As cloud computing becomes more prominent as a business tool, so to do other variations and forms of cloud and server hosting. Using the cloud for day-to-day business functions has many advantages from flexibility to mobility to scalability.
That’s all great. It’s becoming a key business tool and it feels like one day, no business can afford not to have the cloud. But it still has downfalls and for some businesses there are still better or comparable solutions.
Particularly businesses and companies that have strict compliance and regulations they have to stick to when it comes to data and where the data is used, the public cloud isn’t necessarily the answer. There are more options than ever before to help get around compliance issues, one of which being Amazon’s Dedicated Hosts.
Bring On Hybrid Cloud
A company might have dedicated hardware and use cloud services as well, increasing the flexibility of their IT infrastructure and giving more deployment options.
Using a hybrid cloud environment, a company could choose to use a private and public cloud set-up for different things, or they could choose to combine them within the environment to create a more scalable and flexible computing solution.
Benefits of Hybrid Cloud
Cost Benefits:
The hybrid cloud achieves cost benefits associated with the economies of scale of public cloud computing and allows companies to only scale when they need to using the public cloud whilst keeping data secure on a private cloud.
Scalability:
A general benefit of cloud servers is scalability as it allows a company to scale their server capacity up or down as it’s needed. Using a hybrid solution, a company can rely on cloud servers when they need more server capacity. If, for example, a company is testing a new application and is expecting spikes in usage and utilisation, a hybrid environment set-up can rely on cloud servers to handle the extra spike in usage.
This way, a company only has to scale up when they need the extra capacity rather than invest in a new hardware server.
Security
Security and compliance still remain a business risk when investing in cloud computing. A hybrid cloud environment reduces the business risk, as not everything has to be stored in the public cloud and can be stored on a company’s private cloud whilst being compliant with any regulations.
This might include keeping data or payment information on a private cloud solution but using a joined up hybrid cloud environment to run applications that link to this data.
The Increasing Demand
Last year, it was reported that 82% of enterprises have a hybrid strategy and that was up from 74% the year before.
It is likely that the trend has continued to increase as it solves some of the business issues with the public cloud but remains a flexible and arguably cost effective solution.
As well as the cost benefits, scalability and security, the hybrid cloud can be set up in a way that aids development and production for faster times to market of products and enhanced agility with the ability to move between private and public cloud set-ups.
It’s debatable as to whether the public cloud infrastructure is ready for all types of business to start using it but with the hybrid cloud solution, it’s a step forward that allows companies of varying sizes to take advantage of public cloud services and benefits without all of the business risks.
There are also various cloud management tools that can be used to boost your cost savings in the cloud. Cloud Machine Manager is a cloud management tool that allows users to gain on demand control of when servers are turned on or off. By serving switching idle servers off, users can achieve huge cost savings that can be reinvested in purchasing bigger and better servers.
To find out how much you could save with Cloud Machine Manager, check out our savings estimator.
