Learn about Hybrid Cloud, speak Cloud like a native, and never again wonder what ‘the stack’ refers to, in this mini dictionary on Hybrid Cloud, provided by Devoteam.
Have you ever wondered what the difference between Hybrid Cloud and Multicloud is? Or what the Cloud has to do with AI? What’s with all the abbreviations? And how does it all relate to the IT solutions in your workplace?
In this article, we provide you with an important tool for the future of your enterprise: a Hybrid Cloud dictionary that makes sure you are up to par with your more technical colleagues or employees. Bookmark it and have it ready when somebody asks you what Hybrid Cloud is and what it can provide for businesses!
If you, like us, value specialization and a future forward mindset, you will find yourself wanting to dive deeper into some of these topics – get more specific and technical, perhaps. But do not worry – we have got you covered! In the upcoming articles we will go more in depth with Hybrid Cloud. That means expert interviews with our own Chief Engagement Architect Ronnie Bachmann on Hybrid Cloud strategy as well as a security-themed article and a technical deep dive. Keep growing your understanding – keep growing your business!
For now, dive into your new pocket dictionary here:
On-premises IT: The traditional computing model with an on-site datacenter run by and managed by employees at the organization itself.
Private Cloud: Describes a cloud computing service where the infrastructure is owned, managed, and used only by a single user organization. It is often considered safer than Public Cloud and is said to give more control to its user organization. It also, however, requires greater Cloud expertise of the organization.
Public Cloud: Describes on-demand computing services, capacity, and infrastructure are managed by a third-party provider and shared with multiple organizations. Its resources are available for everyone who buys into them.
Distributed Cloud: Is an architecture with multiple Clouds that are managed centrally from a Public Cloud provider (Microsoft, Amazon, or Google, for instance). The architecture runs on multiple location and can be used for IoT solutions, applications, to meet performance requirements, compliance needs, or to support edge computing.
Hybrid Cloud: Is a combination of traditional on-premises infrastructure with a private datacenter and one or more distributed Public Cloud solutions. A Hybrid Cloud setup is designed to connect and govern your different infrastructures to ensure cooperation and compliance across the board.
Multicloud: Is a combination of different Public Clouds and can exist in a Hybrid Cloud environment as well. Businesses might chose Multicloud because it ensures a more consistent performance or one Cloud Provider offers a service that the other does not.
Public Cloud Providers: There is a variety of different Public Cloud providers who each offer customers Cloud capacity and a catalogue of Cloud services. In the western market, however, three big names dominate: AWS, Microsoft (Azure), and Google. In China Alibaba Cloud is the major player, and then there are a lot of companies who have their own niches in the market, like Cisco (Hybrid Cloud) or HPE (connecting Cloud to edge computing).
Cloud Security: Refers to a broad spectrum of policies, technologies, and applications that protect data, privacy, and identities in the Cloud environment. For a Hybrid environment security is managed both in the on-premises structures, the Private Cloud, and the Public Cloud(s). A big part of Cloud security is training employees to handle data and accesses correctly and according to compliance. Doing so greatly minimizes any risks of using Public Cloud.
Edge computing: Moving computing and data management away from datacenters and closer to the edge of the network, for instance to the IoT, to smart devices or objects, and to network gateways, in this way providing better response times and data transfer rates.
Cloud AI and automation: Companies are increasingly taking advantage of the potential for automation and use of AI that Cloud holds, understanding that scalability and flexibility only marks the beginning of the advantages that Cloud can offer your company. For instance, careful tagging in Cloud can automate Security or Governing procedures and save resources at the same time.
Azure-related terms:
Azure Stack: Is a collection of products that extends Azure tools to an environment that runs across locations (whether edge or Hybrid). It is a privately managed and owned hardware solution but can integrate your private environments with Public Cloud.
Azure Arc: Takes it one step further and makes you able to project on-premises and Multicloud environments into Azure Resource and run it all as one single Azure environment. It makes your Hybrid solution simpler, faster, and easier to manage.
Azure Stack HCI: Is a hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI) operating system as an Azure service. It hosts virtualized workloads on-premises to make it easier for customers to integrate their older infrastructure with Azure services.
Azure Stack Hub: An expansion to Microsoft Azure. Your own autonomous Cloud that can run partly or wholly without connection to a Public Cloud. Makes you able to run and manage apps in a local environment. Aligns your Cloud ecosystem and gives you a known collection of tools and models to run across your Hybrid environment.