As the trend towards serverless offices continues to grow, businesses are showing less interest in purchasing and maintaining expensive and complex servers. Instead, they are turning to cloud computing for its convenience and hassle-free maintenance. However, not all data is suitable for cloud storage. Certain industries, such as finance and healthcare, have government restrictions on storing sensitive data in the cloud. On top of that, businesses that already have their own data centers find it challenging to fully transition to the cloud. This is where hybrid cloud comes in.
Hybrid cloud is a powerful combination of private and public cloud infrastructure that allows organizations to enjoy the benefits of both. By incorporating the strengths of both types of cloud computing, hybrid clouds offer greater flexibility to users who need to frequently switch between private, public, and on-premises servers. An orchestration layer makes it easy to deploy services according to specific requirements, while the blended architecture provides a seamless experience that enables users to use multiple cloud systems as one cohesive unit.
Since different organizations have unique cloud environments based on their individual needs and goals, hybrid clouds offer a tailored solution that can be customized to meet specific business requirements. Hybrid cloud is a versatile and effective way for businesses to maximize the benefits of cloud computing while maintaining the flexibility to adapt to changing needs over time. Hybrid cloud solutions offer the best of both worlds, providing the flexibility and robustness of cloud services while also allowing businesses to keep their sensitive data separate and secure.
Imagine having to maintain a mega data center. Can you think how much maintenance and workforce will require to handle this huge volume of data and servers? To cut down on the hassle of juggling between creating and maintaining and connecting mega data centers, the world-famous oil and gas company, BP shifted to hybrid cloud. With millions of dollars’ worth of data centers across over 70 countries, BP found themselves spending more time on data center management than on strategic initiatives such as application development. They soon realized the need to shift to robust, scalable solutions for their growing infrastructure, hence they partnered with Microsoft Azure.
Moving fully to the public cloud was not feasible for BP because of stringent data protection laws in certain countries require them to maintain some resources on-premises in their data centers. By adopting a hybrid cloud solution, BP was able to manage their global and localized regulatory needs while leveraging the scalability and flexibility of the cloud. This helped them become more agile and focus on other important things.
On the other hand, if we take a look at Coca-Cola Europacific Partners (CCEP), we will see how their migration to the hybrid cloud with the help of IBM Cloud facilitated optimizing their supply chain and data management. CCEP chose IBM Cloud due to their advanced hybrid solutions, analytics, and integrations with SAP tools that CCEP already used. By adopting IBM’s hybrid cloud architecture with Red Hat OpenShift, CCEP was able to democratize data, reduce expenses, and reduce the time spent on infrastructure management internally. The hybrid cloud architecture also gave CCEP the flexibility to optimize across different public cloud platforms according to their future needs. The move to the cloud enabled CCEP to leverage analytics and AI to improve their operations and business insights, leading to greater efficiencies in their IT systems.
As mentioned previously, organizations choose their cloud infrastructure based on their unique needs and workloads. Both CCEP and BP have opted for hybrid cloud solutions and have realized significant benefits. In addition to the advantages already mentioned, there are several other benefits worth exploring.
As Flexible as a Ruler
Hybrid cloud solutions offer organizations the flexibility to distribute their workloads and applications in a way that suits their unique needs. By selecting which workloads to host in the private cloud and which to place in the public cloud, organizations can strike a balance between control, security, and scalability. This allows organizations to maintain greater control over sensitive data while benefiting from the cost-effectiveness and scalability of public cloud resources.
Bang for the Buck
Hybrid cloud is an ideal solution for organizations that are tight on IT budget or looking to avoid the expenses associated with creating and maintaining servers. With hybrid cloud, organizations can scale their operations to accommodate long-term growth and respond quickly to changing business needs. This allows organizations to reduce costs while still meeting their performance and security requirements, providing a powerful tool for optimizing operations and staying competitive in a constantly evolving business landscape.
Growth with Agility
Businesses are given the agility they need to respond swiftly to shifting business needs thanks to hybrid cloud technology. With a flexible and scalable computing environment, organizations can respond swiftly to new opportunities or challenges, achieving their business objectives with greater ease. Organizations can concentrate on their core competencies and growth by avoiding the need for separate teams to handle their cloud data and instead relying on seasoned service providers.
Super-fast testing and deployment
Hybrid cloud makes it possible to keep sensitive information in the private cloud while moving the testing and deployment to the public cloud when necessary. In the case of testing out a new application, you can keep the important data, code in the private cloud, and use the public cloud’s limitless functionalities to test and deploy your application in the blink of an eye.
If you are looking to achieve similar benefits for your organization, hybrid cloud could be the right choice for you.
