What is hybrid cloud management for businesses?

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Storing all kinds of data continues to be a thorny issue for many businesses in the UK.

There are so many things to consider, from maintaining security and ensuring adequate capacity to allowing fast access and providing the flexibility to adapt over time.

For many businesses, the decision comes down to whether to store their data in a public cloud or in a private cloud. Each has its own distinct advantages and benefits, but neither is perfect. Thankfully, there is another solution, and hybrid cloud management is a path many forward-thinking businesses are now following.

What is hybrid cloud management?

Hybrid cloud management involves using public and private clouds together to provide an all-encompassing data storage solution that can give you the best of both worlds. Here are some of the key hybrid cloud benefits you can enjoy at your business:

• Cost savings

While there may be a pressing need to maintain some of your critical data in a private cloud, storing more general data in a public cloud reduces the need to continually upgrade and expand your own hardware. Over time, that can lead to a considerable saving in terms of not only the hardware itself, but also the personnel and training required to manage and maintain it.

• Scalability

As well as being cheaper and easier to run, having the option of a public cloud to go alongside your private cloud means you should be able to adapt almost immediately to changing circumstances. You can also use your public cloud as a ‘holding space’ while you assess the long-term trends in your business to decide whether it’s worth upgrading your private cloud provision to deal with any change in need.

• Agility

Public clouds tend to have the capability to respond automatically to any fluctuations in demand and capacity, so that your IT performance can work faster and more efficiently as a place to store your more volatile data. 

• Security

Maintaining security over your most important data can be a key decider when deciding how and where you’re going to store it. So, it’s understandable that keeping it on a private cloud is going to be the way that’s most likely to give you the confidence that you have ultimate control over its safekeeping. But that doesn’t mean you have to lose out on the many benefits you get from using a public cloud – the hybrid approach means you get to enjoy both the security of knowing you’re in control of your key data and the agility and scalability you get with the public cloud model.

• Protection in the event of failure

A hybrid cloud infrastructure means that you won’t be putting all your eggs into one basket. Using both a private and a public cloud gives you capacity to shift your data should one of them suffer some kind of outage or critical failure. 

For expert and informed advice on whether hybrid cloud management services would best meet the needs of your business, get in touch with the experienced team at Pickl today. We provide a wide range of IT solutions to businesses in and around London, Reading and Guildford.