Modern businesses rely heavily on cloud computing to become more agile, innovative, and scalable. The hybrid cloud model allows enterprises to leverage even more benefits by integrating public and private clouds with on-premises architecture. According to the 2024 Gitnux report, 82% of companies worldwide have adopted a hybrid cloud model. So, why do businesses choose this approach? And what are the most common hybrid cloud use cases among enterprises? Let's explore below.
How does a hybrid cloud work?
In a hybrid cloud architecture, different cloud and on-premises computing environments work in tandem. Typically, it involves shared management responsibility between the public cloud provider and the organization's internal IT team. For instance, if a vendor manages services remotely but hosts them in a company's data center, the in-house team handles the data center's power and cooling. Meanwhile, the public cloud provider maintains and updates the relevant hardware and software.
Read more: Developing a hybrid cloud strategy: 7 key steps
Why do businesses adopt the hybrid model?
A hybrid cloud allows companies to choose the best features of cloud and on-premises environments, balancing the trade-offs to meet their needs. Here are four main benefits of a hybrid cloud model:
Seamless workload migration
A hybrid cloud setup enables the seamless migration of workloads between different environments. This flexibility allows organizations to choose a suitable environment for each workload, whether to enhance options, reduce costs, or ensure compliance with regulatory requirements. For example, using a hybrid environment, N-iX experts assisted one of our clients, a global IT service provider, in quickly moving data and workloads from on-premises to the cloud without interrupting crucial business operations.
Improved performance
A hybrid cloud allows businesses to optimize performance by combining different environments. For example, you can enhance the speed of a critical application or provide simpler data access for key projects.
Easy access to innovation
Hybrid cloud capabilities facilitate the adoption of cutting-edge technologies. In addition to updating legacy systems, businesses can leverage AI and machine learning to automate operation processes, improve customer service, and explore new opportunities.
Increased security and compliance
A hybrid cloud platform allows an organization to adopt a comprehensive approach to cybersecurity and regulatory compliance. By operating within a single IT environment, companies can create and implement a cohesive strategy and deploy security tools consistently across the entire system. Additionally, a hybrid cloud model ensures that sensitive information, like patient records or customer data, is securely hosted in a private cloud in accordance with government regulations and industry standards.
Read more: Hybrid cloud: How to make the most of it
What are the key hybrid cloud use cases?
Let's explore five main hybrid cloud use cases illustrating how adopting this model can deliver significant business value.
1. Disaster recovery
One of the most common hybrid cloud use cases is disaster recovery (DR). A disaster recovery plan usually involves best practices to minimize data loss and business interruptions caused by equipment failures, cyberattacks, power outages, etc. Implementing a DR strategy is critical to protecting critical workloads.
A hybrid cloud architecture enhances disaster recovery by storing data on-premises while also enabling the creation of a cloud-based DR environment. This approach helps reduce storage footprints and lower costs. Additionally, hybrid cloud solutions accelerate DR by continuously replicating and updating data, ensuring its integrity, consistency, accuracy, and reliability.
2. Application development and testing
A hybrid cloud model offers significant application development and testing advantages, providing different environments for building and deployment. DevOps teams can seamlessly leverage private cloud services to manage development projects and then deploy them in a public cloud.
A public cloud offers multiple tools and technologies for development and testing, providing cost savings, enhanced flexibility, and faster time to market. An experienced cloud consultant can help you compose the most suitable tech stack for your business needs and cloud requirements. After developing an application in the public cloud, you can seamlessly migrate it to a private cloud environment if needed.
3. Cloud bursting for dynamic workloads
Cloud bursting is one of the most helpful hybrid cloud use cases because it allows scaling computing resources in a heterogeneous environment. It enables organizations to handle fluctuating demands, seasonal peaks, and rapidly changing workloads by configuring a private cloud to work with a public cloud and using load balancing to manage traffic overflow.
When the private cloud reaches total capacity, additional workloads that could overwhelm the organization's servers are redirected to external third-party cloud services. When demand returns to normal levels, the public cloud resources can be scaled back accordingly.
4. Low-latency requirements
Bandwidth issues are another factor driving companies to choose the hybrid cloud. If an application or workload is highly sensitive to latency and the company's operations are too far from a cloud data center to eliminate the lag, it is practical to keep the system onsite.
Specific industries, such as telecom, finance, gaming, IoT, and others have strict low-latency requirements. A hybrid cloud is perfect for these businesses, particularly when paired with edge computing. Deploying applications nearer to data and users can significantly enhance performance and reduce latency. For example, N-iX helped the client mentioned before to increase the speed of business operations by migrating workloads to the Azure cloud. Replicating data in some iterations enabled our client to achieve minimal downtime and minimize latency.
5. Hosting AI workloads
One of the most in-demand hybrid cloud use cases is the ability to adopt AI technologies effectively. A cloud environment offers a robust platform for managing AI-related workloads, which demand significant computing power and large amounts of data storage. The flexible cloud environment allows for seamless scaling of both computing resources and storage capacity, ensuring that resources can be adjusted as needed during peak usage periods.
Moreover, a hybrid architecture can enhance data privacy and improve cybersecurity-critical considerations when utilizing AI systems. By storing sensitive data in a private cloud or on local servers, companies can safeguard it from external threats and adhere to industry regulations more effectively.
Embrace hybrid cloud with N-iX
A hybrid model is an ideal solution for starting your modernization journey with cloud computing. You can combine your legacy applications with the cloud to innovate at your own pace. If you want to start your cloud journey, N-iX experts can consult you and design a roadmap for your adoption strategy. Our team of over 400 cloud engineers can help you address potential challenges along the way and achieve smooth business operations in the cloud environment. During the past five years, we have successfully delivered over 100 cloud projects for businesses in such industries as finance, healthcare, energy, telecom, etc. N-iX cooperates with three leading vendors, being a Microsoft Solutions Partner, an AWS Advanced Tier Services Partner, and a Google Cloud Platform Partner, to help you choose the right cloud provider. Additionally, N-iX adheres to cybersecurity standards such as PCI DSS, GDPR, ISO 9001, and ISO 27001, ensuring your organization's security. You can trust N-iX to guide you through a seamless hybrid cloud adoption.
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