Hybrid cloud storage explained


26 Oct 2016

Private, public or hybrid cloud – which will you choose? Image: R. MACKAY PHOTOGRAPHY, LLC/Shutterstock

Thinking of getting your head into hybrid cloud? Interxion outlines what this entails and the considerations that must be made.

As a generation, we are consuming more information than our grandparents ever did in their lives. This exponential growth is placing an unprecedented demand on information owners and managers, which has significant expenditure in two different ways: the cost of sourcing and interpreting this data, and the cost of storing this information.

This demand has resulted in a growing trend towards hybrid cloud storage. In early 2015 at Interxion, we carried out a survey with European decision-makers, including Irish companies, looking at what storage options they were using and were planning to use into the future. That’s when we first became aware of this trend towards hybrid colocation in both Europe and Ireland.

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We’re seeing a new trend in the industry where customers are choosing hybrid storage, combining cloud and data centre solutions. For most of our customers, they just want one provider to supply the service, minimising the input and resources required on their side.

There are some companies who choose one or the other but when cost, connectivity and deployment requirements are taken into consideration, we are seeing less and less of this mentality.

What is hybrid cloud storage?

In simple terms, hybrid cloud storage combines privately owned cloud storage and public cloud services.

For information owners struggling to cope with rising costs and growing demand, hybrid cloud storage provides a number of benefits.

  • Security: Sensitive and critical workloads can continue to be hosted in an organisation’s private cloud while less-sensitive data can be stored in the public cloud
  • Cost effectiveness: Combining a public and private cloud allows an organisation to scale up their requirements without the significant cost input of investing in private facilities
  • Deployment: Hosting current workloads in the public cloud allows for easier and quicker deployment when required, compared to the private cloud
  • Scalability: Utilising a public cloud through a partner makes it much easier to scale up to meet growing demands

As with any method of data management, there are considerations.

Organisations must ensure that their private cloud is compatible with their public provider and that their private cloud has solid network connectivity.

An organisation must also consider if they are subject to any data management standards and ensure that their provider meets these needs.

Into the future

When we carried out our research in early 2015, it was clear that there was an initial reluctance towards adopting the cloud. However, this has eased, with the benefits and increasing demand outweighing the negatives.

We anticipate this growth in hybrid cloud storage to continue for the foreseeable future; yet we don’t envisage the end of the physical data centre, which will continue to be a constant requirement and an irreplaceable form of data storage.

A version of this article originally appeared on the Interxion blog.