Hybrid cloud, is a computing environment using a mix of on-premises, private cloud and public cloud from different service providers. This will allow workloads to be moved between all these platforms when computing resource changes, and extends either the capacity or capability, by aggregation, integration or customization between these cloud services. Hybrid cloud gives business more flexibility and cost effective option.
The flexibility, always highlighted as one of the great benefits of hybrid cloud, to allow the business to easily spinning up and tearing down the resource based on the needs, quickly add additional resource if the workload exceed the capacity of on-prem resource, and provision new services without on-prem capital investment, such as container.
However, the flexibility is the double-edged sword, it brings THE BAD of the hybrid cloud. Because it is flexible and the decision is too easy to make, without really understand how to use the cloud and how to use it effectively, the hybrid cloud has been structured. It will become really problematic during the day to day operations, to resolve all the issues caused by design flaws. Also, the hybrid cloud is not just a set-and-forget solution, a regular review is necessary, particularly with the cost management. Otherwise, the long term operational cost will be much higher than the on-prem capital investment. Plus, the complexity also is forgotten. The hybrid cloud is not just to replicate whatever is on-prem to cloud service providers. The computing, storage, network and security are operating in a different way in the cloud service providers and the "aggregation, integration or customization" won't be that easy, or might even not be achievable.
The worse part is nothing can change the fundamentals of physics. The application architect still is the same with the 3-tiers, front end, application layer and data layer. The data has its own gravity and can not easily move. If the data and application don't reside in the same location, the network latency will heavily impact the application performance. Also the bandwidth is limited and expensive. It might end up with huge amount of cloud bill each month. In addition, the worst, or the ugly part, is that application developers will keep cutting corner to get their jobs done without considering any consequences, and expose the hybrid cloud, both on-prem and cloud to the security risks from the public.
To conclude, before the business makes the decision to adopt the hybrid cloud solution, they need someone who really understands the fundamentals of physics, architecture of distributed systems, and the limitation of public clouds. Furthermore, the hybrid cloud framework need be well defined and governance need be in place. Otherwise, the adopting hybrid solution will not bring any benefit to the business, but making it worse instead.
As-built or custom-built, both fit hybrid. It's a business choice to either manage workloads on-premise or deploy on a cloud-based server. It is best to work with an expert service provider to architect, build, and implement the solution. I'd say secured access is the key for a hybrid solution and need to be simple, easy to use for the users.
ReplyDeleteAEC Cloud's unified portal technology is an excellent tool for companies considering to aggregate and provide users with centralized, secure web access.