Hybrid Cloud

With cloud computing having proven itself as a highly efficient and agile way to implement IT services, for most enterprises the question is not whether to use cloud computing but how to use it. Increasingly, enterprises are settling on the "hybrid cloud" as the optimal way to reap the benefits of cloud computing.

What Is a Hybrid Cloud?

A hybrid cloud is a "best of both worlds" solution that seeks to combine the benefits of public and private clouds:

• Public clouds are owned and operated by cloud computing companies and are made available to any customer willing to pay for the service. For enterprise customers, the key benefit of public clouds is near-limitless scalability on demand, without need for capital expenditures.
• A private cloud is used only by a particular enterprise, and is typically owned and operated by that enterprise. For the enterprise, a private cloud provides a greater degree of control, security, and transparency than a public cloud.
• A hybrid cloud is a distributed cloud computing architecture in which an enterprise supplements its private cloud with resources from a public cloud, with some degree of integration between the two.

Why Use a Hybrid Cloud?

There are two primary rationales for implementing a hybrid cloud. The first is that most enterprises support a variety of IT workloads, with some workloads involving highly sensitive data and processes and others being less sensitive. A common hybrid cloud strategy is to deploy sensitive data and applications on private cloud servers while outsourcing less critical workloads to cost-effective public clouds.

The second broad use case for a hybrid cloud infrastructure is to accommodate spikes in demand. The expensive private cloud can be sized to support typical service demand levels. Then, in a process known as "cloud bursting", occasional demand spikes can be accommodated by more economical public cloud resources that are kept at the ready.

How Akamai Helps You Get a Better Return on Your Hybrid Cloud Investment

For enterprises using a hybrid cloud approach to provide IT services to a dispersed, mobile workforce, the private cloud component and public cloud component have something important in common: both depend on the internet as an extended service delivery platform. A key cloud management challenge is to ensure that end users have a reliable, productive experience with cloud services regardless of the users' location and the type of internet-connected device they use.

This is where Akamai can help you maximize your hybrid cloud ROI. Leveraging our global application acceleration platform that spans more than 175,000 servers in over 100 countries, Akamai offers cloud acceleration solutions that:

• Provide your users a faster, more reliable experience with cloud applications, leading to increased rates of service adoption and enhanced productivity.
• Optimize application delivery in real-time based on factors including network type, network congestion, connected device type, browser type, and more.
• Improve web security for your cloud applications by thwarting attacks originating through the internet.
• Optimize hybrid cloud application performance over WANs as well as over the public internet.

Learn more about Hybrid Cloud acceleration solutions from Akamai.