Hybrid cloud, also sometimes referred to as Hybrid IT, is a sophisticated computer system that combines the advantages of public cloud, private cloud, and potentially other IT platforms.
A company has a lot to gain from designing and building a hybrid cloud strategy, but a poorly-built virtual environment could be an expensive and inefficient system – and even cause some security risks!
With that in mind, our cloud experts have provided their top tips for creating an effective hybrid cloud strategy, including how to build the environment, what to consider, and your essential post-migration checklist. Or you can discover even more about why you might want to opt for this common cloud model in our guide: what is hybrid cloud?
How to build hybrid cloud/IT?
When it come to building a hybrid cloud, there are typically two solutions for you to choose from. Each comes with their own benefits and challenges, so we’ve outlined both so you can decide which might best-suit your skills and business.
Using a VPN to network platforms together
VPN – A Virtual Private Network is a way of connecting together two devices so that they can transfer data to one another as if they were directly connected, while using the public internet. A VPN prevents anyone accessing the data while it transfers, important for security reasons and some other applications.
The vast majority of hybrid cloud architecture designs will use VPN to act as a bridge between their platforms, allowing the secure and consistent transfer of data to one another.
To establish a VPN connection requires a strong knowledge of your own network architecture, and so having an experienced network engineer is important to building a hybrid cloud strategy.
Alternatively, there is the option of introducing a direct connection into your chosen public cloud platforms. For instance, AWS, Azure, and other providers can provide a layer 2 direct connection into their public cloud.
This is an expensive way of connecting your public cloud and private IT together, though, which is why most companies use VPNs. However, if your company is transferring a huge amount of data between systems, then this direct connection might be the best choice, as it provides a better connection (and it might work out as cheaper if you’re transferring enough data).
Automated public cloud activation
One of the biggest challenges that CIOs are faced with is deciding how to move their company’s digital transformation forward when they have business-critical applications running on legacy systems.
While new technology has facilitated greater flexibility and control through things like infrastructure as code, it’s often impractical to transition legacy systems to these new platforms.
However, it is possible with hybrid cloud, which allows the legacy system to be connected to newer, more efficient solutions, and provide all-important flexibility to said legacy systems. The drawback: this will only work with proper automation in place, including:
- A load balancer configured to monitor data requests, and the capacity of the servers it is responsible for.
- Sophisticated coding that will allow it to automatically spin up new servers when a certain demand has been reached.
It’s important to acknowledge that, once demand on your system begins to drop, your load balancer is also capable of switching off the additional servers it activated, which can help to save resources. In fact, one of the main benefits of this hybrid cloud strategy is that you only have these additional public cloud servers activated when you need them; and you don’t have to pay for them during unnecessary times.
What to be aware of when building hybrid cloud
It might be tempting when you are building your hybrid cloud to allow all ports to be openly transferring data through your VPN, to facilitate the connection between platforms. But this isn’t best practise for a number of reasons.
Security
The primary issue is security. If your systems are directly connected to one another, and all of their ports are open to transfer data, as soon as an attacker has compromised one of your platforms (whether it’s internal servers, your public cloud, or anything else) they will have access to everything connected to your hybrid cloud, regardless of what security is in place for these other platforms.
Organisation
Additionally, there is an organisational risk with having all the ports of a hybrid cloud open. It’s important to remember that if someone is making data changes on one platform, it may be having an impact on parts of the hybrid cloud they are unaware of.
Configuration
If you configure your hybrid cloud strategy correctly, you will avoid security and organisational issues. You need to make sure:
- The default position on all your systems is to have their ports closed and denying data transfers.
- Ports are only opened when they are specifically needed for co-ordination between platforms.
- Once the data transfer is complete, the ports close again automatically.
This requires a level of commitment to maintaining careful control over unnecessary data transfer within your hybrid cloud, but the security it provides is well-worth it.
Post-migration: Hybrid cloud strategy checklist
Once you’ve successfully built your hybrid cloud environment, it’s important to have a strong plan of action that sets you up for success. The following best-practices are simple-yet-effective, and will help support you in managing your hybrid cloud environment:
1. Continuously monitor usage and spend
It’s often too easy for departments to spin up clouds without a robust use case, and to then compound the error by not mapping them accurately enough. Uncontained adoption and cloud sprawl must be reined in. Set up monthly alerts and budgets if need be.
2. Shut down unused instances
Stop being wasteful. Invest in back-end services such as service monitoring and dynamic resource allocation; use automated policies to shut down workloads after hours, specify expiration dates for workloads, and eliminate inactive storage.
3. Tag workloads
Workload tagging still has a role to play, but remember tags are only effective if everyone is using them consistently. They can highlight attributes such as workload type, what application it is for, and its expiration date, and can be easily reported against.
4. Optimise, optimise, optimise
Always look to do better. To help manage your hybrid environments more effectively, maintain focus around:
- Right-sizing workloads
- Eliminating waste
- Getting on top of budgetary overruns
Just because a workload started in one place, it doesn’t mean it should stay there; and if re-architecting an application will give you better returns than re-platforming it in the long run, factor that into your planning too.
5. Maintain the perfect balance
With visibility of the cloud infrastructure in place and a flow of utilisation analytics, you have what you need to properly orchestrate hybrid working and capitalise on the benefits of each tier.
Taking advantage of public cloud vendor discounts comes into this, as does avoiding vendor lock-in, which could impact costs over time. And don’t take your eye off private cloud costs either – use tools, outsourced services, and partnerships to extract maximum value.
Hybrid cloud is an achievable goal
While it can at first appear complicated, hybrid cloud isn’t out of reach for a lot of companies who need to upgrade their IT – and it allows you to maintain your private infrastructure.
If built correctly, you can reap the benefits of public cloud and private architecture within one system, without compromising on security at all, and potentially saving your company some money along the way with efficient automatic public cloud deployment.
If migrating to hybrid cloud sounds like the right fit for your business, we can help you find the right solution. In fact, we offer a comprehensive suite of cloud services, covering private, public, and hybrid, all of which can integrate into your private infrastructure or other cloud provisions.
Speak to one of our cloud experts to get the best advice when building your hybrid cloud for success. Alternatively, discover even more advice over on our blog, including the differences between hybrid vs multi cloud solutions and our piece covering hybrid cloud vs hybrid IT.
