Posted on Monday February 07, 2022
Each of the original types of cloud infrastructure — public and private — comes with their own sets of pros and cons. Fortunately for resource-strapped small- and medium-sized businesses (SMBs), they don’t need to conduct trial and error to see which one is best for them — they can simply reach a happy medium with the hybrid cloud.Hybrid clouds are a combination of private and public clouds. In private clouds, data and applications that require tighter controls are hosted either internally or privately on an off-site facility. Meanwhile, public clouds are managed externally by third-party providers with the express purpose of streamlining a company’s IT infrastructure.
Here are three significant advantages of hybrid cloud environments.
Adaptability Having the ability to choose between internally or privately hosted cloud servers and public ones lets you pair the right IT solution with the right job. For example, you can use the private cloud to store sensitive files while utilizing more robust computing resources from the public cloud to run resource-intensive applications.
Cost efficiency and scalability Does your business struggle to meet seasonal demands? With a hybrid cloud solution, you’ll be able to easily handle spikes in demand by migrating workloads from insufficient on-premises servers to scalable, pay-as-you-go cloud servers whenever needed, without incurring extra hardware and maintenance costs.
So if there are last-minute computing demands that your hardware can’t support, or if you’re planning for future expansion, you can easily scale capacity up or down with a hybrid cloud solution.
Security Last but not least are the security advantages of a hybrid cloud solution. You can host sensitive data such as eCommerce data or an HR platform within the private cloud, where it will be protected by your security systems and kept under close watch. Meanwhile, routine forms and documents can be stored in the public cloud and protected by a trusted third party.
The following are the different ways to set up a hybrid cloud model based on your SMB’s requirements and the providers available to you: