The concept of the cloud has been around for a few years now, but it has recently spawned a large number of variations including private clouds, public clouds, multi clouds, hybrid clouds, and now open hybrid clouds. Just what is an open hybrid cloud, and why is it important?
Hybrid cloud
The idea of hybrid cloud is that you don’t put all of your eggs in one virtual basket. Instead of using just one public cloud provider or a number of providers in a multi-cloud strategy, hybrid clouds seek to eliminate boundaries between different clouds to deliver a seamlessly integrated cloud where workloads can be easily ported.
For this to work smoothly, there needs to be alignment between systems. If you are using a particular operating system in the enterprise, for example, you need a version of the same system in the cloud.
Moving workloads to the cloud often means containerisation. A good container platform integrates technologies like storage, allowing applications to be moved with minimal need to rewrite code.
Cloud compatibility
Some systems lend themselves better to the cloud than others. In Cheltenham IT support companies such as https://reformit.co.uk/ should be able to advise you on issues surrounding deployment of apps to the cloud. Working with a support provider that has experience in migrations can help ensure that the process runs more smoothly.
What about the open aspect of hybrid clouds? Although cloud providers may often claim to use open standards and interfaces that comply with industry standards on their platforms, this doesn’t always mean that systems are truly open.
Even on a public cloud platform, you can risk getting locked in to one supplier. This makes any future moves likely to be time-consuming and costly. True open hybrid systems need to allow for portability and easy migration. They should let you deploy any application on any platform without getting locked in should circumstances change in the future.
The cloud is now sufficiently established that it is no longer a leap into the unknown. However, it is important to understand the options and choose a platform that allows for a workload-driven hybrid strategy, and one that is as open as possible to allow for future changes in requirements to be accommodated with a minimal amount of disruption.
