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Is a hybrid cloud solution right for your company?

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Over the last decade, many companies have been shifting IT responsibilities to the cloud, a solution that allows various users and hardware to share data over vast distances. Cloud programs frequently take the form of infrastructure as a service. A company that can't afford in-house servers or a full-sized IT team can use cloud solutions to replace these hardware and personnel limitations.

Large companies like Amazon, Microsoft and Google are all behind cloud services, propelling the space forward and innovating constantly. However, there are still limitations when it comes to cloud adoption. For as convenient as theses services are, they are designed for ubiquitous usage. Organizations that specialize in certain tasks may find a cloud solution limited in its capabilities.

Those businesses wishing to support service-oriented architecture may wish to consider a hybrid cloud solution, a new service becoming widespread throughout various enterprise application. As its name suggests, a hybrid cloud solution combines the power of a third-party cloud provider with the versatility of in-house software. While this sounds like an all-around positive, these solutions are not for every organization.

"Before businesses discuss a hybrid solution, they need three separate components."

Why technical prowess matters for hybrid cloud adoption
TechTarget listed three essentials for any company attempting to implement a hybrid cloud solution. Organizations must:

  1. Have on-premise private cloud hardware, including servers, or else a signed agreement with a private cloud provider.
  2. Support a strong and stable wide area network connection.
  3. Have purchased an agreement with a public cloud platform such as AWS, Azure or Google Cloud.

Essentially, before businesses can discuss a hybrid solution, they need all the separate components. An office with its own server room will still struggle with a hybrid cloud solution if its WAN cannot reliably link the private system with the third party cloud provider. And here is the crutch. Companies without skilled IT staffs need to think long and hard about what that connection would entail.

Compatibility is a crucial issue. Businesses can have the most sophisticated, tailored in-house cloud solution in the world but, if it doesn't work with the desired third party cloud software, the application will be next to useless. It isn't just a matter of software. Before a hybrid cloud solution can be considered feasible, equipment like servers, load balancers and a local area network all need to be examined to see how well they will function with the proposed solution.

After this preparation is complete, organizations will need to create a hypervisor to maintain virtual machine functionality. Once this is accomplished, a private cloud software layer will be needed to empower many essential cloud capabilities. Then the whole interface will need to be reworked with the average user in mind to create a seamless experience.

In short: in-house, skilled IT staff are essential to successfully utilizing a hybrid cloud solution. If businesses doubt the capabilities of any department, or question whether they have enough personnel to begin with, it may be better to hold off on hybrid cloud adoption.

Without being properly installed, a poorly implemented solution could cause delays, lost data and, worse of all, potentially disastrous network data breaches.

Cloud technology has been designed to keep business data secure. Poorly installing a hybrid solution could weaken this stability.Cloud technology has been designed to keep business data secure. Poorly installing a hybrid solution could weaken this stability.

The potential benefits of the hybrid cloud
However, if created the right way, a hybrid cloud solution brings a wide array of advantages to many enterprises, particularly those working with big data. According to the Harvard Business Review, hybrid cloud platforms can bring the best of both solutions, including unified visibility into resource utilization. This improved overview will empower companies to track precisely which employees are using what and for how long. Workload analysis reports and cost optimization will ultimately be improved as organizations can better direct internal resources and prioritize workers with stronger performances.

Overall platform features and computing needs will also be fully visible, allowing businesses to scale with greater flexibility. This is especially helpful for enterprises that see "rush periods" near the end of quarter/year. As the need rises, the solution can flex right along with it.

Hybrid cloud services are also easier to manage. If implemented properly, IT teams can harmonize the two infrastructures into one consistent interface. This will mean that employees only need to become familiar with one system, rather than learning different apps individually.

Companies processing big data can segment processing needs, according to the TechTarget report. Information like accumulated sales, test and business data can be retained privately while the third party solution runs analytical models, which can scale larger data collections without compromising in-office network performance.

As The Practical Guide to Hybrid Cloud Computing noted, this type of solution allows businesses to tailor their capabilities and services in a way that directly aligns with desired company objectives, all while ensuring that such goals remain within budget.

Organizations with skilled, fully formed IT teams should consider hybrid cloud solutions. While not every agency needs this specialized, flexible data infrastructure, many businesses stand ready to reap considerable rewards from the hybrid cloud.

How does culture affect hybrid IT integration?

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The culture you have created at your business should be something you are constantly evaluating. Not only does it affect employee retention and recruiting, it also has major repercussions when attempting to implement a hybrid IT solution. Blending your own IT team’s services with that of an outside provider is never a completely smooth process, but having a poor internal culture can make it even bumpier than it has to be.

That said, culture does not exactly have a quantifiable metric, so deciding whether or not your employees are ready for this kind of service can be difficult. What does an office that is prepared for hybrid IT integration look like, and what can you do to get your workers to that position? Let’s find out:

“IT departments have become overwhelmed.”

Your IT team hasn’t failed

A good place to start with a hybrid IT integration is to make sure everyone understands that your internal IT department is not at fault here. Many employees jump to the conclusion that contracting a managed service provider to handle certain functions is the first step toward fully outsourcing IT. As an administrator, it is your job to quell these notions.

With the massive increase in technological reliance in recent years, IT departments have become overwhelmed. In fact, Robert Half Technology found in a study that CIOs believed their tech teams to be understaffed by about 42 percent. Explaining that this integration of hybrid IT is to allow your internal department to focus on future goals rather than putting out daily fires can help quell any panic from employees.

Emphasize innovation from the top

Another reason employees are hesitant about hybrid IT is the fact that they probably have gotten used to the old way of doing things. In fact, getting employees out of a rut is actually one of the best benefits of this service. Shaking things up from time to time helps fight complacency, but it has to come from the top of your organization. This means getting all executives on board and actively engaged in this transition.

If not, you could become part of the roughly 90 percent of respondents in a recent Hitachi Consulting report that stated legacy systems were getting in the way of innovation and growth. Innovation should be a major part of any company’s business model, and hybrid IT can help you work toward it.

Innovation is a key part of business. Hybrid IT can help with innovation.

Be specific with what will need to happen

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, administrators need to keep employees as informed as possible about this transition. This starts by being specific about what operations will have to be moved when discussing the integration with your current IT team. Just saying “we need to move to the cloud” is not good enough.

On top of that, you’re going to need to be extremely transparent with the rest of your employees. Backlash from workers is very common in these situations, and the only way to minimize this is to make sure everyone knows what’s going on and why these operations are changing.

Hybrid IT is certainly a deviation from the norm, but that’s the whole point. Change is a good thing if handled correctly, so make sure you choose a solid managed service provider to get the job done right. ISG Technology’s years of experience integrating hybrid IT can help make sure your transition is as pain free as possible.





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Tech in law

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Technology today is all about doing more with less, and nowhere is that more apparent than in the legal industry. This sector’s market in the United States has been valued by the Legal Executive Institute to be worth around $437 billion, and with so much money invested, administrators in this field are doing everything they can to streamline the legal process. But what kind of technologies are law firms adopting?

“The cloud has quite a lot of benefits for those working within law.”

The cloud and e-discovery

Like in every other industry, the cloud has quite a lot of benefits for those working within law. Although this technology has a wide range of uses, perhaps the most relevant for legal firms is its ability to quickly and efficiently implement e-discovery applications.

When legal proceedings begin, lawyers start what is called the discovery process. As the name entails, this is where employees at the law firm comb through hundreds or thousands of documents in order to uncover any wrongdoing and to get to the heart of the matter. This is often an extremely inefficient way to handle discovery, and can very easily result in a worker missing a crucial piece of evidence.

Computers are better at discovery than people. Computers never skip a sentence or fall asleep on the job.

E-discovery applications work to cut through this process by using specific searching algorithms to find what the lawyers are looking for. Computers are infinitely better than humans at searching large amounts of data, which is why many law firms have opted to include this technology in their arsenals. However, when choosing to work with e-discovery applications, these organizations have to make a choice between on-premises computing or accessing this technology through the cloud.

Even though e-discovery is revolutionizing the legal industry, it has also increased the risk of a data breach. These documents are often extremely private and contain personal data that a hacker could later use for personal gain. This need to keep information secret certainly isn’t specific to law, but it’s something that is keeping many firms out of the cloud.

However, as many experts have noted, the cloud really isn’t as unsafe as many believe it to be. In fact, Big Law Business contributors Daniel Garrie and Yoav M. Griver stressed that on-premises computing systems can be hacked just as easily as the cloud. Considering the initial costs associated with setting up an in-house computing solution, avoiding the cloud because of a false sense of danger is a mistake.

Contract management software

Another technology a lot of law firms are seeing the benefits of is contract management software. This is a platform through which administrators can easily view the progress of each contract they have created. Modifications can be made quickly and easily to unsigned contracts, allowing everyone with access to the system the opportunity to read and comment on the exact same document. Lawyers can even view how well signers are following up on their obligations on existing contracts.

That said, perhaps the most interesting part of this technology is its ability to manage digital signatures. One of the biggest issues holding legal firms back from adopting more advanced solutions is the fact that a physical ink signature is seen to hold more weight in court than a digital one. This viewpoint is rapidly changing, however, thanks in part to contract management software.

BYOD

The bring-your-own-device trend is sweeping just about every industry, whether company administrators know about it or not. In fact, a Gartner study found that around 37 percent of people currently using their own gadget for work purposes don’t currently have permission. Considering how people often don’t protect their mobile devices, this is an absolute nightmare for the IT department.

In fact, quite a lot of organizations have had to deal with hackers due to the increased use of personal gadgets for work purposes. A study conducted by IDG Research Services discovered that just under three-quarters of respondents saw a data breach event as a result of poor cybersecurity measures concerning mobile devices.

That said, BYOD has some amazing benefits for legal firms. Lawyers often meet with clients outside of the office, and carrying around important documents is cumbersome and can result in lost or stolen client information. What’s more, other staffers who aren’t lawyers are seeing similar advantages. While this is good in terms of flexibility and mobility of the workers, it’s also putting a major strain on the IT team. Employees should be able to use their own devices to access company data, but only after having implementing certain safety guidelines.

This is why any organization wishing to ensure the security of company records should contact an ISG Technology BYOD specialist. Our experts have years of experience with this trend, and we know what it takes to keep a law firm’s data safe.

Implementing an Effective Hybrid Cloud

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Register to receive the ISG white paper



Getting a hybrid cloud right starts in the data center. It also means knowing potential headaches related to multi-vendor management.

This free report answers your questions related to hybrid cloud, including:

  • What are the advantages of hybrid cloud over pure public cloud?
  • 3 common hybrid cloud use cases
  • 4 roadblocks to identify and overcome
  • Going beyond “checkbox” comparisons of vendors
  • The importance of bandwidth and network connectivity to the hybrid cloud

hybrid-cloud-whitepaper

Registration required to view – Implementing an Effective Hybrid Cloud

Hosted Voice Enables Mobility For Legasus Group, LC

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Industry: Business Management

Legasus Group, LC is an advisory firm that works with families in business to perpetuate and sustain family enterprises. Smoothing transitions from generation to generation, Legasus Group advisors integrate relational and managerial sciences within a living systems model to better utilize the potential and talents of all stakeholders.

Click to read the case study

Challenge

Since Legasus Group teams frequently travel to their client sites, they require a mobility solution that helps them access their records and files on the road. Previously they had used a local IT service provider and another provider for internet and voice, creating difficulties with maintaining a high level of quality of service.
“There was a lot of finger pointing,” said Matt Kuzma, Chief Operating Officer at Legasus Group. “We had a hard time resolving issues through to completion, because no one was taking responsibility.”

Solution

Legasus Group became familiar with ISG Technology after attending an overview of ISG Hosted Voice and bandwidth offerings, which they felt was a good fit with their strategic goals. They put out a bid for distributed access, so that their team could work remotely with the same experience as if they were in the office. Legasus Group detailed required business outcomes, and asked bidders to submit their best recommendation.
“We decided to pursue the relationship with ISG. It was very intriguing to have a single service provider that could address all our service needs,” said Kuzma. “Their Hosted Voice solution gave us powerful features that help our team accomplish their work and remain in touch while traveling.”
ISG delivered bandwidth connectivity, a new server, and rolled out their business class Hosted Voice solution. This was accomplished in a one-month transition timeframe.

Results

Kuzma set an aggressive cutover goal at first, and worked with ISG to put the planning in place. The team worked back and forth to give enough time to get the server up and rolling and all relevant permissions migrated to the cloud. “I wasn’t expecting a magic wand. The ISG team worked to find resolution for a few issues that cropped up. They diagnosed the root problem to find a quick resolution,” said Kuzma.

Getting Hosted Voice implemented went smoothly, and all the phones were swapped out at once.

“When we have technical problems, we call or email the issue to their Support Center and ISG will diagnose to fix the issue. They send a complete ticket with all the details documented, and the techs are knowledgeable and courteous,” said Kuzma.

“We have a hybrid model accounting software that is server based, and our response times have increased since the move. Best of all, ISG has lifted the burden of managing the server off of our plate.”

The Client’s View

“ISG listened closely up front to understand our needs, and then delivered a partnership solution that makes the most sense for Legasus Group. With continued support from ISG Hosted Voice, our team can get their jobs done while they are on the road.”

Matt Kuzma
Chief Operating Officer
Legasus Group

What do you need to do to move to the cloud?

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Technological development often moves so fast that companies have trouble keeping up. The cloud is one of these advancements, where it feels like just yesterday the service was new and untested. But the cloud has been around for a while now, and its worth has been proven time and again. In fact, the cloud is so useful that a Spiceworks survey found that 93 percent of respondents were using it for at least one function.

That said, there are still a lot of organizations that haven’t included a cloud solution in their IT strategy. Many of these businesses want to make the move, but they aren’t sure where to start. To that effect, let’s discuss what you need to do before you can make a move to the cloud:

Know your workload

As with any other change in IT protocol, the first step here is to ensure that you know as much as you can about your current workload. For a movement to the cloud, this means figuring out just how many of your operations have been virtualized so far. Transitioning these kinds of tasks to a cloud environment is much easier than doing so for a non-virtualized workload, so you should also be looking to see if you can virtualize more than you already do.

The hard part of this step is that no one can tell you what your workload looks like. Each company is different, and you’ll need to investigate and speak with your internal IT team in order to get all the details you need. This might end up taking up the most time out of these steps, but it’s more than worth it.

“Should you choose public or private?”

Learn about the different kinds of cloud

Now that you have a deep understanding of the data and workloads you want to transition, it’s time to start thinking about the type of cloud you want to be working with. Basically, this is going to boil down to two distinct options: a public or a private cloud. A lot of people like to include colocation into this discussion, and while this service is certainly beneficial for many clients, it technically isn’t part of the cloud.

That aside, should you choose public or private? Well, the answer to this isn’t that simple as they both have advantages and disadvantages. The public cloud is incredibly popular across multiple industries for the lower cost that comes from sharing resources between separate organizations. In fact, Gartner predicted the public cloud services market to hit $204 billion sometime this year. That said, because these computing resources are shared, many in the industry have noted that public cloud options have certain security issues. This isn’t to say that the public cloud is unsafe. Rather, it’s less secure than the private cloud, which is this service’s main advantage

Because private clouds are – by nature – built with a specific client in mind, they are often viewed as the most secure cloud option. Having your own private cloud also has some benefits in terms of control over the server, which is something a lot of organizations want. On the other hand, all of these benefits come at a high initial cost.

Do you really need private cloud services?Which is best for your company?

Understand your security posture and need for control

There’s no perfect cloud solution that fits all industries and business models, and as such you’ll need to figure out what your company can afford and whether or not you really need the control of your own private cloud. Some administrators who need to be heavily involved in their cloud infrastructure often opt for a private cloud. If you don’t need to be this hands-on and aren’t looking to spend a lot of money up front, the public cloud is probably for you.

In a similar vein, it can be hard for administrators to realize the reality of their security situation. These officials sometimes jump to the conclusion that less security means no security, which couldn’t be further from the truth. The public cloud is a perfectly viable option for keeping your data safe, and it shouldn’t be viewed as a dangerous option just because the private cloud is more secure.

Migration is work

Regardless of which cloud you end up choosing, or even if you go with a combination of the two for a hybrid cloud environment, it’s important to remember that this transition is going to take a lot of time and effort. That’s not to say this process isn’t absolutely worth it, but administrators need to know that moving to the cloud requires a lot of skill and expertise.

This is why company leaders should look to partner with a knowledgeable cloud provider such as ISG Technology. Our cloud experts have years of experience in the field, and can help smooth the transition for your company and its IT workloads.

What are the risks of hybrid cloud?

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Hybrid IT infrastructure is quickly becoming one of the biggest trends of the current decade, and this strategy can sometimes include hybrid cloud deployments. According to the RightScale 2015 State of the Cloud Report, 82 percent of surveyed enterprises were running a hybrid cloud strategy, and Data Center Knowledge stated in mid 2015 that adoption of these technologies was expected to triple by 2018. The benefits of embracing hybrid cloud are clear: Companies are able to improve IT flexibility and choose solutions that fit their specific needs, all while maximizing cost efficiency and asset utilization, according to FierceCIO contributor David Weldon.

As adoption goes up and more companies look into deploying hybrid strategies within their IT departments, so too do the number of issues that arise in dealing with the new technologies that hybrid cloud brings to the table. Let’s take a look at the biggest risks when it comes to cloud and hybrid IT, then discuss strategies for dealing with these issues:

“Software and application changes occur on the provider’s side.“

1. Loss of control

The CIO’s job is to manage risk within his or her company, and as such may view that total control over every part of the technology strategy of the organization is necessary. However, when cloud-based tools are utilized, software and application changes occur on the provider’s side, meaning IT executives may not have a say. Therefore, according to CIO contributor Shoeb Javed, one of the most important risks of hybrid cloud computing is the perceived loss of control on the part of the CIO and other members of the executive board.

“Applications change all the time, and when those applications are outside the company’s control, they could be caught unprepared when a sudden software update occurs,” Tripwire contributor Rick Delgado stated. “A single application change can create integration problems with other programs, leading to major disruptions among the most critical business applications.”

2. Cloud security

A lot has been said lately about the cloud and its apparent inherent risks as far as security is concerned. The market for cloud security tools keeps going up by the day, and it’s expected to reach a total value of $8.71 billion by 2019, according to a 2014 report published by MarketsandMarkets. This is a clear indication that security is on the minds of industry CIOs.

There are a few main security challenges for organizations that deploy hybrid cloud strategies, according to TechTarget. These include risk management, security management and poorly constructed service-level agreements. Most of these problems stem from the complications that can arise when private and public cloud are both used in conjunction with one another – managing two kinds of deployments can be a complex task for IT teams.

3. Compliance

This is an issue that goes along with the aforementioned security challenge. Businesses have to ensure that all parts of their cloud strategy are compliant with any industry regulations. It’s crucial to ensure the data traveling between private and public cloud environments is secure, as well.

For instance, organizations within the healthcare sector have to prove that their systems are compliant with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, which designates strict security standards for protected health information. If a business works with payment card data, it is subject to the rules set forth by the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard. All of these regulations need to be managed properly, and in certain circumstances, hybrid IT could complicate effective management strategies.

Companies that work with payment card data need to make sure their hybrid cloud deployments are secure and compliant.Companies that work with payment card data need to make sure their hybrid cloud deployments are secure and compliant.

Worth the challenge

Considering the risks of hybrid IT is one of the most important responsibilities of the technology department of any organization. However, the many benefits of investing in hybrid infrastructure outweigh these risks when they’re managed effectively. That’s why having a managed services partner around to help your organization deal with these hybrid cloud risks is not only a great idea – it’s essential to a successful hybrid IT strategy.

When you partner with a company like ISG Technology, you can rest assured that the risks of migrating data to and from virtual environments will be orchestrated by cloud experts. Get in touch today to find out more about how our hybrid cloud solutions fit your business needs.

Hybrid cloud forecast: Industry report

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The cloud is generating a lot of hubbub in tech circles lately. Verizon’s latest State of the Market report found that 87 percent of enterprises are using virtual environments for mission-critical workloads, and that number increases daily. A recent report published by Synergy Research Group found that the cloud services market – which includes six major verticals – grew by an annual rate of 28 percent. Operators and vendors in this market earned a total of $110 billion in the four quarters leading up to September 2015. In addition, the private and hybrid cloud services markets grew by 45 percent.

“The private and hybrid cloud services markets grew by 45 percent in 2015.”

The importance of hybrid cloud

While IT infrastructure spending still tops money spent on the cloud, the latter is inching upward. The hybrid cloud, especially, is becoming more important in the overall tech strategies of businesses at every level, including small firms and large enterprises. An important benefit of investing in cloud storage services that utilize these hybrid environments is in security.

One of the main draws to the cloud is its inherent flexibility. With hybrid strategies, however, this concept is taken a step further, as businesses can choose what they want and don’t want running in their cloud infrastructure. Hybrid clouds, according to CloudTweaks contributor Daniel Price, allow companies to take advantage of the vast scalable resources of public cloud environments. This can positively impact security in the long run.

Security is an important benefit to consider when investing in hybrid cloud environments.Security is an important benefit to consider when investing in hybrid cloud environments.

Demand for hybrid cloud expertise

The popularity of the hybrid cloud has skyrocketed in the last few years. It’s becoming such an important part of nearly every industry’s tech strategy that the specific skill set that comes with the hybrid cloud territory is now coveted by companies across the board. According to WindowsITPro contributor Cheryl J. Ajluni, there is a high demand for workers with these types of skills.

“As new cloud technologies emerge, enterprises are struggling to find employees who can keep up with the changes and deliver the skills they need,” Ajluni wrote. “Some of the new skill sets those employees will need training in include open source knowledge, particularly around OpenStack, and container expertise. They’ll also need vendor-specific skills tailored around the cloud solutions those vendors offer.”

By partnering with ISG Technology, companies can rest easy knowing their hybrid cloud strategy is in the right hands. The stress of having to find new employees to effectively manage the hybrid cloud can be alleviated when you consult our cloud and managed services experts. Contact ISG Technology today for more information!

Deploying hybrid cloud in 2016: Tips, tricks and stats

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The cloud is everywhere. No matter where you look, it seems nearly every company is using cloud technologies or talking about the cloud in some form. Verizon’s recent “2016 State of the Market: Enterprise Cloud” report indicated that 87 percent of organizations are now using cloud-based tools to run mission-critical workloads, with 69 percent of enterprises touting the cloud’s usefulness in helping them revolutionize business processes. While adoption of private cloud is on the incline, hybrid architectures are also set to enjoy an increase in the coming months.

Why are enterprises across the board and within nearly every industry adopting cloud technologies? The advantages speak for themselves. Cost effectiveness, increased ability for collaboration and better flexibility are only a few of the benefits that companies can glean from deploying applications in these virtual environments. Private and public cloud environments are useful in their own rights, and hybrid cloud allows companies to choose the best of each kind of deployment – mix and match cloud, so to speak.

The ability to combine private and public deployments into one solution is enticing for many businesses, and as such, the outlook for hybrid cloud is good.

Cloud adoption: Past and future predictions

In 2011, Gartner projected the rise of hybrid cloud by saying that 90 percent of organizations had plans to hybridize their IT strategies in the near future. The subsequent years have shown that, yes, hybrid deployments have practically skyrocketed since those Gartner predictions were made. Research published by MarketsandMarkets in March 2015 projected that the total market value of the hybrid cloud space would reach $84.67 billion in 2019, growing at a compound annual rate of 27.3 percent beginning in 2014. This is a huge portion of the market share allotted to the overall cloud industry.

The new year is already beginning to see important changes when it comes to hybrid architectures. Cloud Cruiser contributor Dave Zabrowski predicted that in 2016, the hybrid cloud would become the standard for operation among enterprises and small businesses alike. Zabrowski cautioned that deploying hybrid cloud environments can add complexity to IT infrastructure, but drawbacks like these aren’t slowing the adoption rate any. Network World contributor Brian Butte noted that because enterprises are learning the real benefits and disadvantages of each kind of cloud deployment – public and private – they are more likely to turn to hybrid environments to serve them for different purposes.

“Hybrid cloud is being utilized for more than simply storing and running applications.”

Cloud containers: Good news for everyone

Hybrid cloud deployments offer a bevy of advantages to those enterprises that make the decision to hybridize their IT infrastructure. Enhanced flexibility, better business agility and customizable pricing are all important incentives for cloud adoption. However, these are only surface-level benefits.

One of the biggest advantages of the hybrid cloud lies in the ability to develop and deploy containerized instances that run applications and store data. Containers work in a similar manner to virtual machines, except that VMs run complete instances of servers and thus take up a lot of space. Containers, on the other hand, are extremely small. Essentially, they represent building blocks that can form complete instances, instead of coming as a complete package. According to WindowsITPro contributor Orin Thomas, this facilitates the movement of containers between hosts, because all you have to do is shift the container files themselves.

This enhanced ability for movement and application support is advantageous for numerous reasons. In a hybrid cloud environment, this allows developers to streamline app development and delivery.

“[D]evelopers creating applications can build a container on their development machine, push it into their organization’s private cloud deployment for wider testing, and then push that same container up into Azure when the application is ready to be deployed into production,” Thomas wrote.

Hybrid cloud is helping enterprises make the most out of their IT infrastructure.Hybrid cloud is helping enterprises make the most out of their IT infrastructure.

Considering hybrid? ISG can help

Hybrid cloud is being utilized for more than simply storing and running applications. Development and delivery are two other important aspects of IT infrastructure that should be considered when making the move to the cloud – additional benefits that may not be at the top of administrators’ minds when considering options in the new year.

Partnering with a managed services provider like ISG Technology can help take out some of the complexity of deploying a hybrid cloud solution. Our cloud experts can successfully guide you down your path to hybrid IT deployment – call us today for more information!

What is the future of the hybrid cloud?

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With 2015 in the rearview mirror, people are starting to look ahead toward 2016. Although most people are looking forward to a New Year’s resolution they probably won’t be following, many in the tech industry are eager to see what 2016 holds in terms of cloud computing development.

The cloud has completely changed how modern business is conducted, but it hasn’t stopped revolutionizing yet. Improvements in the technology have brought about something called the hybrid cloud, an incredible combination of the private cloud’s security and the public cloud’s affordability.

This advancement is working so well that MarketsandMarkets predicted that the hybrid cloud market would be worth a staggering $84.67 billion in 2019. That’s a huge improvement over 2014’s worth of $25.28 billion and simply points out how fast this technology is catching on.

Hybrid cloud is the ‘next step’

The hybrid cloud really is a breakthrough and has quite a lot of fans all over the tech industry. One of these fans is Brian Butte, a contributor for Network World. Butte states that the hybrid cloud is the next big thing for IT due to the rapidly changing landscape of modern technological innovation.

He states that advancements like the Internet of Things and real-time analytics are “cloud-dependent technologies” that work very closely with the end user, thereby requiring a public cloud option. However, the public cloud isn’t a perfect solution.

A hybrid cloud solution solves a lot of problems.Thinking about the cloud? Now’s the time!

Cybersecurity is always a huge concern for businesses these days, and the public cloud simply isn’t safe enough for all company data. Some information is simply too sensitive and therefore needs the security of a private cloud. That being said, the private cloud isn’t very cost-effective for housing all the data a business might produce.

This is why the hybrid cloud is so incredible, and it’s why this technological leap is becoming so popular. By combining the best attributes of both cloud types, the hybrid cloud is making quite a name for itself in the IT world.

As Butte puts it: “Deploying hybrid clouds is the next step beyond private clouds in the evolution of cloud computing.”

“The hybrid cloud is only getting bigger and better.”

Implement your hybrid cloud solution now

The hybrid cloud is only getting bigger, and there has been no better time than now to invest in it. If your company has needs that can be met by public cloud managed services, but you need a more secure option for other data, the hybrid cloud is right for you.

Make sure to check out ISG Technology’s cloud services page today and see what the hybrid cloud can do for you!