There is a massive shift happening to hybrid cloud services. Firms enjoy mixing and matching on-premises systems, private cloud resources, and public cloud services.
More firms are discovering they don’t have to trash their old systems just to enjoy using new cloud apps. They can have both through hybrid integration. Hybrid cloud approaches can provide good cost savings, scalability, flexibility, and control.
You don’t have to put your confidential files or sensitive information in the cloud, either. Hybrid integration can let you use secure on-premises systems alongside cloud apps.
Hybrid integration brings together data from diverse sources as a seamless resource. Sources may include:
To optimize means to make something as good or effective as possible. So, the first reason to optimize any hybrid integration is to ensure your people get the best use from the systems you are bringing together.
Is the new system user-friendly? Is it quick, easy, and accurate? Is it delivering the information you need in a better way than before?
An optimized integration will help make it happen.
An excellent reason to optimize is to avoid overspending on entirely new systems. You can economize by using what you already have, in tandem with selected new systems or components.
Also, in the drive to digitize and modernize systems, there may be hidden costs. For example, in the haste to have a hybrid solution, you might overspend by buying more cloud computing capacity than you need.
You may even invest in the entirely wrong hybrid solution for your needs due to a lack of proper knowledge or advice. A decision like this can mean a big hit in your IT budget.
An optimized approach can avoid that.
Each enterprise is unique. This means there is no single best way to craft the perfect hybrid integration of systems. Different organizations will need differently designed computing systems depending on the existing state of their IT, their new needs, and their business goals.
So if you’re considering a hybrid approach, you first must know precisely why you need to go this way. Ask yourself:
If it’s clear a hybrid solution is best, you can compare different solutions. Analyze which integration option will best serve your business. And bear in mind your possible future data-crunching needs.
Automate the management of your resources to shrink waste.
According to Flexera’s 2021 State of the Cloud report, 55% of the surveyed enterprises said understanding the implied costs of software licenses was a top cloud challenge.
Check what you’re paying for carefully. For instance, don’t always pay peak usage fees for desired cloud apps if you don’t need to do this. Also, remember that the resources you’ll have to pay for include more than just memory and processors. Costs also include data transfer speed, network, and storage.
You may choose to have a detailed cloud governance policy, especially if your cloud architecture has many layers. The more layers you have, the harder it is to ensure they are configured consistently. And inconsistent configurations are hard to optimize for cost, performance, or security.
Good control and oversight of multi-cloud solutions can save you money. It’s wise to have good data and cloud governance policies from the outset.
Thorough research may include:
If you want to achieve better performance or cost savings with your integration, then first run a proof of concept before committing to it.
You can set up a test case to assess anticipated results and identify hidden problems.
You may be surprised by what you discover.
Map out all the relationships across apps, hardware, and networking devices for each IT-delivered service you will be using in the new hybrid system.
Although this can be challenging, it is necessary in building a sound, dependable, workable system.
Your IT experts need to understand all the application dependencies.
Application dependencies happen when technology components, applications, and servers rely on one another to provide a business solution or service.
It’s important to understand these to protect against critical system outages.
Also, if you’re moving some applications to the cloud without considering their dependent services, you can cause severe, unwanted side effects to your other apps that are still on-premises.
Hybrid integrations are always more complex because they involve different systems. So test your solution relentlessly to ensure there are no bottlenecks or bugs in the hybrid system. If you find any, fix them. If they can’t be fixed, then reconfigure.
Wasted cloud spending is a big issue. According to Flexera’s report, respondents self-estimated that 30% of their cloud spending was wasted. The report notes many organizations tend to underestimate the amount of waste—which Flexera estimated to be 35% or higher on average.
More organizations are using automated cloud cost optimization policies to save on cloud costs. These can include:
Technologies, as well as your business itself, will change over time. So, regular self-evaluation is helpful.
Periodically review your original business goals for the hybrid integration. See if that hybrid strategy is still working for you. Is it delivering the performance you’d wanted?
You can survey people who directly use your hybrid cloud services. Is it genuinely helping them? If not, review the system.
Any organization’s needs might change after a few years. When it does, you need to adjust your hybrid integration strategy too.
The last two years saw the economically devastating effects of a Covid-19 pandemic. The health crisis dramatically sped up a pre-existing decision by many businesses to embrace cloud strategies.
That was recent history. Who knows what may come our way by 2025?
So don’t be afraid to change your original hybrid cloud infrastructure. You may need to rebalance the layout of workloads as your needs evolve, as conditions change, or as new opportunities come your way.
To optimize means more than saving on costs and efficiencies. It also helps you prepare for the unexpected.
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