The truth is that the choice between a public or private cloud is a question with a faulty premise. Cloud computing no longer has to be either/or. And in point of fact, the notion that it must be either/or probably misunderstands what the cloud is in the first place.

The cloud is very simply all the data, applications, and computer system resources that are available on demand by a user, and typically it refers in particular to data storage (or cloud storage) and computing power.

Put in these terms, it makes sense that you’d expect some of that computing to remain in-house and some of it to be through public data centers. Which is exactly what the Hybrid Cloud is.

• Public Cloud: The public cloud is computing where all the resources are provided by 3rd party providers and purchased by users, typically depending on rates that shift depending on how and how much they’ll be used. AWS is the largest of the three best known public clouds, with 33% of the market according to a 2018 Synergy research report. Microsoft has 13% and Google just 6% respectively, but AWS has been the primary cloud provider and has an early lead on all its competitors.
• Private Cloud: The private cloud is similarly where all these computing services are provided over an internal network, proprietarily to one business (or one set of users) rather than being publicly available for a fee.
• Hybrid Cloud: The hybrid cloud is one that, depending on specific needs, uses on-premises infrastructure and private cloud services in addition to public clouds. Specifically, business have a million different computing needs, and the easy of “plug and pay” without any need to build infrastructure of your own is ideal for some computing needs, but other more tailor-made solutions are necessary as well. Hybrid clouds take stock of each specific need and maximize the efficiency of each individual solution, integrating each solution into a broad system that optimizes every aspect of the business.

The most important component of the hybrid cloud is the way that each cloud is separated, with its own set of applications and data storage, while each works consistently for users. Essentially it’s critical that a single computer can communicate across each different cloud (which typically incorporates multiple private and public clouds, depending on need) seamlessly. All the resources collated together come into a single pool that is accessible to your business, allowing you to scale up and down as needed without any difficulty moving between different environments. Management needs to be coordinated so that there is a single management tool that controls applications regardless of which cloud they’re connected to.

Hybrid cloud infrastructure architecture consists of 3 main components: The first requirement is general infrastructure as a service like AWS. The second requirement is a private cloud. The third major requirement is the Wide Area Network (WAN)/ bridge, which is used to connect the two environments.

Essentially, most businesses grow more and more complex as they gain a measure of success. Hybrid clouds allow for you to break down each component of the business and assure the computing solution that works best for each component.

A hybrid cloud allows you to personalize the customer experience with data analytics that track each user’s digital footprint so that you can predict who will buy what, when. You can enjoy more choice with the hybrid cloud. A hybrid cloud allows you to choose a provider while maintaining your identity, workloads, and processes. Through marketing automation, for instance you can enhance the digital customer experience or create customized experiences with cloud-based tools using AWS services.

In addition, hybrid clouds allow you to be more secure, to update your inventory in real time, and to optimize your business in the way both you and your customers want.

Private clouds are expensive and difficult to maintain, as well as buggy because they’re built from scratch. But they do come tailormade to solving your business’ specific problems, which can be invaluable at times to getting your business from point A to B. Public Clouds are cheaper and have proven components that you can trust, but they by definition don’t work specifically to your needs. Hybrid models take the best of both worlds and maximize efficiency for your business, optimizing computing solutions for what are inevitably varied needs. Commencis are experts at helping you navigate such solutions, and in using the cloud to analyze your and predict what your customers want most. A hybrid cloud computing model lets data analysis professionals like those at Commencis mine every bit of data available to take your business to the next level, and then hybrid computing means that scaling up is as simple as moving along the path you’re already on rather than rebuilding again from scratch.