The digital world has come to our society to stay. Right now we are at a transition point where email, cloud services and remote work are gaining in importance. Our protagonist today is undoubtedly the cloud in which we can find various types such as public, private and hybrid. Let’s see if the latter is the best option in relation to the other two. In this article we are going to discover if the hybrid cloud is the best option for storage and security.
Hybrid Cloud State of Play
The hybrid cloud can be defined as a strategy that encompasses public and private clouds that has been gaining popularity in recent years. As for hybrid cloud strategies, they seek to take advantage of the scalability and variety of services of public clouds. Also with a private cloud they maintain private control of sensitive data and/or processing. If we want to understand if we are interested in the hybrid cloud, we must understand its possible benefits and dangers. Popular NAS server manufacturer Synology is going for a hybrid cloud approach, where we have the manufacturer’s NAS servers and also the public cloud with its C2 solutions for backup and even access directly from the cloud.
Now we are going to understand the benefits and challenges of public and private clouds, and then the difficulties and benefits that come from combining them and becoming hybrid. You may be interested in these tips so you don’t get robbed in the cloud.
public cloud
Public clouds on their servers use virtualization software and typically also provide other API-driven services, in addition to software load balancers, databases, messaging, and more. The appeal of public clouds is their high scalability, their “pay as you go” model, outsourcing of maintenance, platform updates, and also the wide variety of services they offer.
Public clouds typically use shared infrastructure to offer higher cost efficiency. The downside is that they can lead to security issues as sensitive workloads will be running in the same physical memory as those from other companies. Also keep in mind that cloud storage is often kept on shared hardware.
In terms of control, they put us at the mercy of a vendor that limits the amount of control and visibility we can have over operations. Finally, also regarding the security of public clouds, attack vulnerabilities arise because by definition they are accessible to the public worldwide.
the private cloud
Private clouds are servers and storage that are typically run in home environments, small and medium-sized businesses, and, of course, data centers. Thanks to the private cloud, we retain control and the burden of maintaining and updating the infrastructure. We will also be able to use virtualization to continue to provide a degree of flexibility to users. Its great advantage is running the applications in our facilities, which provides security and control. The best example of a private cloud in a domestic environment is using NAS servers.
A major problem they face is their difficult scalability. Although we can plan and purchase enough resources to suit our needs, sometimes workloads can have large spikes that cause us problems. This could lead to long wait times or interruptions for customers. We must also recognize that scaling private resources for specific events that remain idle most of the time can be considered very inefficient.
A very important aspect to keep in mind is that the investment in computing resources can be high and, therefore, must be well planned and focused on estimating future needs. If we do not do so, we can fall short and we must bear in mind that we must try to respond to constantly changing needs. In that aspect we are going to have less flexibility than a public cloud in which its pay-per-use models allow us to quickly make changes. You may also be interested in these tips to turn your computer into a private cloud.
The hybrid cloud and why it is a very good option
Hybrid clouds try to combine the benefits of public and private clouds to take advantage of both. In this aspect, the applications that require greater security or more control would use the private cloud. On the other hand, applications that have high scalability requirements run in a public cloud.
The problem they have is the complexity that is generated. So obviously any multi-cloud approach will be more complex than a single one. These operations require a good understanding of private and public cloud platforms. In this aspect, the diagnosis of security vulnerabilities in applications is more complicated. In addition, application configuration and management can be more complex. Reengineering traditional applications for the cloud can also require significant engineering expense.
To solve these problems when we are using the hybrid cloud, we will need to automate the different actions to make it suitable for our needs. It will be necessary to focus on what we must do and carry it out, in addition, we will also have to create automations and software abstracting the “physical” layer, so that it is exactly the same regardless of whether we use the public or private cloud. Finally, we should also plan for growth and be able to expand, both to expand the processing capacity of the private cloud as well as the public cloud if necessary.
If we move to a hybrid cloud model, we will have great potential for the future, but we have to pay a toll that is none other than complexity. Lastly, hybrid cloud can be a good solution but to mitigate the complexity we will need to adopt a high level of automation for it to be successfully implemented.