Hybrid cloud environments are typically defined as leveraging a mix of on-premises infrastructure, private cloud services, and public cloud services – such as AWS or Azure. Hybrid cloud is often comprised of an organization’s in-house hardware which is then linked to one or more public clouds using a Wide Area Network (WAN). This type of environment is focused on combining and integrating the capabilities and services of a cloud service provider(s) with on-premises or managed infrastructure resources. In short, they promise the best of both worlds.
82 percent of enterprises have a hybrid cloud strategy here in 2021, according to Flexera. Most companies have a long-term hybrid cloud strategy involving both on-premises workloads and cloud environments. While there are a variety of benefits to a hybrid cloud, there can also be some obstacles that you need to be prepared to face.
Disadvantages of Hybrid Cloud
While a hybrid cloud offers benefits to many businesses, some enterprises can encounter challenges. Below are a few roadblocks to prepare for when considering a hybrid cloud:
- Complexity – First, a hybrid cloud can be more complex to manage. Public cloud and migration to public cloud is already complex enough with all of the choices and options available today and the new PaaS components and tools coming out every day going forward. Adding hybrid can just seem like a bridge too far.
- Implementation – A hybrid cloud infrastructure can be difficult to implement as it creates a strong demand for network capabilities, storage, and servers. Implementation of all these is time-intensive and requires accuracy to fend off any inherent issue that may result after. Having a partner well versed in implementation practices here is essential.
- Bottleneck – The possibility of a network bottleneck exists when transferring data between private and public clouds. The transfer to the public cloud is done via the public internet and transfer might be too slow to meet enterprise IT needs.
- Security Concerns – Cloud security requires a different approach than with on-premises hardware. The tools and strategies used to manage a WAN, for example, are not sufficient to ensure network and data security across clouds. The blend of public cloud, private cloud, and on-premises deployment makes the hybrid cloud infrastructure free of risks such as intrusion between neighboring environments.
- Visibility – Cloud environments are complicated and this increases as organizations divide their environment into multiple clouds. This results in more complicated operations for organizations and makes it difficult for them to achieve a clear view of their cloud environment.
Advantages of Hybrid Cloud
Optimizing workloads between on-premises and public or private cloud environments creates a functional hybrid enterprise where cost, security, and speed are balanced to the unique needs of your business. Yes, there can be challenges, but hybrid cloud has a lot to offer enterprises. Some advantages include:
- Cost – More than 80 percent of IBM Power Systems workloads run alongside x86 infrastructure in the same data center. We can migrate both the IBM Power Systems and x86 infrastructure so you can reduce your data center footprint and lower your TCO by leveraging optimized AWS native services.
- Scalability – Hybrid clouds offer the flexibility to seamlessly scale resources between on-premises and public cloud environments. This allows organizations to quickly adjust capacity to meet fluctuating demands, whether it’s handling seasonal spikes or long-term growth, without overprovisioning or underutilizing resources.
- Security – A hybrid cloud provides businesses critical control over data and improves security by minimizing potential data exposure.
- Speed/Latency – Offloading non-critical workloads to the cloud can alleviate network congestion, improving overall network performance and reducing latency for critical applications.
- Ease – Hybrid clouds allow for a phased approach to cloud adoption, enabling organizations to migrate workloads at their own pace. This reduces the complexity and risk associated with a full-scale migration and allows for a smoother transition to cloud-based services.
Is Hybrid Cloud Right for You?
Ultimately, public cloud environments offer significant benefits, and it becomes almost impossible for on-premises data centers to compete, especially in terms of cost or efficiency. While there are important considerations, as to disadvantages of hybrid cloud, many of which can be remediated with the right partner or support to manage your hybrid environment.
As a leading AWS Consulting Partner & Audited Managed Service provider, we aim to take the complexity out of managing IBM and AWS by helping you migrate and manage your environments. This frees up your internal team to focus more on innovation instead of infrastructure.
