If you finally thought you understand how cloud computing works, don’t let the term “hybrid” throw you off track. Hybrid cloud computing is the newest tech solution for companies looking to efficiently meet a variety of customer needs, which means it could very well be the cloud platform that your own business needs.
An Introduction to the Public and Private Cloud
Until a few years ago, clouds were nothing more than white balls of fluff in the sky. Today, the cloud is an ever-present technology tool that essentially keeps the world connected. The public cloud is a collection of applications, interfaces, services, and networks that a third party—like Google or Apple—maintains. The details of the actual infrastructure are not a concern to the customer (like your business) using the public cloud.
The private cloud, however, is the same collection of applications, interfaces, services, and networks that is owned and operated by a specific organization strictly for the use of its employees, customers, and partners. Even if a third-party creates the private cloud, it is used exclusively by one specific company. The perks of the private cloud include making an intensely controlled environment that cannot be accessed by the public, like for governance and security.
The Hybrid Cloud Blends Both
A hybrid cloud picks elements of the private and public clouds and blends them together for a unified and accommodating computing environment. For example, more than half of financial institutions feel that security is their largest concern in cloud computing. Since the private cloud is considered more secure, but also involves the burdens and expenses of maintenance, it’s becoming more common for those financial institutions to use a small private cloud and standard public cloud so that they can minimize costs without sacrificing the protection of sensitive data.
A hybrid cloud also makes it possible to be more efficient and flexible. Mission-critical applications remain on the private cloud, while noncritical applications center on the public cloud. This allows sensitive data to remain fully secured without being slowed down by more process-intensive workloads on the public server.
With these perks and so many more, it’s not surprising the hybrid cloud computing has become the management system of the future.
