The Pros and Cons of a Hybrid Cloud Solution

Cloud solutions have helped considerably advance businesses, regardless of whether a business makes use of public cloud solutions or a private option that it hosts itself. Many have found great utility in combining the two into a hybrid cloud solution. Let’s consider the pros and cons of the hybrid cloud to see if it would suit your needs.

What Makes the Hybrid Cloud Different?

“The cloud infrastructure is a composition of two or more distinct cloud infrastructures (private, community, or public) that remain unique entities, but are bound together by standardized or proprietary technology that enables data and application portability (e.g., cloud bursting for load balancing between clouds).”

This definition comes from the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s Special Publication 800-145, written by Peter Mell and Timothy Grance. This effectively simplifies into two cloud models that function separately, but both are used to promote a business’ operations. These businesses might maintain a private cloud in-house for their operational needs, but use the public cloud to facilitate their backup and disaster recovery strategies.

The Benefits and Drawbacks of the Hybrid Cloud

There are a few considerable benefits that come from a hybrid cloud solution, including:

• Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery: The hybrid cloud can be dedicated exclusively to your continuity strategy. With a data backup in both public cloud storage and private cloud storage, you are generally guaranteed to have access to your data.
• Better Control-to-Need Ratio: Combining private and public cloud solutions ensures you have control over the critical elements of your business, while you can better scale to meet your needs in public cloud.
• Cost Benefits: Some projects are just too big to efficiently host on a private cloud. A hybrid cloud helps you keep your data secure while accessing the processing power of a public cloud platform.

That being said, there are some downsides to the hybrid cloud:

• Lack of Visibility: It can be difficult to keep track of where your data is being stored in a hybrid cloud system. As a result, it can be hard to tell if you are investing more than you need to be. This can be a detriment to your budget.
• Complicated Security: While your cloud vendors will do the best they can to keep your data secure, the responsibility ultimately comes down to you. This is only made more complicated by the blend of public and private resources.
• Bottleneck Concerns: As data transfers back and forth between the solutions that make up the hybrid cloud, network bottlenecks could diminish its value significantly.

For more information about your cloud options and expert guidance to help you make the best decision, reach out to Horne & Benik by calling (603) 499-4400.