What is Hybrid Cloud?

Cloud Deployment Models

Beyond how services are delivered (IaaS, PaaS, SaaS), cloud computing also defines where these services are physically located and who owns and manages the underlying infrastructure.

These are known as cloud deployment models.

Understanding these models helps organizations decide the best fit for their specific security, compliance, and operational needs.

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Hybrid Cloud

A hybrid cloud combines elements of both public and private cloud environments, allowing data and applications to move between them. It offers a balance of flexibility, control, and scalability.

Definition:

• A Hybrid Cloud is a cloud computing environment that integrates a combination of public cloud and private cloud infrastructures.
• These distinct environments are linked together by technology that allows data and applications to be shared and managed seamlessly between them, creating a unified and flexible operational model.

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Key Characteristics:

• Interconnected Environments: A blend of at least one public cloud and one private cloud, connected through secure network links (e.g., VPN, direct connect).
• Data Portability: The ability to move data and applications between the private and public clouds.
• Workload Flexibility: Organizations can choose the optimal environment for different workloads based on factors like security, cost, and performance.
• Unified Management: Tools and platforms are often used to manage resources across both environments.

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Customer Control & Management:

• In a hybrid cloud, management responsibilities are distributed.
• The organization retains full control over its private cloud components, including hardware, OS, and applications. For the public cloud components, responsibilities align with the chosen service model (IaaS, PaaS, SaaS).
• The key challenge and responsibility lie in managing the connectivity, data synchronization, and workload orchestration between these disparate environments.

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Analogy: A Home with a Shared Community Garden Imagine you own a private home with your own garden, but you also have access to a large, shared community garden nearby.

Your Private Home (Private Cloud):

• You have complete control over your home and private garden. You grow sensitive plants here, manage your own tools, and decide who enters.

Community Garden (Public Cloud):

• This is a vast, shared space where you can grow common vegetables or flowers.
• You pay a small fee to use a plot, and the community manages the overall infrastructure (water, fencing, general maintenance).
• You can expand your plot easily if you need more space.

The Connection (Hybrid Cloud):

• You can easily move your gardening tools and some plants between your private garden and the community garden as needed.
• For example, sensitive herbs stay in your private garden, while high-yield vegetables that need lots of sun might go to the community garden.

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Use Cases:

• Disaster Recovery (DR): Using the public cloud as a cost-effective backup and recovery site for on-premises or private cloud data and applications.
• Sensitive Data Handling: Keeping highly sensitive data and core applications in a private cloud while leveraging the public cloud for less sensitive data or development/testing environments.
• Application Development & Testing: Developing applications in the public cloud and then deploying them to a private cloud for production, or vice-versa.
• Regulatory Compliance: Meeting compliance requirements by keeping specific data on-premises or in a private cloud, while still benefiting from public cloud services for other operations.
• Cloud Bursting: Handling sudden, temporary spikes in demand by "bursting" excess workload from a private cloud to a public cloud.

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Quick Note: The "Best of Both Worlds" Cloud

• The hybrid cloud is often seen as offering the "best of both worlds," combining the control and security of a private cloud with the scalability and cost-effectiveness of a public cloud.
• It's a complex but powerful model that allows organizations to optimize their IT strategy by placing workloads in the most appropriate environment.