According to a Gartner survey, almost half of large enterprises will be have a hybrid cloud environment by 2017. Nearly three quarters of IT decision makers polled in the survey believe hybrid deployments will be the norm within the next two years.
The industry-wide shifting of sentiments towards hybrid clouds, and cloud computing as a whole, is an indication that businesses acknowledge the benefits brought forth by the technology.
For years now, the debate around public versus private cloud has centered on the pros and cons offered by both. Public cloud services are low in cost and easy to deploy and scale up (or down) depending on business needs. On the other hand, private cloud services are more capital intensive and harder to setup and maintain. However, the private cloud purportedly offers better security because the data sits in either the client premises or in a server over which the client has exclusive control. With tighter fiduciary norms it is imperative for many industry verticals to keep strict control over sensitive data.
A hybrid cloud model tries to bring together the best of both worlds. Not all data or processes require a strictly controlled secure environment. These can be hived off to a public cloud service to take advantage of easy deployment and lower costs. The critical business processes and data can sit in a private cloud environment, which provides better security while at the same time giving some of the benefits associated with cloud computing like easy scalability and standardisation of processes.
By segmenting the business processes in this manner, companies are able to focus on generating business value without having to worry about issues such as cost and security. It gives companies a degree of flexibility that is useful in today's fast moving business environment.
Some of the areas where a hybrid cloud environment will bring significant benefit to users are as follows: