Today’s enterprises are under increasing pressure from their customers and competitors. They have to be faster, safer, and more responsive than ever before.
While this might be a win for customer experience, more enterprises are asking themselves, “How can we keep up?”
Automation can handle much of this, but enterprises still need a solid infrastructure in place to support users’ high expectations. That’s why more and more businesses are embracing the flexibility of the hybrid cloud.
Keep reading to learn how the hybrid cloud works and the 5 reasons companies are making the switch.
What Is an Enterprise Hybrid Cloud?
With the hybrid cloud, you can choose two or more different computing environments to set up a more flexible, custom architecture for your business. The hybrid cloud allows companies to move computing, storage, and other services into a mix of public, private, and on-premise solutions:
- Private cloud
In a private cloud, all the hardware and software resources are exclusively available to and used by a single customer. It’s typically secured behind your own firewall, which makes it more secure. - Public cloud
In the public cloud, your enterprise shares computing power and infrastructure—provided by a third-party service provider—with multiple organizations. - On-premise solutions
This is when you use your own data center architecture at a physical location. On-premise solutions offer a greater degree of security, but it’s difficult to keep up with expensive maintenance and upgrades.
The 5 Benefits of the Hybrid Cloud for Enterprises
There are benefits to using each type of cloud computing. But with the hybrid cloud, you don’t have to make a choice; setting up a hybrid cloud infrastructure allows you to enjoy the best of both worlds. Enterprises are making the switch to hybrid for these 5 reasons.
- Empowering Remote Workers
Do you need to give your remote team more firepower? The hybrid cloud is more remote-friendly than a single cloud computing solution. With a hybrid approach, you can host data and applications in the cloud, where your remote team can securely access information on the go without the lag time. - Enhancing Security and Compliance
The hybrid cloud gives you the freedom to only share the information that needs to be shared, keeping everything else private within your enterprise. Every business has to follow a complex web of regulations to stay compliant. Regulations like PCI, HIPAA, and GDPR are just the tip of the iceberg; fortunately, the hybrid cloud helps enterprises lock down their data to comply with these rules. With the hybrid cloud, you have more control over where you house your data. For example, the most sensitive data may be stored on-premise, which minimizes the potential for exposure. The hybrid cloud also allows for redundancies, so you can store backup data to prevent catastrophic loss (and the regulatory fines that come with it). - Taking Advantage of Lower Costs
There’s no need to pay sky-high maintenance or upgrade costs with the hybrid cloud. By virtualizing your hardware, you can save a substantial amount of money on your IT infrastructure. Scalability is a hallmark of cloud computing. A hybrid setup also allows you to “rent” public computing resources any time you experience a spike in demand. Simply pay for extra capacity without worrying about the expense of installing hardware—it’s that easy. - Using the Latest Technology
A digitized infrastructure doesn’t require nearly as many upgrades as legacy infrastructure. If you want to future-proof your enterprise, switching to the hybrid cloud will set you up for growth with an agile system that scales. Best of all, there’s no need to tie yourself down to one solution, so you can choose the best of everything. - Enabling Better Disaster Recovery
What would happen to your business if you lost all your data? Without cloud computing, which offers redundancy and allows for streamlined data backups, it’s very resource-intensive to recover your data after an emergency or loss. With the hybrid cloud, though, there’s no need to rent backup hardware. You can significantly reduce the costs of backing up your data and recovering it with a custom cloud solution. Even if there’s a failure, disaster, or breach, a hybrid solution gives you a greater chance of recovering quickly and returning to business as usual.
Embrace the Hybrid Cloud
Cloud services are a great way to optimize your costs as an enterprise, but they also bring many other benefits to the table. A hybrid setup maximizes productivity, reduces costs, and can future-proof your business, making it the perfect model for growing enterprises.
