Who uses a hybrid cloud?
Businesses across the spectrum of industries have moved toward hybrid solutions to reduce costs and strain on local resources.From the financial sector to the health care industry, hybrid cloud environments have proven to be effective at not only improving computing and storage power but also optimizing the scarce resource of physical space.
Many organizations simply don’t have the room available to deploy servers on-site.
In the health care space, data privacy is paramount, and privately held computation resources are lacking. A hybrid cloud model is an ideal solution because it allows medical groups to retain patient data in a secure, private server while simultaneously leveraging the advanced computational power of a public IaaS model. Simply put, any industry that benefits from public cloud applications can also benefit from the hybrid model.
Hybrid cloud use cases
The ability to scale on demand means hybrid cloud models have many business uses.
New applications
Launching a new application with an untested workload carries with it a level of mystery. Cloud-driven businesses have to take on a certain amount of risk any time they try something new. Hybrid cloud mitigates that risk by reducing the need for a substantial initial investment. The business can deploy the new app and only pay for the resources it uses, rather than paying for them up front. If the app fails or gets shelved for any reason, the business won’t be out very much money.
Regulatory compliance
Certain industries are regulated to protect private data. However, not every piece of data may need to live in a private environment. Hybrid cloud allows businesses to comply with regulations while still benefiting from expanded computing power.
Since the introduction of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in the European Union, many organizations have divided their data among several solutions in order to comply with EU regulations while operating under a different set of regulations in the U.S. and other countries. Any business that handles user data on a global scale must comply with these regulations or risk severe financial penalties.
Workload anomalies
The future is unpredictable. An application might run efficiently in its current environment today but may require additional computational power tomorrow. A hybrid cloud adapts to workload needs, allowing service to continue smoothly even when workload requirements spike. This is often referred to as “cloudbursting,” because the workload pours out of one environment into another. It’s a lot like having overdraft protection on your checking account. You want to have a failsafe in case the unexpected happens.
