Hybrid cloud storage is a combination of on-site storage infrastructure as well as private and public cloud storage. This hybrid arrangement allows organisations to enhance their data storage capabilities in different ways and enjoy the advantages of both worlds, on-prem and cloud.
Businesses implementing a hybrid cloud storage approach are able to improve their data scalability, reliability and security. This is because with hybrid cloud storage they are able to choose which data should be kept on-premises and which should be deployed in the cloud. It not only gives them the flexibility to choose the right storage depending on the workloads but also to meet regulatory compliance and other requirements.
Typically, companies rely on their on-site infrastructure to store their more sensitive data, as it provides greater control and consistent security over their data. They may also choose to do so due to data sovereignty reasons, where laws may require them to keep data within certain geographic locations.
However, with a hybrid cloud storage approach, they can still enjoy these advantages while also leveraging the advantages of the cloud. For instance, the cloud gives them a cost-effective way to scale operations to meet spikes in demand and avoid having to pay huge upfront costs when they require more storage capacity. Instead, they can pay for only the storage that they use.
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Business continuity is also another bonus. With hybrid cloud storage, organisations have access to remote infrastructure for their data, which can also serve for backup and disaster recovery purposes. If one is affected, there would be another storage infrastructure still working. It is much more cost-efficient than maintaining a secondary physical data centre for the same purpose – which was the norm for large organisations before the advent of the cloud. Hybrid cloud storage solves this by providing backup to the cloud, providing fast recovery at lower costs.
The biggest problem that organisations often have with hybrid cloud is its complexity, especially when they rely mainly on legacy infrastructure that was not built for the cloud era.
An example of a hybrid cloud storage platform is IBM’s Hybrid Cloud Storage Solutions, which was designed to simplify and manage the deployment of storage that works seamlessly across on-premises and hybrid cloud environments. It enables businesses to benefit from the security and privacy of private cloud and on-prem and the scalability and cost-efficient features of a public cloud. It also includes scalable data protection which provides near-instant recovery, replication, retention and reuse for VMs, databases and containers in hybrid cloud environments.
Click here to learn how your organisation can simplify data storage for the hybrid multi-cloud environment.
