Every business uses applications to improve their core processes, streamline communication throughout the organization, and store critical information. At the end of the day, your applications and data must be housed where they are:
- Safe from threats
- Accessible to those who need it
- Adaptable to change
And for almost all businesses in 2021 and beyond, it won’t just be one location.
Hybrid Cloud Infrastructure is the Future
Again, enterprise applications are critical to keep your business operating smoothly and ensure your customers are served promptly. And while it’s by default that some applications are living in various established clouds, all businesses have a choice between keeping certain apps in-house and/or taking them outside to someone who can store and manage it all for them.
In today’s complex IT environments for businesses, it becomes difficult to keep all applications in one spot, whether on-premises or off. Every application is different, has its own purpose and complexity, and requires its own particular environment and level of compliance or security. Keeping everything in one place limits a business’ capacity and capabilities to serve their customers the best they can.
Now, it’s totally intentional for most enterprises to adopt a hybrid cloud environment, in which their applications live across multiple clouds that communicate vast amounts of data quickly and securely throughout the network. To help businesses reach their fullest potential, cloud service providers must open their cloud capabilities to avoid limiting enterprises in any way.
Top 5 Factors that Influence a Cloud Strategy
When a business chooses whether to store their applications on-premises and/or in a cloud system in a particular location, there’s usually a strategy behind it, which is determined by these main factors:
- Price: they may not want to spend money on equipment when someone else has it already
- Geo-diversity: they may be looking to be more dispersed geographically and closer to widespread user bases
- The app complexity: each app may vary in complexity and therefore require a different storage environment
- Cybersecurity: they may have specific cybersecurity needs that only a certain provider can offer
- Compliance: depending on the nature of the application, it may require adherence to a certain level or type of compliance regulations
Each of these implies a certain choice of cloud location and strategy. But if a business leader isn’t sure of the right geo-diverse cloud strategy to adhere to, a cloud service provider, like Venyu, can help draw up the roadmap. Our experts live in the cloud and have seen firsthand the improvements in business performance that come with utilizing a hybrid cloud environment for applications.
Read more: 5 Strategies for Securing Cloud Operations
Why a Hybrid Cloud Environment?
With so many factors to consider (even beyond the five mentioned above), a hybrid cloud environment proves not only convenient but an efficient way to meet growing demands of IoT, Edge, and cover any and all stringent computing requirements at once.
Specifically, the cloud brings with it ample benefits that can speak to each of those needs, as well as directly impacts the business’ functionality and bottom line. Benefits of using a cloud system include:
Flexibility
Cloud systems are dynamic and scalable by nature. When leveraging on-premises and cloud-based systems simultaneously, organizations save more time and money on infrastructure and planning, and are able to strategically phase out legacy systems or unsupported hardware.
The Network
The options in today’s network ecosystems are much more flexible and affordable, and when moving to the cloud, network topology is much more critical to ensure performance, stability and availability of business applications.
Cybersecurity
Surprisingly, many business leaders are hesitant to move to the cloud, with doubts about its security. But in reality, mature cloud providers go to great lengths to protect the data they store. Not to mention, these providers are also cybersecurity experts who monitor cloud environments 24/7.
Total Cost of Ownership
Many companies can’t ignore the actual cost and net new value realized by the capabilities the cloud technology can offer – especially when you consider the additional capital and support burdens that come with traditional infrastructure.
Ultimately, while some applications warrant staying in-house, moving other apps to a hybrid cloud system will add layers of security, compliance, and high performance – outcomes that cannot be achieved by using a one-size-fits-all approach.
The Core of Today’s Hybrid Approach
As we look to the future of cloud computing, there is one major shift we’re going to see (actually, we’re already seeing it now): the modern data center will live at the core of hybrid cloud strategy. Why? Because today’s data center gives enterprise leaders ample cloud options, enabling a truly flexible environment in every sense of the term – via the data center’s complete IT infrastructure ecosystem.
Whether an enterprise utilizes a data center’s colocation services and no cloud, or runs on the provider’s cloud and equipment, they are leveraging capabilities in a way that will increase the effectiveness of their overall cloud strategy – and business.
Again, the power of Hybrid Cloud allows the flexibility of running your application workloads in multiple environments, across geographies. VENYU Hybrid Clouds are architected using our diverse IT Ecosystem, leveraging high-speed backbone connectivity and geographically dispersed data centers. We’re here to give you the ability to serve your customers best, from anywhere.
Today’s data demands aren’t slowing down. And solutions like cloud computing and geo-diverse data centers will keep you from falling behind. Read more in our latest whitepaper, Leveraging the Edge to Meet Modern Data Demands.
