Cloud computing is one of the most popular subjects discussed in the mobile industry today. While working in the cloud is very beneficial to companies, it is not without its risks. Smaller companies, especially, can incur losses if they do not completely understand the downside of this technology. Companies today are seriously considering the use of hybrid clouds in order to achieve the maximum benefit from this infrastructure. Hybrid clouds are so designed to minimize errors and maximize the efficiency of the infrastructure.
Are hybrid clouds actually the best solution for companies? What are their advantages and disadvantages? In this post, we discuss the future of hybrid clouds in mobile computing.
- What are Hybrid Clouds?
When people talk in terms of cloud computing, they are generally referring to public clouds, such as Rack space, which is shared by several thousands of customers from all over the world.
These cloud providers usually sell storage space, bandwidth and computing power to companies at much cheaper rates than those of actual, physical servers. While this saves the company a huge chunk of investment, it could also cause concerns over accessibility, availability and security.
Most companies would think twice before porting sensitive data onto a public cloud. They would prefer to store such information on their own private servers. This type of thinking got some businesses working on setting up their own cloud-like computing processes, which in turn, created what is known as the private cloud. While these clouds work in the same way as public clouds, they are meant exclusively for the company in question and can be fire walled away from the rest of the Internet. This gives the private cloud more security and better performance as well.
Many businesses today use a judicious mix of these clouds, in order to gain the maximum advantage from the good aspects of each of these clouds. While they use public clouds for less sensitive tasks, they prefer to use private clouds for their most vital processing tasks. The hybrid cloud, thus works out the most preferred infrastructure for companies who are not willing to enter the cloud in a big way. Microsoft is now offering the hybrid cloud infrastructure to many of its clients.
