Cloud Management and Hybrid Cloud Model Explained

The usage of cloud services has witnessed a dramatic rise in the last few years. One of the primary reasons behind this exponential rise is the advantages it offers for organizations. Right from saving disk space to being accessible from anywhere, cloud services have changed the way businesses function. Organizations also prefer cloud services as their valuable time and lower operational costs on their premises. 

When organizations resort to cloud infrastructure, IT security faces hindrances in keeping track of the cloud environment as there will be several issues with security, autonomy, scalability, and customizability. In this guide, we will learn in-depth about hybrid cloud management in an organization. 

How does Hybrid cloud architecture work?

Basically, there are three main types of cloud deployment models and organizations will choose them based on their requirements. They are:  

1. Private cloud
2. Public cloud 
3. Hybrid cloud

Private cloud

The private cloud model consists of infrastructure that will be owned by a single business in most cases. However, these models will be on the higher end of pricing and can be hosted both externally and in-house. This cloud model will be perfectly suitable for large organizations that focus on security, customizability, and computing power. 

Advantages of private cloud model

• Maximum level of security 
• Highly customizable 
• Zero risk of sudden changes/updates
• Offers better autonomy over the cloud servers
• Disadvantages of a private cloud:
• Expensive to set up and run  
• Demands extensive IT expertise

Public cloud

The public cloud model consists of services and infrastructure which will be shared between two or more organizations. As the organizations are using shared solutions they can significantly cut down the cost of scalability and space for the setup. Every public cloud computing service provider will charge the organizations on a pay-per-use basis based on their usability. 

Advantages of public cloud

• Cost effective solution 
• Organizations don’t need a large space for the setup
• Easily scalable 
• Disadvantages of public cloud:
• Offers lesser customization options 
• Immediate changes can bring significant impacts
• Less secure 

Hybrid cloud model

It is a combination of public and private cloud models that are designed to provide a tailored version for organizations. The hybrid cloud model enables organizations to maintain their applications under a certain performance threshold. This model also helps organizations to maintain on-premises workload systems and use the cloud for other procedures like testing. 

Advantages of hybrid cloud model

• Organizations can easily adapt it
• Offers minimal latency 
• Easy to scale
• Disadvantages of hybrid cloud model:
• Takes a longer time to set up 
• Synchronizing the file type across platforms can be hard
• Not easy to implement 

Why do organizations prefer hybrid cloud architecture over others?

Managing a hybrid cloud environment is relatively much easier than managing private and public cloud resources. One can easily analyze the loopholes in the system and ensure that the security of the organization is uncompromised. The hybrid cloud model has already witnessed huge usage from businesses around the world as it promotes agility and reduces overall business costs. 

The hybrid model is predominantly used in the medical and financial sectors as they demand high computing power and constant sharing of data. By reducing the dependency on on-reises infrastructure, these organizations can save maintenance costs. 

Benefits of using hybrid cloud model

Hybrid cloud solutions are considered to be the future-proof solution as the number of service providers has also significantly increased to meet the demands in the IT sector. As every technology-based organization will emphasize saving capital expenditure and will focus on investments that generate revenue in the long term, the hybrid cloud model sits perfectly in the sweet spot. Apart from saving maintenance costs, the hybrid cloud model also offers several benefits.

Speed

As technology progresses, speed has been the primary focus in every generation and has been the most sought-after factor. With vast amounts of data being transferred by these organizations every hour, hassle-free provisions must be made to ensure that the users get an uninterrupted experience. 

Reliability

Hybrid cloud systems provide several ways to back up sensitive data easily with several disaster recovery options. The data can also be mirrored to different sites based on the cloud services provider. 

Scale

One of the primary benefits of adopting hybrid cloud models is the flexibility to scale the system. With its numerous customizable options, organizations will be able to get the right amount of resources required for specific tasks. 

Productivity

Hybrid cloud systems eliminate the need for setting up the systems on-premises and updating the software bugs in it regularly. It is considered a time consuming hectic task by IT organizations and it is a hindrance to their IT teams. 

Performance

The data centers around the world will be constantly upgraded to ensure that organizations get a flawless experience. With fast and efficient hardware, the systems will have lesser network latency and faster processing speed. 

Some of the popular hybrid cloud models in the market

OpenStack

It is a cloud operating system that provides additional components for fault management and service management. OpenStack also provides a dashboard to empower the users with a user-friendly web interface that also provides several plug and play components depending on the requirement. 

Highlights

• Can be seamlessly deployed and customized based on the cloud model
• Offers a wide ecosystem of open source tools for the users
• Can be easily integrated with almost every popular enterprise technology

Apache CloudStack 

It is an open source software that can be used to manage a large network of virtual machines in a scalable Infrastructure as a Service platform. It is being used by a number of cloud computing service providers as a part of their hybrid cloud model. 

Highlights

• Provides better security 
• APA compatible with Amazon AC3 and S3
• Offers user and account management options 

Wrapping up

Cloud computing is all about empowering businesses to push their potential and explore new avenues in the mainstream market. By leveraging a robust hybrid cloud model from a reliable cloud computing service provider, businesses will be able to focus on the necessary functions and explore new possibilities.