It isn’t difficult to put things into the public cloud. All you have to do is enter a few details into a browser, agree to the terms and the services are there for you to consume. But the ease of use of the cloud actually masks an awful lot of architectural complexity. It takes a tremendous amount of technical skill to tie together the various technologies to ensure the smooth delivery of storage, compute and other cloud resources.
But the public cloud is not for everyone. It doesn’t always come cheap. Those using it are often are surprised at how the hidden costs can mount up. Rates per GB may appear low, but additional charges are often levied for bandwidth usage, number of users and other variables.
In addition, many businesses have security concerns, privacy requirements or application requirements that make the public cloud unworkable. In many cases, they look for an alternative which combines the benefits of the public cloud with the security and control afforded by internal IT assets. Thus the hybrid cloud has come into being: basic workloads and non-sensitive data are sent to the public cloud while the rest resides in a private cloud.
And therein lies the problem. There is no simple A-B-C checklist of actions to perform to arrive at a hybrid cloud, no magic formula for success. Assembling the necessary elements is unique to every business. Questions have to be answered, for example, about how secure the cloud needs to be, what applications should be allowed to run in it, and how data is to be distributed between public and private clouds. Expertise is required to correctly leverage resources from both types of cloud seamlessly. Great care must be taken to place applications in the most optimum location. Cost, security and performance all play a part and getting it right isn’t easy.
The establishment of a hybrid cloud, then, involves extensive integration. For many IT departments, this translates into a lengthy project with no certainty of success. Having erected a hybrid cloud for dozens of businesses, the involvement of Ballard Chalmers can mean the difference between success and failure.
We can deliver an operational hybrid cloud rapidly which is fully customised to the needs of any business. This enables integrated management of applications and workloads, regardless of whether they reside in the private or public cloud. Such a customised hybrid cloud provides business flexibility at an affordable price. Ballard Chalmers ensures everything will work together properly by conducting in-depth testing and validation before anything is placed into a production environment.
A dedicated team of consultants stands ready to work on your hybrid cloud project. For more information on how you can deploy a hybrid cloud in your company contact us.
By Drew Robb, Contributor
Drew Robb is a freelance editor and writer, specialising in the Information Technology sector.
