What Is A Hybrid Cloud?

What is a  Hybrid Cloud? For many businesses, Hybrid Cloud offers powerful capabilities that deliver customization, convenience, and flexibility. A Hybrid Cloud is a combination of multiple technologies that usually harnesses Public Cloud, Private Cloud and On-Premise solutions to deliver higher data delivery speeds, more flexibility and lower costs than traditional on-premise servers.

To understand what a Hybrid Cloud is, you need to understand both Public Cloud and Private Cloud because hybrid utilizes both methods.

To start, a Public Cloud is a service offered by a third-party provider via the Internet that allows enterprise to move and access their data online. On a public cloud, third-party providers pay for and manage all technical hardware—meaning you don’t have to pay upfront capital costs.

On a Public Cloud, a business’ data is hosted on a network of servers that moves data throughout the country and sometimes the world, and your data shares space on these servers with other countless companies. It is a fully virtualized environment that relies on high-bandwidth network connectivity to transmit data quickly. And, you pay only for what you need, so scaling up or down is easy and flexible. Third-party Cloud providers manage the hardware so you don’t have to.

Private Cloud on the other hand is a totally secure, isolated environment. In terms of operation, it works very much like Public Cloud. Your business can log-on to the Internet at any time, anywhere in the world and access any data your hosting on your Cloud. The difference is that data hosted on a Private Cloud lives on its own separate servers in its own data center. You own these servers and your space, and no one else has access to it but you.

Because of this, Private Cloud has ultimate security, better flexibility (because you choose when to update, scale up, scale down, etc. on your own schedule), better performance (because it’s a dedicated server), and can be more cost effective. The downside is that you have to manage and update your hardware and Cloud environment.

Hybrid Cloud not only utilizes the powerful technology of Public Cloud and Private Cloud, it also utilizes the traditional methods of On-Premise data hosting. When companies have a heavy workload, incredibly fast speed is needed to access data. In the Hybrid Cloud model, businesses often opt to keep important data stored in on-site servers located right in their office. This is the fastest way to obtain data.

In a Hybrid Cloud environment, businesses use Public Clouds, Private Clouds, and On-Premise methods in a combination that works best for their business. All of these different technologies are pulled together into one standardized technology environment. Processes are outlined and defined on how and why to use which platforms and when.

In a Hybrid model, companies can use Public Cloud for their overflow of non-sensitive data. If their data spikes for a month or two, they can offset that data to the Public Cloud with ease, without having to purchase hardware to support that data On-Premise or on Private Cloud. For business-critical applications and data, companies can keep information secure On-Premise or on a Private Cloud network to ensure its protected 100% by a company firewall and other security measures.

This method combines the best-in-class solutions to deliver the flexibility, capability, and cost efficiency of the Cloud with the least amount of data risk and data exposure.

zbrella’s Hybrid Cloud Consultants and Hybrid Cloud Architects can help assess if Hybrid Cloud is right for your business. Thinking about going to the Cloud? Our experts will assist you from the discovery process to the implementation to the training and the support of your Cloud. Our Cloud team does it all. Learn more about our Hybrid Cloud services here, or contact us now here.