I’m pleased to announce the availability of a new report from Leaseweb which introduces hybrid cloud computing to business leaders.
The report, Enter a new era of IT flexibility with hybrid cloud, is a concise guide to the technical aspects and business benefits of developing a hybrid cloud strategy. We’re pleased to offer this as an independent report of value to anyone with an interest in the topic.
As if cloud computing wasn’t confusing enough for business leaders the IT industry is now abuzz with the term “hybrid cloud”. The good news is when you understand the hybrid cloud concept the whole idea of “cloud” makes more sense as there is no such thing as IT and business service infrastructure operating in isolation.
Hybrid cloud, as most people see it, is a combination of public and private server and storage infrastructure, however, this view can be broadened to include public cloud, private cloud, content delivery networks and bare metal servers.
When I speak with customers about cloud computing the question cost reduction always arises. Sure cloud adoption can reduce IT costs, but my response is they should be thinking about the flexibility and opportunity for process improvement and innovation. And with a hybrid cloud architecture the business can finally realize the ultimate in hosting flexibility – the ability to choose the most economical (and optimal) infrastructure for the application.
Right infrastructure, right business workload
There will always be a diverse ecosystem of IT systems and delivery models available for a variety of workloads and for good reason – different infrastructure offers different capability and hence value proposition.
Running your applications or data processing workloads in a popular public cloud gives you flexibility, but it can easily become quite expensive as you will be paying a premium, often per hour, rate. At some point you will hit a price where it will be more than what you would be paying if you were invoiced for the entire month.
With hybrid flexibility up your sleeve, you can move workloads around depending on factors like cost, time, performance and regulatory compliance. For example, workloads can be moved to the public cloud during periods of high demand while base workloads can be kept on private cloud or bare metal for consistent performance and security.
Take the mystery out of hybrid with our free guide
Our new report takes business leaders through the hybrid cloud concepts and sets a path for them to start developing a strategy of their own. It covers topics like:
- The hybrid cloud platform: Why hybrid is crucial for modern business performance and competitive advantage. Hybrid cloud also helps avoid exposing the business to a fractured information landscape.
- Diverse IT: Hybrid strategies must take into account interactions between various infrastructure components. This is important for getting the most out of the different hosting options.
- Hybrid cloud as a path to lower operating costs, more innovation: In this section we talk about the tangible benefits of hybrid in addition to the innovation opportunities.
- Hybrid starts with a workload strategy: Finally, we take you through the practical steps to getting your hybrid cloud strategy work for your organization.
We hope you enjoy reading the report as much as we enjoyed creating it and I look forward to any opportunity to help develop your hybrid cloud journey.
Robert van der Meulen is Technical Evangelist at Leaseweb Global Services