Planning for Cloud Integration: Pitfalls and Advantages - Deploying and Managing a Cloud Infrastructure - page 384

Hybrid Cloud

The hybrid cloud model is a combination of multiple cloud deployment models that
capitalizes on advantages of all the employed models while considerably reducing the
disadvantages of any one model.

Advantages:

On-demand provisioning on a per-need basis, thus improving efficiency (improved
private cloud utilization) and minimizing costs due to underutilization (of public
cloud instances).

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Long-term infrastructure can be managed within the private setup, while short-term
infrastructure can be managed in the public cloud without additional capital costs.

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Sensitive, private, and confidential customer data can be retained in private cloud
space, while additional data can be kept in public cloud space.

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Data security, privacy, standards, and regulations can be used to choose private or
public cloud spaces.

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New solutions can be prototyped and tested easily without worrying too much about
capital costs.

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Companies can quickly move from staging to production by dynamically provisioning
resources.

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Disadvantages:

Public and private cloud integration is not easy because it requires software that can
establish interaction between the two entities.

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Troubleshooting problems in applications that use resources from both platforms can
be problematic.

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Best for:

Organizations that have traditional data centers or their own private cloud setup for
mature projects and want to set up a public cloud environment for new long-term or
short-term projects.

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Organizations that expect large sporadic increases or spikes in traffic to their
services and applications. This is most suitable for organizations engaged in electronic
commerce business.

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Usual applicability scenarios:

Large or medium-sized organizations capable of investing in their own private infrastruc-
ture as well as public cloud space. Typically organizations that are technology savvy.

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Organizations that comply strongly with data privacy, security, standards, and
regulations.

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Organizations that want to outsource infrastructural management for nascent or
new projects.

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