As businesses move onto clouds, experts believe that the ability to store data, application deployment, and disaster recovery by hybrid cloud can make it the futuristic cloud. Hybrid cloud can use multiple public and private clouds including on-premises data centers to operate the company storage, computing and networking infrastructures. It is believed that in a hybrid cloud critical data and applications can be stored on the cloud, providing a secure and scalable solution. In case of a system failure or disaster, businesses can quickly recover their operations from the cloud, minimising downtime and ensuring business continuity.“Hybrid cloud is a cloud computing environment that combines on-premises infrastructure with a public cloud. While cost efficiency and flexibility are primary reasons for moving to a hybrid cloud, from a risk management perspective, by spreading resources across a private and public cloud, businesses can mitigate risks associated with relying on a single cloud environment,” Sarthak Dubey, co-founder, Mitigata: Smart cyber insurance, a personal cyber insurance company, told FE-TransformX.
Moving towards hybrid cloud
In 2021, the global hybrid cloud market was valued at $85 billion and will reach $262 billion by 2027, showing a 21% growth, as per insights from Statista, a market research platform. This growth can be attributed to the demand observed in markets such as the Asia-Pacific region. Reportedly, some key players in this market are Cisco, Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE), Amazon Web Service (AWS), and IBM, among others. In a 2022 survey commissioned by IBM and conducted by an independent research firm, more than77% of business and IT professionals said they have adopted a hybrid cloud approach, as per insights from IBM Transformation Index: State of Cloud. “Sensitive data can be kept on-premises to maintain control and compliance, while less sensitive workloads or non-sensitive data can be processed in the public cloud. This approach ensures regulatory adherence while taking advantage of the scalability and efficiency of cloud computing,” Supratik Shankar, founder, Dview Technologies, a data security platform, said.
The public cloud market will exceed $1,000,000,000,000 by 2026, as per insights from Forrester. Reportedly, the IBM Cloud Transformation Report 2023 commissioned by the IBM Institute for Business Value and conducted by The Harris Poll, an independent research firm, was created to help organisations map its cloud transformation and empower them to self-classify the progress. The integration of edge computing, artificial intelligence (AI), and 5G technologies, among others, can propel the expansion of hybrid cloud architectures.
About 83% of Japanese enterprise cloud decision-makers say that their firm is adopting at least two cloud deployment models; 76% of Japanese enterprise cloud decision-makers using public cloud leverage multiple providers, as per insights from Forrester’s Infrastructure Cloud Survey, 2022. Apart from these Indonesian enterprise cloud decision-makers whose firms are moving to a cloud computing infrastructure say that, on average, they’ve migrated 47% of their total application portfolio to the cloud and plan to have migrated 65% there in the next two years. “For disaster recovery, the amalgamation of private and public cloud resources can meet organisational needs and optimise backup efficiency. In the realm of work load migration, hybrid clouds can be a transitional phase, enabling phased transitions with rollbacks, ensuring a smooth and controlled migration process with minimal downtime,” Ranjit Metrani, EVP, sales, CtrlS Datacenters Ltd., a data centre, explained.
The future of cloud!
Critics argue that hybrid cloud however is not an easy-to-implement system and comes with its own challenges. Each business use case has unique structures which necessitate diligent analysis of its requirements while creating an appropriate hybrid cloud model. “One of the mistakes enterprises make is choosing the hybrid model where a private or public cloud alone would have been the best fit. Hybrid clouds require additional infrastructure costs as well as maintenance efforts. These systems can be difficult to design and implement,” Sujata Seshadrinathan, director, IT and process, Basiz Fund Services, a fund accounting service provider, highlighted, adding that other challenges include issues of interoperability, lack of flexibility, and complexity arising due to varied application architectures.
Industry experts believe hybrid cloud addresses the diverse needs of modern businesses by empowering them to tailor information technology (IT) to their specific needs, fostering innovation, improving business continuity, and maximising cost efficiency. Industries with strict regulatory requirements, such as healthcare, finance, and government, benefit from the hybrid cloud’s security and compliance features. “However, maintaining security in a hybrid cloud system is a primary problem. Addressing security risks raised by third-party interaction necessitates strict standards and strong encryption. The hybrid cloud market’s future appears to be one of continual evolution, with a greater emphasis on security advancements, creative solutions, and broader industry acceptance,” Yogesh Singhania, chief business officer, Hostbooks, an accounting software platform, said.
To mitigate the complexities that the hybrid cloud presents, businesses can address them through various strategies. “ A layered approach is essential for securing hybrid cloud environments. The data governance framework offers options during the solution process by enabling scalability and increased agility. This provides granular control over applications, ensuring compliance, and mitigating risks. Identity and access management (IAM) and security audits and penetration testing, can be some of the security measures,”Chandramouli Sundaram, senior vice president, delivery data engineering, Maveric Systems, an engineering services company, concluded.
About the Author
As SVP for Maveric’s Data Competency Unit, Chandramouli Sundaram (Mouli) helms delivery and governance, across customers and geographies for the overall Data Unit. His role is pivotal to Maveric’s aspiration to become one of the top three global Bank-Tech providers by 2025.
Article Originally Published in Financial Express
