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What is a hybrid cloud?

Get an overview of the hybrid cloud, how it works, and when to use it.
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Hybrid cloud definition

Hybrid cloud computing combines public cloud computing with on-premises infrastructure, or the private cloud, into an integrated environment. This allows applications, data, and workloads to be shared between the two, leading to greater performance.

Key takeaways

  • Get an introduction to hybrid cloud computing and its role in the cloud computing market.
  • Discover the many benefits of the hybrid cloud—and see why organizations use this model for greater flexibility, performance, and cost efficiency.
  • Find out what’s next for the future of hybrid cloud computing and where it’s poised for growth.
  • Understand when to use the hybrid cloud to meet your specific needs.
  • Explore additional resources to help you learn more and get started.

How does the hybrid cloud work?

Hybrid cloud computing combines public and private cloud environments, allowing applications, services, and workloads to be shared between them. By adopting the hybrid model, organizations can choose where to run their workloads based on their business needs, resulting in greater flexibility, scalability, and cost efficiency—all while retaining control over specific resources.

With the hybrid cloud, organizations can experience the best of both worlds. They can rely on the third-party public cloud to scale and optimize their resources while still using the on-premises, private cloud to manage more critical workloads that may require greater levels of security or control.
Hybrid cloud environments are typically managed through a centralized cloud management platform, which gives users full visibility over their entire infrastructure. Cloud management solutions also allow for the seamless integration, orchestration, and management of resources between the two environments, often using APIs and orchestration tools.

What are the benefits of hybrid cloud?

See why organizations use the hybrid cloud for greater flexibility and control.

Flexibility

By adopting the hybrid model, businesses have the flexibility to choose where to run their workloads based on their specific security or performance needs.

Cost efficiency

Hybrid cloud gives organizations the ability to use public cloud resources while maintaining private cloud infrastructure, resulting in greater value and overall cost efficiency.

Scalability

Hybrid cloud can scale your workloads up and down during peak demand, all without having to overinvest in additional on-premises infrastructure.

Business continuity

By providing seamless backup and failover between private and public clouds, the hybrid cloud lets organizations prepare for business continuity disaster recovery.

Improved performance

With its ability to optimize resource allocation across both private and public clouds, hybrid cloud computing is ideal for boosting application performance and responsiveness.

Security and compliance

By using the private cloud to manage sensitive data, organizations can comply with data regulations and better secure their critical workloads.

Innovation and agility

Hybrid cloud computing facilitates faster deployment and access to new technologies, providing businesses with a competitive edge.

The future of hybrid cloud

As organizations continue to seek more flexible, scalable, and secure IT solutions for AI adoption and digital transformation, the future of the hybrid cloud is poised to see rapid evolution and growth. Cloud providers and technology vendors will continue to innovate, and as a result, hybrid cloud platforms will become even more seamless, with greater interoperability between different environments.

In the coming years, AI, machine learning, and edge computing are expected to play significant roles in shaping the future of the hybrid cloud. These technologies will have the ability to help automate workload management, improve decision-making capabilities, and optimize resource allocation across both public and private cloud environments. AI-powered tools, for instance, will have the ability to monitor and optimize where data is stored and processed based on performance and cost-efficiency.

More and more organizations will also turn to the hybrid cloud for data sovereignty, governance, and protection purposes. By storing sensitive data in the private cloud, hybrid cloud computing will make it easier for businesses to comply with regional data laws—and mitigate overall risk.
Use cases

Common hybrid cloud scenarios

Organizations often turn to the hybrid cloud to meet a specific set of needs. Here are some common scenarios:

Cloud bursting

Because it can efficiently handle spikes in demand, hybrid cloud computing is commonly used for cloud bursting. When demand exceeds private cloud capacity, the hybrid cloud taps into additional resources from the public cloud, ensuring seamless scaling.

Business continuity disaster recovery

Many organizations use the hybrid cloud for business continuity disaster recovery. They typically store critical workloads in a private cloud, then replicate them to the public cloud as a backup. In the event of failure, the public cloud provides failover capacity, resulting in minimal downtime.

Data sovereignty and compliance

For organizations that must comply with strict data residency regulations, the hybrid cloud is an essential solution. With the hybrid model, you can use the private cloud to store sensitive data for greater security while still taking advantage of the public cloud for everyday applications.

App modernization

The hybrid cloud can facilitate app modernization by keeping core legacy apps running in the private cloud while the newer cloud-native apps are deployed in the public cloud. The hybrid cloud renders this transition seamless.

Edge computing and IoT

As IoT devices and edge computing become more prevalent, more and more organizations are using hybrid cloud architecture to connect edge devices to the cloud, where the locally processed data is analyzed, stored, or used for machine learning.

Multicloud strategy

By adopting a hybrid model, businesses can use multiple cloud providers for different services for optimal performance, in turn boosting redundancy while minimizing the risk of vendor lock-in. One cloud provider may offer more storage solutions, while another may be better optimized for compute power.
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Additional resources

Learn more about hybrid cloud by exploring the following resources.
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Frequently asked questions

  • Hybrid cloud is an IT environment that combines the private cloud, or on-premises infrastructure, with public cloud services. This setup gives organizations the flexibility to choose where to store or run their applications, allowing them to benefit from the security of the private cloud and the scalability of the public cloud.
  • Infrastructure is the difference between full cloud and hybrid cloud. In a full cloud model, all resources are hosted on a cloud platform with no on-premises infrastructure. Hybrid cloud combines both cloud services and on-premises infrastructure, allowing organizations to keep some data and applications on site while using the cloud for others.
  • Multicloud refers to the use of cloud services from multiple cloud providers to manage the demands of different workloads. Hybrid cloud refers to the use of multiple cloud environments, a public cloud and an on-premises private cloud, from one provider or more.
  • Due to the complexity of managing both on-premises infrastructure and cloud environments, hybrid cloud has the potential to introduce security risks such as data breaches, compliance issues, misconfiguration, and complications around access control, monitoring, and threat detection.
  • Yes. Hybrid cloud computing can be secure, but the strength of its security depends on how well your organization addresses potential vulnerabilities. With proper security measures in place—including encryption, multi-factor authentication, regular audits, and continuous monitoring—hybrid cloud can be just as secure as other cloud models.