What is the Hybrid Cloud?
As businesses expand their use of cloud-based services, a hybrid cloud approach to developing the network infrastructures they need is fast becoming the norm. What is the hybrid cloud, and what impact is this approach to cloud services having on CIOs, CTOs and their enterprises?
The perfect cloud
One of the critical aspects of the hybrid cloud is its flexibility. Intel in their Forrester report ‘Drive Developer Productivity with Hybrid Cloud’ found 58% of North American and European organizations with a cloud strategy have a hybrid cloud, the preferred configuration to provide developers with a choice regarding both tools and workloads.
Intel also found that the ability to build hybrid cloud infrastructures is a key component to developing agility across an enterprise. “Continuous, iterative development is essential to keep up with evolving users, and finding ways to improve the speed and quality of application development is now paramount to business success,” Intel explains. “Many critical workloads and best-of-breed development tools still live on-premises, but elastic cloud infrastructure provides the agility, rapid innovation, and delivery of solutions that businesses demand.”
The development and expansion of the hybrid cloud will also be massively impacted by 5G which has already begun to roll out across the UK. The additional bandwidth as this becomes available makes hybrid cloud deployments much more straightforward to set-up and maintain. The cloud as we know it today will also transform as more services move out of centralized datacentres to the edge of the network.
Susan Bowen, CEO, Cogeco Peer 1 told Silicon: “As the business landscape continues to evolve at a rapid pace, organizations that wish to remain competitive will need to rely on a hybrid cloud that can support their existing infrastructure while enabling them to innovate at the speed necessary. As we move into the fifth generation of wireless broadband technology, the rollout of 5G will become a transformative force within the industry. 5G networks will move computing to the edge, driving adoption of hybrid cloud and hyper-converged infrastructure.”
A hybrid approach to cloud deployment will be the key to using burgeoning technologies such as AI, Machine Learning, advanced data analytics, IoT and automation. Enterprises will be able to leverage these technologies via the hybrid cloud to deliver high levels of service, yet reduce the overall TCO of their deployments.
However, Nikos Terizakis, UK Consulting Practice Manager, HeleCloud who spoke with Silicon cautions that legacy systems and application are still an issue when developing more hybrid cloud services: “Many legacy applications are dependent on specific technologies that are not fully supported by public cloud due to outdated standards. These legacy applications will eventually be replaced by purpose-built cloud-based alternatives. However, until then, many businesses must be able to run legacy applications alongside new or transformed ones that are hosted on public cloud platforms – making hybrid cloud a great deployment choice.”
