dependence
Challenge: Hybrid cloud deployments are highly dependent on robust network infrastructure, making them vulnerable to connectivity issues. WAN availability, bandwidth, and latency are all critical factors impacting performance.
Solution: Invest in reliable WAN resources and implement backup connectivity plans. Proactively monitor network performance and address potential bottlenecks before they impact operations.
5. Skills Gap
Challenge: Successfully managing a hybrid cloud requires specialised skills in both public and private cloud environments, creating a potential learning curve for IT staff.
Solution: Upskill existing staff through training and certification programmes and hiring additional personnel with proven expertise in both public and private cloud technologies.
6. Private Cloud Maintenance
Challenge: Maintaining the private cloud component (on-premises infrastructure) of a hybrid cloud requires ongoing investment, maintenance, and expertise, much like a traditional data centre. Implementing additional software can further complicate this.
Solution: Build a comprehensive data management plan while enhancing security with public cloud tools. Empower your IT team through targeted training programs and relevant cloud certifications.
7. Data Sovereignty Regulations
Challenge: Complying with complex and evolving data sovereignty regulations that often vary by region and industry. This can impact where data is stored, processed, and accessed, creating challenges for hybrid cloud deployments.
Solution: Carefully assess data residency requirements across all jurisdictions where your organisation operates. Implement data governance policies and tools to ensure compliance and address regulations like GDPR, HIPAA, and local data privacy laws.
8. Vendor Lock-in
Challenge: Becoming overly reliant on a single public cloud provider can make it difficult and expensive to switch in the future. This “lock-in” can limit flexibility, innovation, and potentially increase costs.
Solution: Pursuing a hybrid cloud strategy can help diversify your infrastructure and increase flexibility. Utilise cloud-agnostic management tools to simplify operations and maintain control across your entire cloud landscape.
Unlock the Power of Hybrid Cloud with Intelliworx, a Microsoft Solutions Partner
Businesses are moving beyond the confines of traditional IT structures. Hybrid cloud computing offers a dynamic solution, combining on-premises, private, and public cloud resources to meet specific requirements. From on-premises security for sensitive data to public cloud scalability for peak workloads, hybrid cloud grants unprecedented flexibility, control, and access to cutting-edge technologies.
Partnering with Intelliworx, a Microsoft Solutions Partner, empowers you to conquer the challenges of hybrid cloud and navigate the secure integration of diverse cloud environments. Streamline operations, optimise resources, and fuel business growth through a successful hybrid cloud adoption. Contact Intelliworx today to explore your personalised path to the future of IT.
