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Hybrid Cloud: The De Facto Post-Pandemic Model
Why a hybrid cloud infrastructure is the most natural way forward for businesses in the “new normal”
By Neil Evans
There’s no doubt that the pandemic dramatically accelerated cloud adoption. It broke the deadlock, with many firms that were hesitant or holding off from embracing the cloud quickly forced to move to the other side of the fence. They had no choice because in many cases their on-premises infrastructure could not cope with the majority of employees suddenly needing to access applications to work from home during COVID lockdowns. Similarly, with physical business locations—including retail stores—closed, companies resorted to the cloud to scale up IT to support e-commerce operations and online customer service.
Microsoft, for example, did a lot of business in enabling the shift to the cloud via its Azure cloud computing platform. Organizations that were using Office365 applications could be easily supported by Microsoft’s Azure cloud offering, with Microsoft Active Directory allowing users to sign in securely from home just as they would in the office.
Read a section:
Security reassurances
Security reassurances
Kick-starting transformation journeys
Kick-starting transformation journeys
Moving core applications to the cloud
Moving core applications to the cloud
Hybrid cloud is the preferred choice
Hybrid cloud is the preferred choice
High cloud bills and overconsumption
High cloud bills and overconsumption
Hybrid cloud is the natural state of affairs
Hybrid cloud is the natural state of affairs
A hybrid future
A hybrid future
Security reassurances
The security and reliability reassurances that the big public cloud vendors offered quickly dissolved many of the initial worries companies might have had about cloud computing.
Large cloud vendors like Amazon, Google and Microsoft enjoy unrivaled economies of scale, employing thousands of security experts to secure their infrastructures—dwarfing the resources that individual businesses can muster to protect their on-premises infrastructure. Within just a few months of the pandemic, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella had declared that his company had seen
two years of digital transformation in two monthsOpens in a new window. as its customers started adopting cloud solutions in huge numbers.
Soon, many organizations were operating with a mix of cloud and on-premises computing, including an on-premises infrastructure which was now being accessed via the cloud. Hybrid cloud had widely become the de facto strategy.
Kick-starting transformation journeys
As we gradually came out of the crisis and stepped into the “new normal,” the enforced shift to the cloud opened business leaders’ eyes to new ways of working long term. Not only were employees working from home more, but workers and customers were also becoming more comfortable with technology, for example: doing more video calls than ever before and buying online more. Many old barriers had been broken down—and organizations that had initially been cautious began to explore how they could transform themselves by adopting the cloud in new ways, such as helping them become more agile and respond better to customers’ needs.
“The pandemic has kick-started many new transformation journeys…organizations are asking what more they can do with the cloud.”
— Neil Evans
In effect, the pandemic has kick-started many new transformation journeys, with businesses embracing digital technologies to help them win market share and keep pace with today’s always-on business landscape. Organizations are asking what more they can do with the cloud. How can we use cloud tech to help deliver better customer experiences? Should we try moving our customer data or analytics database to the cloud? What about marketing automation or customer support and core mission-critical applications?
Moving core applications to the cloud
Using cloud infrastructure to allow staff to access their office applications or using cloud-based packaged software from large, respected vendors such as Microsoft or Salesforce is one thing. But rebuilding core mission-critical systems or other in-house applications on the cloud obviously requires more detailed evaluation.
Any decision to move these applications off existing on-premises platforms has to rely on a strict assessment of what is best for the business in the short and long terms. I know large financial services companies that review individual applications on a case-by-case basis to decide whether cloud is a better option, based on a set of specific criteria such as cost, performance, security, compliance, scalability, environmental issues and so on—both now and into the future. Some applications will be migrated or rebuilt on the cloud. But for others it’s better to stay where they are as part of a hybrid model.
Hybrid cloud is the preferred choice
The complexities of managing cloud costs and security are two key reasons why the flexibility of hybrid is the preferred option for many organizations. Cloud vendors provide plenty of tooling, applications and information to help you closely control costs and security, but they don’t do it for you.
Cloud vendors can ensure the security of the platform and infrastructure but not the application—because they don’t know how it was built or the code it’s running. For example, if you take an application that’s designed in a secure manner for one environment and move it onto cloud infrastructure, there is a risk of reopening old security holes or creating new ones, and the system will need to be reconfigured to be secure.
If you want to build a cost-efficient, secure application in the cloud, you will need to acquire specialist cloud skills or work with a systems integrator or consultant that specializes in that. A whole different layer of expertise is needed which the cloud vendors don’t provide out of the box. They certainly won’t bend over backwards to help you use fewer cloud resources— it’s not in their interests.
The growing popularity of FinOps and DevSecOps are related to exactly this issue: architecting applications for security and cost efficiency on the cloud. FinOps and DevSecOps businesses will come into your organization and focus purely on configuring your SaaS environment for efficiency and security, as that is their speciality.
High cloud bills and overconsumption
Indeed, some enterprises are
finding that the bills for running their applications on the cloud are higher than they expectedOpens in a new window. and are starting to shift some systems back on premises.
IT consumption models on the public cloud are varied, complicated and can change, leading to a risk of high costs due to overconsumption. When companies are running on-premises applications with powerful server hardware, disk space and computing resources bought and paid for, there’s not as much attention paid to resource consumption—there’s no financial penalty for using everything you have. But with the cloud, there must be a mindset change to stop costs going through the roof.
For example, companies that have put application development teams on the cloud often find they have runaway cost issues because developers spin up cloud resources and don’t spin them back down once they are no longer needed, so they end up as unused resources that are still being charged for.
Hybrid cloud is the natural state of affairs
For most organizations, hybrid is going to be the natural way of operating, with a mix of on premises and cloud. On-premises applications will be integrated with the cloud to make the best of both worlds. For example, a bank may decide to keep transaction processing in house—perhaps on a mainframe—and put the web infrastructure and customer-facing applications onto the cloud. The cloud allows web capacity to be scaled up to cater for peaks, such as large numbers of customers logging on to view tax statements at year-end. With on-premises infrastructure, the bank would have to build in the capacity to handle those peaks up front, with no flexibility to scale down again to reduce costs.
“For most organizations, hybrid is going to be the natural way of operating, with a mix of on premises and cloud.”
— Neil Evans
In-house developed applications are not always easy to rebuild in the cloud, partly because of interdependencies with other systems that could be impacted. For some, especially old and complex systems, it can be less risky and more cost-effective to leave the original application where it is and integrate it with modern cloud applications to add new functionality.
A hybrid future
The pandemic has changed the IT landscape, with enterprises now more confident choosing the cloud where it makes the most sense for the business. At the same time, they accept that for certain applications it’s better to stay on premises, making hybrid cloud the go-to choice for many.
Neil Evans, CTO
EMEA, UNICOM Global
Neil leads the emerging technology side of
UNICOM GlobalOpens in a new window., which means he helps customers around the world adopt new tech. UNICOM Global has been developing mission-critical software for over 50 years, recognizing that digital transformation is not a destination but a journey where change is the only constant.