Advantages and disadvantages of hybrid cloud for SMEs

Adopting cloud solutions allows small and medium-sized businesses to meet diverse interconnectivity needs and leverage new technologies to become powerful allies.

From this perspective, the hybrid cloud represents a perfect compromise between storing sensitive data internally and storing data in a decentralized environment.

Among the benefits most often associated with it are flexibility and cost control. The challenge with this combination is finding a balance between the solutions to be adopted and the many demands imposed by new IT systems.

This article will outline the advantages and disadvantages associated with using a hybrid cloud infrastructure in an enterprise.

Hybrid cloud for SMEs

Adopting cloud solutions allows small and medium-sized businesses to meet diverse interconnectivity needs and leverage new technologies to become powerful allies.

From this perspective, the hybrid cloud represents a perfect compromise between storing sensitive data internally and storing data in a decentralized environment.

Among the benefits most often associated with it are flexibility and cost control. The challenge with this combination is finding a balance between the solutions to be adopted and the many demands imposed by new IT systems.

This article will outline the advantages and disadvantages associated with using a hybrid cloud infrastructure in an enterprise.

So what is hybrid cloud?

A hybrid cloud involves combining a private cloud with a public cloud to form a hybrid infrastructure that communicates via an encrypted connection. In 2019, the three most widely used public cloud solutions were AWS (Amazon Web Services), Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud.

This combination allows organizations to select certain services as desired and deploy only certain workloads (workload regulations), controllable upstream from the cloud.

However, as ZDNet points out, a hybrid solution isn't just a solution that connects an internal server to a public cloud platform. Simply put, the private infrastructure must also run some form of cloud services that support both private and hybrid cloud deployments.

When businesses operate with large systems with large memory capacities, you may find that certain tasks or modules require higher or lower processing speeds. When they are placed on a public cloud, these modules can be slowed down and hamper the organization's work rate. This can lead to critical workloads with high security or compliance requirements being deployed to a private cloud.

The company thus has complete control thanks to this technology, which increases the performance of business operations by accelerating time-consuming processes. The strength of the hybrid cloud is that it allows the same organization to deploy other resources (web servers, databases, etc.) in the public cloud.

This solution, which is all the more effective and useful, allows you to control your IT budget precisely, since only the resources and services actually used are used rather than a potentially under-exploited IT system.

Hybrid cloud therefore redefines how business objectives are achieved by allowing you to rely on modular and scalable IT solutions.

Scalability and deployment

Hybrid cloud makes it possible to set up a system that scales to meet your needs. If you need to perform very large data analyses, hybrid cloud allows for better resource allocation and will save you from investing in hundreds or even thousands of servers and storage devices. This allows you to create a cluster, a block, or a group of data in the private cloud and send your data there.

A suitable Hadoop cluster can run big data queries in a public cloud, collect information, and visualize the results. This data can then be transferred using a tool to your private cloud infrastructure, giving you greater privacy control, for example. The company ultimately only pays for the resources used.

The hybrid cloud is effective provided it is well managed

Despite these advantages, it also has its drawbacks; it can be complex to implement and difficult to maintain.

For example, setting up a private cloud can be a remarkably difficult project in itself since it places heavy demands on local infrastructure, such as servers, storage, and network capacity.

The capital investment in a private cloud can certainly be offset by using a private cloud managed by a third-party company. Therefore, you will need the help of an IT team to design and implement the project. You can also strengthen this by collaborating with an external provider who will complement the expertise you already have in place.