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Hybrid Cloud Model

Examination of hybrid cloud environments that combine public and private infrastructure enabling workload flexibility cloud bursting capabilities and strategic distribution of applications based on sensitivity

Hybrid Cloud Deployment Model

Hybrid Cloud is a computing environment that connects an organization’s on-premise private cloud and third-party public cloud into a single flexible infrastructure for running the organization’s applications and workloads. This mix of public and private cloud resources gives organizations the flexibility to choose the optimal cloud for each application or workload.

    graph TD
	  A[Hybrid Cloud] --> B(Public Cloud)
	  A --> C(Private Cloud)
	  B --> D(Less Sensitive Workloads)
	  C --> E(Sensitive Workloads)

Flexibility and Scalability

Workloads can move freely between the two clouds as needs change. Organizations can run sensitive, highly regulated, and mission-critical applications on private cloud infrastructure, while deploying less sensitive and more dynamic workloads on the public cloud. With proper integration and orchestration between the public and private clouds, both clouds can be leveraged for the same workload, a process known as cloud bursting.

Key Tenets of Hybrid Cloud

Interoperability

Hybrid cloud is interoperable, meaning that public and private cloud services can understand each other’s APIs, configuration, data formats, and forms of authentication and authorization.

Scalability

When there’s a spike in demand, a workload running on the private cloud can leverage additional public cloud capacity, making it scalable.

Portability

Hybrid cloud is portable, allowing organizations to move applications and data not just between on-premise and cloud systems, but also between cloud service providers.

Types of Hybrid Clouds

Hybrid Mono Cloud

A hybrid cloud with one cloud provider.

Hybrid Multi-Cloud

An open standards-based stack that can be deployed on any public cloud infrastructure, offering flexibility to move workloads and environments from one vendor to another.

Composite Multi-Cloud

A variant of hybrid multi-cloud that distributes single applications across multiple providers, allowing movement of application components across cloud services and vendors as needed.

Benefits of Hybrid Cloud

Security and Compliance

Deploy highly regulated or sensitive workloads in a private cloud while running less sensitive workloads on a public cloud.

Scalability and Resilience

Scale up quickly, inexpensively, and automatically using public cloud infrastructure without impacting other workloads on the private cloud.

Resource Optimization and Cost-Saving

Make the most cost-efficient use of infrastructure budgets by maintaining workloads where they are most efficient, spinning up environments using pay-as-you-go in the public cloud, and rapidly adopting new tools as needed.

Challenges of Hybrid Cloud

Hybrid clouds are complex and challenging to deploy and maintain due to synchronization, redirection, latency, security, portability, interoperability, and compatibility of policies, applications, and data.

Common Use Cases for Hybrid Cloud

SaaS Integration

Organizations connect SaaS applications available in the public cloud to their existing public cloud, private cloud, and traditional IT applications to deliver new solutions.

Data and AI Integration

Organizations create richer and more personal experiences by combining new data sources on the public cloud with existing data and analytics, machine learning, and AI capabilities.

Enhancing Legacy Apps

Organizations use public cloud services to upgrade the user experience of their on-premises applications and deploy them globally to new devices while incrementally modernizing their core business systems.

VMware Migration

Organizations lift and shift their on-premises virtualized workloads to a public cloud without conversion or modification to reduce their on-premises datacenter footprint and scale without added capital expense.

Leveraging Public Cloud Services

Organizations integrate data and application services from their existing applications with public cloud services, leveraging private cloud compute capability for larger jobs while pulling data into an application on a private cloud to leverage public cloud services.


Conclusion

Hybrid cloud is a flexible and scalable computing environment that combines the benefits of public and private clouds. Organizations can leverage the security and control of private clouds for sensitive workloads while taking advantage of the scalability and cost-effectiveness of public clouds for less sensitive workloads. By integrating and orchestrating public and private cloud resources, organizations can optimize their infrastructure to meet their specific needs. One example of a hybrid cloud is the IBM Cloud Pak for Integration, which provides a unified platform for integrating applications, data, and services across multiple clouds. NASA is an example of an organization that uses a hybrid cloud to manage its data and applications across multiple environments.


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