Since the dawn of cloud computing, businesses around the world have been asking the question: Which is better – on-premises or cloud solutions?
In our 18 years of experience as a trusted IT service company, we’ve got to say that the answer is often both. This is where the benefits of hybrid cloud shine, allowing businesses to take advantage of the best that cloud has to offer, while maintaining on-premises facilities. But what is Hybrid Cloud, and what makes it a great solution for your business?
What is Hybrid Cloud?
The first question that you may be asking yourself is, what is hybrid cloud, or what is hybrid cloud computing? And the answer is simple: Hybrid Cloud offers the best of both worlds when it comes to on-premises and cloud solutions.
While cloud services are affordable and easy to implement, they are managed by third parties, leaving businesses with little say over how their services are configured. On-premises solutions provide companies with full control over their infrastructure, but with that control comes full responsibility (both financially and otherwise) of upgrades, updates, security features and more. Without a full-time team dedicated to monitoring and managing servers and networks, on-premises solutions become unwieldy, particularly for small and medium enterprises.
So what are hybrid clouds and what is hybrid cloud storage? It’s a solution that allows for a combination of cloud and on-premises services – ensuring that businesses can maintain the control they need over critical data and infrastructure in-house, while using the more affordable cloud storage services for the rest of their data, or for backups.
On Premises vs. Cloud – Which Solution is Best For Your Business?
What Makes Hybrid Cloud the Best Option for Businesses?
Now that we have answered the question of “What is hybrid cloud”, you may be asking yourself whether it’s the right solution for your business. Here are just five benefits of using a hybrid cloud solution:
- Flexibility
Why choose between on-premises or cloud solutions? Your IT solutions need to be as flexible as your business is, particularly in this modern, digital age.By having both on-premises and cloud solutions readily available, your business will easily be able to meet all of its IT and data storage needs. When you find yourself needing new services, or when your existing services need to be expanded, it will be quick and easy to implement them on, or move them to, the cloud. And the same can apply when data becomes sensitive and you want to have more control over it – you can easily move it onto your on-premises infrastructure.
Reduced Costs
Installing and maintaining on-premises infrastructure can be a pricey endeavour requiring substantial down-payments. Cloud services, on the other hand, are offered at a low monthly rate which includes all upgrades, updates and maintenance. However, while cloud services don’t cost as much to begin with, they can become more costly than their on-premises counterparts over time, as the monthly fees continue for as long as you are using the services.With a hybrid cloud solution, you are able to mitigate some of your on-premises expenditure, opting for cloud services where they will be more cost-effective, and in-house infrastructure where you feel that the expense may be worthwhile. While hybrid cloud services are certainly more costly than cloud solutions on their own, the flexibility and scalability will also see your business saving expenses in the long run.
Scalability & Control
Maintaining control over critical infrastructure is one of the biggest advantages of on-premises solutions. You are able to configure your servers and networks to handle your data and your day-to-day operations in the way that suits your company best. However, with this control also comes the responsibility of maintenance and upgrades. When you find that your servers aren’t meeting your business’ needs, buying, configuring and installing new hardware is a costly and time consuming venture.By making use of hybrid solutions, you are able to maintain the control that on-premises service offer for your critical operations, while at the same time making use of the scalability that comes with the cloud. When you find yourself needing additional resources, you can quickly and easily implement them on the cloud, upgrading your solutions as necessary without having to wait for hardware to arrive or be installed. And when you find yourself no longer needing the increased capacity, you can just as quickly and easily downgrade your services, ensuring that you only ever pay for the resources that you need.
Business Continuity
In a country where the threat of load shedding looms every day, solely relying on on-premises infrastructure is a dangerous risk to take. All it takes is an extended power outage that outlasts your generator or invertor system, and suddenly your business will find itself offline entirely. Worse still, having your infrastructure fail for any reason, electricity related or otherwise, could result in data being irreparably lost.Maintaining a hybrid solutions with backups that are stored to the cloud is essential in ensuring that your business can continue uninterrupted, even when disaster strikes.
Security & Risk Management
Keeping critical data on-premises naturally limits those who may have access to it, particularly if your in-house storage is entirely offline and only accessible over your local network. However, it is also essential to maintain copies of your data to ensure disaster recovery, and the best place to do this is in the cloud.This is why hybrid solutions are perfect for security and risk management, allowing you to keep the data that you need secure and inaccessible beyond those who need it, while at the same time, ensuring that your information is encrypted and stored online, recoverable at a moment’s notice should disaster strike.
So, when someone asks you, “What is hybrid cloud”, we hope that we’ve given you a good understanding of the solution, its benefits, and why it might be the best solution for any business. If you’re ready to implement a hybrid solution, and are looking for the perfect IT company to partner with, look no further than Solid Systems. With over 18 years of experience in helping companies secure their data both on-premises and in the cloud, we are perfectly placed to help you find the right security solutions for your business. Contact us today.