Business operations have undergone a massive transformation in recent years as the integration of digital technology has grown immensely across the industry. The World Economic Forum predicts great technological changes for the future, and global boardrooms are no different. The digital revolution doesn’t seem to be slowing down any time soon. In 2022 and beyond, organizations will continue to fuse the lines between the physical and digital worlds, as they observe how technology can enhance how we work in today’s post-pandemic world and utilize it to drive productivity and future-proof operations.
Thanks to the shift towards remote working, cloud computing has now become a key component of IT operations for enterprises. It was unsurprising that 96% of US data center experts reported increased demand for data center services since the start of the pandemic, according to a recent survey by ABB Power Conversion. This is just the beginning. Business owners are likely to continue to invest in a range of emerging technologies like artificial intelligence, machine learning, automation, big data analytics, 5G, and more, driving more data center demand for many years to come. Without a solid cloud framework, the joining of these innovations would be unsupported and risky.
The move towards modified hybrid solutions is becoming a trend amongst vendors in the industry since they offer a combination of private and public cloud design. So how can enterprises benefit from switching from a public cloud solution to a more bespoke hybrid offering? Let’s examine this more closely.
Looking Towards Hybrid Cloud Options
While public cloud solutions have the appeal of flexibility, ease of use, and low capital expenditure, these advantages come at the cost of a greater number of drawbacks. One disadvantage is that companies are forced to make performance and functionality compromises because of the regulations that govern external cloud platforms. As a result, companies may become too dependent on these platforms, making it impossible for them to switch vendors. Additionally, as enterprises scale up their cloud operations over time, the low-cost setup will likely result in high operating costs.
In essence, the hybrid cloud provides a bespoke offering of different technologies, customized to a company’s requirements and objectives. With this solution, a public cloud (cloud) is combined with a physical data center (private cloud), allowing for the sending and receiving of data and applications between cloud and on-premises data centers. Among the greatest benefits of hybrid cloud computing are security, scalability, cost, and compliance. Let’s explore them individually.
Greater Scalability
Industry leaders have grown accustomed to unexpected events over the past two years. Regardless of how well they meet the needs of their business, demand is always subject to change. To manage this, the hybrid cloud offering gives IT pioneers the flexibility to easily react to unpredictable spikes in demand. For example, public clouds can offer additional capacity in the short term, whilst on-premises data centers can be used to store long-term fixed data. Enterprises can utilize this combination of offerings to optimize the versatility of their cloud framework, whilst keeping access costs to a minimum or exceeding their existing capacity.
Maximized Data Security
A hybrid cloud allows IT managers much greater control over their data. Private cloud is the ideal model for storing highly sensitive data, whilst public cloud can be used when handling less delicate data. The combination of these two offerings enables companies to lower their operation costs without comprising the protection of their data. The centralized management system of a hybrid solution enables solid technical security measures such as encryption, access control, automation, orchestration, and endpoint protection to be implemented easily, resulting in a safer and more protected data flow.
Compliance is Critical
Data regulation is an evolving landscape, and it is expected to become even more complex as cyber security and privacy become more prominent priorities for global leaders and regulators in the coming years.
In determining the right cloud solution for their business, enterprise leaders should focus especially on the issue of data sovereignty. The concept of data sovereignty dictates that digital data should be governed by the laws within the nation it was collected or created. This principle applies not only to EU countries, but also to businesses that gather, store, or process data from EU-based organizations. Users of the public cloud model can expect to face a complicated set of compliance rules and regulations, due to the high levels of control that this type of solution demands over data. With companies having to sacrifice a certain degree of management over their data, combined with a lack of transparency from most public cloud vendors, it can often be challenging to locate data and determine how it is stored.
In contrast, hybrid offerings allow complete visibility, as IT leaders are able to maintain their own storage and networking infrastructure whilst storing data in a private cloud. Moreover, adopting a hybrid cloud solution can help organizations to achieve total compliance with regional and industry standards, whilst simultaneously generating evidence that can help report and audit their performance with confidence.
Given the rapid growth in demand over the last few years, it’s unsurprising that data management challenges are expected to rise in 2022 and beyond. As opposed to using public cloud solutions alone, businesses that start to embrace a bespoke hybrid cloud offering will be better equipped to respond to these fluctuating changes in demand whilst still ensuring continuous innovation as well as compliance and protection of consumer data.
The author, Massimo Bandinelli, is an Enterprise Marketing Manager at Aruba Cloud.