A hybrid cloud is a computing environment that combines an on-premises datacenter (also called a private cloud) with a public cloud, allowing data and applications to be shared between them. Some people define it to include “multicloud” configurations where an organization uses more than one public cloud in addition to their on-premises datacenter.
No matter which definition of hybrid cloud you use, the benefits are the same: When computing and processing demand increases beyond an on-premises datacenter’s capabilities, businesses can use the cloud to instantly scale capacity up or down to handle excess capacity. It also allows them to avoid the time and cost of purchasing, installing, and maintaining new servers that they may not always need.
For industries that work with highly sensitive data, such as banking, finance, government, and healthcare, hybrid may be their best cloud option. For example, some regulated industries require certain types of data to be stored on-premises while allowing less sensitive data to be stored on the cloud. In this kind of architecture, organizations gain the flexibility of the public cloud for less regulated computing tasks, while still meeting their industry requirements.
Organizations that use a this platform are able to use many of the same security measures that they use in their existing on-premises infrastructure—including security information and event management (SIEM) capabilities. In fact, some organizations find cloud hybrid security to be superior to that of their on-premises datacenter because of always-up-to-date, automated data redundancy, high availability, disaster recovery, and cybersecurity features.
