Hybrid cloud computing explained

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HYBRID CLOUD COMPUTING EXPLAINED

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Hybrid cloud computing explained

Managed cloud: A new answer to an old problem


hy choose between public or private cloud when you can have the best of both worlds? IT shops that want to use cloud services but don’t have the staff or know-how to

make it work can benefit from managed cloud services. Our hybrid cloud tutorial outlines the benefits and risks of this in-demand cloud model.

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HYBRID CLOUD COMPUTING EXPLAINEDBill Claybrook

A few years ago, the IT world was focused on public cloud computing. In 2010, after IT directors expressed concerns over public cloud security issues, the focus shifted to private clouds. And now, because everyone wants operational flexibility, hybrid clouds are at the top of the wish list.

Several recent cloud surveys confirm these high levels of interest in hybrid cloud. A Unisys survey in January 2011 indicated that 21% of IT organizations are focusing on hybrid clouds, and a 2010 Sand Hill Group survey of over 500 IT managers indicates that hybrid cloud use will triple over the next three years.

EXAMINING HYBRID CLOUD ARCHITECTURE

So what is a hybrid cloud? For starters, it is a composition of at least one private cloud and at least one public cloud. The private cloud can be an on-premises private cloud or a virtual private cloud located outside the enterprise data center. In the illustration below, we provide one of the simplest macro views of a hybrid cloud -- a single on-premises private cloud and a single off-premises public cloud:


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The black circles in the illustration represent active virtual server images and the white circles represent virtual server images that have been migrated (using safe connections). The arrows indicate the direction of migration. En-terprise users are connected to the clouds using safe connections, which can be virtual private networks (VPNs) or secure HTTP browsers.

A hybrid cloud could also theoretically consist of multiple private and/or public clouds. The enterprise data center denoted in the illustration may have active servers (virtualized or physical) that are not included in the private cloud.


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WHAT IS DRIVING HYBRID CLOUD COMPUTING?

Hybrid cloud interest is powered by the desire to take advantage of public and private cloud benefits in a seamless manner. Some of the risks associated with public and private clouds, however, can also be issues in hybrid clouds. The benefits and risks of public, private, and hybrid clouds include:

PUBLIC CLOUD BENEFITS:

��Low investment hurdle: pay for what you use�� Good test/development environment for applications that scale to many servers

PUBLIC CLOUD RISKS:

��Security concerns: multi-tenancy and transfers over the Internet�� IT organization may react negatively to loss of control over data center function

PRIVATE CLOUD BENEFITS:

��Fewer security concerns as existing data center security stays in place��IT organization retains control over data center


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PRIVATE CLOUD RISKS:

�� High investment hurdle in private cloud implementation, along with purchases of new hardware and software�� New operational processes are required; old processes not all suitable for private cloud

HYBRID CLOUD BENEFITS

�� Operational flexibility: run mission critical on private cloud, dev/test on public cloud�� Scalability: run peak and bursty workloads on the public cloud

HYBRID CLOUD RISKS:

��Hybrid clouds are still being developed; not many in real use�� Control of security between private and public clouds; some of same concerns as in public cloud


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ADDRESSING THE HYBRID CLOUD CHALLENGE

The challenge of hybrid computing is to provide seamless operation across platforms, cloud application programming interfaces (APIs) and hypervisors. Users prefer to use their data center tools to manage hybrid cloud environments. Ideally, they want to be able to create applications, or move existing applications between the clouds in a hybrid cloud environment, without having to change anything serious like networking, security policies, operational processes or management/monitoring tools. This is a problem because, due to issues around interoperability, mobility and differing APIs, tools, policies and processes, hybrid clouds generally increase complexity.

In the second half of this two-part tutorial on hybrid cloud, we take a look at the most prominent hybrid cloud options available on the market and determine the best use case for a hybrid cloud computing offering.


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MANAGED CLOUD: A NEW ANSWER TO AN OLD PROBLEMTrevor Jones

NEW YORK -- Cloud computing is at the center of business growth today and managed cloud could provide the means to maximize the benefits of the technology.

That was the message from Melanie Posey, research vice president for IDC, an analyst firm based in Framingham, Mass., who spoke at a Rackspace-hosted conference here this week. With 80% of businesses using some form of cloud computing resources, Posey paraphrased Winston Churchill in saying that we’re not at the beginning of the end with cloud adoption, but at the end of the beginning.

“Everybody’s doing it,” Posey said. “We’ve gotten past the point where it’s this new, interesting, exciting thing, and now it’s just a part of doing business.”

Organizations will spend $122 billion on public cloud IT services in 2018 and those using cloud expect to increase their cloud spending by 34% over the next two years, according to IDC.


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Managed cloud provides a new answer to the old problem of outsourcing, Posey said. Tech companies often feel that unless they’re doing everything themselves, they’re not a bonafide tech company, but that mindset has to change.

“In the digital economy, you’re not selling tech,” Posey said. “You’re selling an app or you’re selling an experience or you’re selling a new way of consuming a product. The infrastructure is there because it has to be, but a service provider can help you innovate on that infrastructure as well.”

Along with mobile, social and business analytics, cloud is one of the pillars in the next wave of IT, Posey said. It blurs the lines between the IT department and the business department and forces businesses to engage in continuous innovation and transformation. Managed cloud can help foster innovation in this new model by freeing the IT department from just putting out fires and keeping the lights on.

“When you have your foundational infrastructure managed or co-managed, you have more space, more time, more brainpower devoted to things that really matter to the business,” Posey said.

Chris Ducey, owner of startup Pocketbook Voters, a political commerce app business in Jersey City, N.J., is an Amazon Web Services customer that is

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looking to move to Rackspace managed cloud as the company expands. With all the unknowns around how that growth will be realized, having a partner to help that implementation is appealing, he said.

“I have no doubt it will cost us more than if we knew everything going into it, but the benefits far outweigh the risks,” Ducey said.

There are only a handful of service providers offering managed cloud, in-cluding Rackspace, Datapipe and Carpathia, Inc., but the number of vendors will likely increase to meet demand, Posey said.

There will be different types of clouds for different customers, and man-aged cloud will fill an important role going forward, Posey said. It can assist not only with the day-to-day services and install demands, but, as we enter the mass adoption stage of cloud, there will only be so many cloud experts to hire and retain for companies that want to do it themselves.

Do-it-yourself cloud worked great for early adopters, but even some of them that jumped in feet first are starting to move to managed cloud because of troubles with scale and complexity, Posey said. The reason is half of U.S. organizations don’t have enough people in their IT department to effectively support cloud, while another 45% have the people but aren’t necessarily up to date on the latest and greatest, she added.


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“You hit a wall there and you find the self-managed model doesn’t work for a couple reasons,” Posey said. “The main reason is you have to make hard choices.”

When businesses get deeply involved with these hands-off clouds, they must decide whether to hire more IT people, more developers or more marketing and sales staff, Posey said. And for startups in particular, those employee decisions could also include finance hires as they face the potential for IPOs or mergers and acquisitions.


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Hybrid cloud computing explained

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