Hybrid Cloud Architecture Introductory Analysis and Its Trends

Public cloud computing was once popular in the IT world. In 2010, after IT people expressed concerns about public cloud security, the industry's focus shifted to private cloud. Currently, because everyone wants to demand flexibility in their operations, hybrid clouds are a natural entry into people's minds.

    The results of several recent cloud computing surveys also confirm the growing interest in hybrid clouds. A 2010 Unisys survey showed that 21% of IT organizations were focused on hybrid cloud, and a 2010 Sand Hill Group survey of more than 500 IT executives showed that hybrid cloud usage will triple over the next three years.

    Architecture analysis for hybrid clouds

    So what is a hybrid cloud? For starters, a hybrid cloud is all about including at least one private cloud and one public cloud. A private cloud can be a private cloud within a company or a virtual private cloud located in an enterprise data center. As shown in the following diagram, we provide a schematic of a simple hybrid cloud that includes a single on-premises private cloud and a single external public cloud:

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    The black circle in the diagram represents the active virtual server image, while the white circle represents the virtual server image that has been migrated using a secure connection. The arrow indicates the direction of migration. Connect business users to the cloud using secure connections, either virtual private networks (VPNs) or secure HTTP browsers.

    In theory, a hybrid cloud can also include multiple private and/or public clouds. The enterprise data center in the diagram can include active servers (whether virtual or physical) that are not part of a private cloud.

    What is driving hybrid cloud computing?

    Hybrid clouds were created to leverage the benefits of both public and private clouds in a seamless way. However, some of the risks associated with public and private clouds exist in hybrid clouds as well. The benefits and risks of public, private, and hybrid clouds are as follows:

    Benefits of Public Cloud:

    Low Investment Barrier: Pay for actual use

    It is a good test/development environment for applications that scale to many servers

    Risks of public clouds:

    Security issues: multi-tenancy and transmission over the Internet

    IT organizations may react negatively to data center functions running out of control

    Benefits of Private Cloud:

    Because existing data centers are under control, there is no need to pay too much attention to security

    IT organizations still retain control and management of the data center

    Risks of Private Cloud:

    Private cloud implementation and procurement of new hardware and software are high investment risks

    New business processes need to be developed; The original process is not entirely suitable for private clouds

    Benefits of Hybrid Cloud:

    Operational flexibility: Run critical services on private clouds, develop and test on public clouds

    Elastic: Run high-peak and high-load workloads on the public cloud

    Risks of hybrid cloud:

    Hybrid clouds are still in development; There are not many products and services that are actually available

    security controls between private and public clouds; Some of these concerns are the same as those of the public cloud

    The challenge of hybrid cloud

    The challenge from hybrid cloud computing is to provide cross-platform, cross-cloud computing applications, maintaining seamless operation across interfaces and management software. Users want data center tools to manage hybrid cloud environments. Ideally, they want to be able to create applications or move existing applications between clouds in a hybrid cloud environment without making any critical changes such as network settings, security policies, business processes, or management/monitoring tools. This is a real challenge, and hybrid clouds are often becoming increasingly complex due to issues such as interoperability, mobility, and different APIs, tools, policies, and processes.

    In the follow-up to Hybrid Cloud Systems, we'll cover the most prominent hybrid clouds on the market today and identify a best use case for hybrid cloud computing products.

    About the author:

    Bill Claybrook is a marketing research analyst with over 30 years of experience in the computer industry, with 10 years of experience in Linux and open source. From 1999 to 2004, Bill served as Director of Linux and Open Source Research at the Aderdeen Group in Boston. He resigned in June 2009 after four and a half years in competitive analysis/Linux product marketing at Dell. Currently, he is President of New River Market Research in Concord, Massachusetts. He holds a PhD in computer science.