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Key Considerations While Migrating to a Hybrid Cloud

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PCQ Bureau
New Update

With increasing business complexities, hybrid cloud computing has gained huge popularity these days. It is a model of IT management, wherein a user decides to manage some of their critical information resources in-house and host others on the cloud. Following are some of the scenarios wherein businesses may opt for a hybrid cloud solution:

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- Data is extremely sensitive and the management cannot risk hosting it on public infrastructure, but at the same time, wants to leverage scalability in the cloud

- The business is not confident of entrusting data to a third party, especially when it does not know where on the cloud the data is hosted

- Local and national laws prohibit data from leaving the country the company is domiciled in

So, what are the key considerations for a company while choosing technologies and tools for a hybrid

cloud model?

1. Devise a mechanism by which the bare minimum infrastructure will be on the premises, and the rest on cloud

Any business would do well to assess their existing infrastructure before deciding on exactly where to host it. Opting for a public cloud solution indiscriminately doesn't appear to be the wisest of decisions today, as there will be many ways a company can derive maximum benefit from the existing infrastructure. That said, it helps to develop the IT strategy in a way that only the absolutely essential infrastructure will be on the company's premises, and rest is hosted taken on the cloud. Typically when enterprise applications involve a lot of telephony, keeping them on-premise is a good option especially if the manpower is concentrated at one location. However all the ancillary systems in such an organization could be hosted on the cloud.

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2. Determine the specificity of software/infrastructure to the company

There will be instances of companies using applications built specifically for their business. This creates a strong likelihood that the applications may not be conducive for complete cloud hosting. It is ideal to opt for a hybrid cloud then in such a situation. Let us take an insurance company for example, whose operating system is not supported on the cloud. In this case they will have to go for hybrid, wherein customer interfacing can be serviced through cloud, but the core application from where the data is retrieved will be hosted on premise.

3. Ensure high availability

Many businesses using cloud may be required to align their existing applications with the cloud provider's platform. This causes not only a strain on the performance of the applications but also leads to lower availability. Ensuring higher availability is a key consideration for any business while opting for a hybrid cloud.

4. Devise a mechanism to ensure minimum data transfer

Hosted applications require some data stored on premise. Given the physical distance and associated latency this transfer of data is expensive. While designing hybrid cloud, analysis must be carried out to determine slow moving data which is frequently required by the hosted application. Mechanisms to cache such data need to be implemented.

5. Reduced complexity in migration

It is important that the business opting for a hybrid cloud evaluates ease of migration, extensive support for existing applications and operating systems, and time to realizing value on investment.

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