Cloud Computing Made Easy: Top 5 Hybrid Cloud Examples

Hybrid Cloud Examples

The popularity of the cloud is based on several reasons. The primary causes can be the characteristics of the cloud or capabilities, the cost model, how the service model works, and ease of use. Each cloud deployment public, private, and hybrid has their values, and within each deployment type, different vendors have differentiated values. This makes the idea of using a hybrid-cloud solution come to mind as a creative best way to solve many challenges with delivering and supporting services by picking and choosing from needed capabilities.

First, cloud computing has five essential characteristics.

1. On-demand self-service.
2. Resource pooling.
3. Rapid elasticity.
4. Measured service.
5. Broad network access.

The three basic technology types for cloud computing are Software as a Service (SaaS), Platform as A Service (PaaS), and Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS). There is also “anything” (XaaS) as a service, which is anything that can be delivered as a service that utilizes the basic cloud types.

1. Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) is virtual or physical IT infrastructure or machines that support the overall IT architecture it takes to deliver an application or service.
2. Platform as a Service (PaaS) is a layer on top of IaaS used to develop applications.
3. Software as a Service (SaaS) is the application itself that is used for the service.
4. Anything as a Service (XaaS) is the specific expression of a particular service using SaaS.

Cloud capabilities, in some cases, are starting to exceed in-house or on-premises IT capabilities which make cloud solutions more enticing than they have ever been in the past.

Best 5 Hybrid Cloud Examples

Replacing In-House On-Premises Services and Applications With a Cloud Service (SaaS)

Many organizations have replaced in-house managed applications and services with commoditized services such as email, communication collaboration, etc., with complete-off-the-shelf (COTS) solutions for service providers. This has enabled them to cut the cost of managing the service themselves, including all the IT infrastructure components. This has also resulted in the ability to take advantage of the five essential characteristics of cloud computing. The service is now on-demand, available anywhere and anytime through broad network access; it can be rapidly expanded or shrunk to accommodate the capacity needs and measured so that the organization can avoid waste and overcapacity.

Using Cloud Platform or Infrastructure as a Service (PaaS/IaaS)

Many new businesses can spring up overnight because of the ability to use cloud PaaS and IaaS to develop their services. No longer does any organization have to wait numerous days or months to deploy any IT component or manage the lifecycle of that component. Now they can focus on the business outcomes more than IT. Development is agile, more efficient, and effective for delivering quick, customer-focused solutions for the organization.

Data Management

With hybrid-clouds and data spending across multiple clouds, there is a need for the data to be integrated, transformed, and made available in real-time for decision support across the organization, with customers, and with business partners. Cloud data management platforms work across hybrid environments, making the data management solution a hybrid itself to support the need for fast, actionable response to customers and overall to the service value chain itself.

Hybrid Cloud Business to Business Transactions

Globalization has made it more necessary to connect, collaborate and coordinate supply chains and overall business transactions between many organizations. The cloud has helped remove constraints to doing business anywhere and anytime between the business and its suppliers or partners. Now business to business transactions can be done with ease using a hybrid-cloud solution.

Improve Security

The Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRamp) is one example of governance to protect data in the cloud for U.S. federal agencies. Besides using the controls and guidance for this program to do business with the federal government, many organizations adopt many of the practices in their hybrid-cloud solutions to help assure the security of their critical data.

Examples of Cloud Deployment Models

There are three cloud deployment models – Public, Private, and Hybrid. Sometimes, a fourth type is mentioned, which is a community that can be considered a public, private, or hybrid model for a group of stakeholders.

• The public model consists of physical hardware owned by a cloud or service provider, which depends on organizational needs.
• A private model is a cloud usually used by only one organization, usually hosted on-premises or can be hosted by a service provider’s data center.
• A hybrid model can consist of public and private, but usually just a combination of any model to deliver a service.

Cloud deployment models with the characteristics of cloud computing are used to give the organization the option of creating dynamic creative business models to fulfill the business needs and their customers. Organizations can create unique capabilities by using hybrid models by taking advantage of the strengths of each model.