What is hybrid cloud storage?

Hybrid cloud storage is unique in that it lets users decide where data assets should be stored to help ensure ongoing business continuity and continual data protection. The type of storage infrastructure that’s chosen for use within a hybrid cloud architecture depends largely on the nature of the data that’s going to be contained.

For a company’s most sensitive data, there’s onsite storage for assets requiring the utmost in security. For less critically important data, most workloads can be well handled as public cloud resources.

This type of hybrid model lends itself well to mixing and matching disparate elements. Hybrid cloud solutions not only contain public clouds and private clouds, but also data centers located on-premises or positioned at “edge” locations.

Like most forms of data storage, hybrid cloud storage as a concept is not terribly difficult to grasp. Hybrid cloud storage is essentially a convertible-type storage mechanism that allows data to be managed and located where it makes the most sense, whether that be an on-premises server or on a vast public cloud.

Since there are two environments at work here, there must be some type of device that maintains consistency across both environments, especially after making any changes that might affect one environment. Some type of data synchronization mechanism is put into operation to help ensure that the twin environments mirror each other. Data synchronization methods include dedicated data synchronization software programs that enable the syncing of data between different types of systems. Cloud storage services that make data updates on multiple devices for their users typify devices that are devoted to data synchronization.

Similarly, there needs to be a type of portal through which data storage is freely exchanged between the twin types of systems. A data gateway serves this purpose, enabling protected data transfer.

Files in such a state of transfer can be said to be “on-prep,” which indicates that the file or system is in a preparatory state before becoming fully activated. The phrase often refers to a particular data set that’s being prepared for later analysis through data management processes.

Many organizations define a system of policies and rules about their management of data, articulating compliance regulations, access permissions and important budgetary considerations.

Five major data storage processes rule hybrid cloud storage and its various storage environments.

Data management can cover several related activities, such as checking usage, setting access controls and running data lifecycle policies. It often uses a unified management console to maintain data controls, whether found on-premises or in cloud storage.

Hybrid cloud storage offers the ability to locate data on unique storage tiers, which can be assigned according to various attributes. Data tiering can be either for data accessed less often (and typically stored in the cloud) or for data immediately needed and kept on site.

Data replication is performed as a protective measure to maintain an active and ongoing redundancy. It also helps to keep an active hedge against data loss through disaster-recovery preparedness.      

Data migration involves the transfer of data workloads between on-premises, onsite storage and public clouds. Reasons prompting such a move might include cost-cutting measures and access concerns or policies regarding data lifecycles.

Like keeping a group of musical instruments in tune, data synchronization works to maintain data consistency regardless of the storage locations being used. Data synchronization helps ensure that data changes are run throughout the system. 

Organizations using hybrid cloud storage often wrestle with the questions of how and where to store different types of data, especially when figuring out the most secure manner of protecting sensitive data. There are a couple of guidelines to remember.

This can include real-time operational data that requires immediate access and low latency (like you might find within industrial control systems) or data that must be kept under tight controls due to strict regulatory compliance demands (such as employee health records that require HIPAA safeguards).

This might also include large, high-performance data sets or even mission-critical information that’s essential for the continuation of the enterprise during emergency operations.

Where to store: Any information of these types should probably be kept on-premises, either in physical servers or on private networks.

We’re talking about data that’s free of personally identifiable information (PII) and information that doesn’t reveal sensitive business confidentialities. This generally means data that has been deemed “safe” for public distribution and general consumption, like marketing materials.

It should be noted that although such materials are considered suitable for warehousing on public clouds, the company still needs to protect this data through encryption measures and access controls.

Where to store: “Safe” company data can usually be securely maintained through public clouds, including backup data kept to create redundancies.

Thanks to the mix-and-match nature of hybrid cloud storage, there are plenty of advantages to opting for a hybrid cloud model:

• Cost-effective: Hybrid cloud storage lets companies focus specifically on necessary expenditures and optimize financial savings on storage, networking, compute and data.

• Adjustable: Hybrid cloud storage fosters advanced scalability, which allows organizations to adjust their workloads by scaling them upward or downward to fit current demand conditions.

• Reliable: When an organization can distribute its resources across private clouds and public cloud environments, it’s better prepared to withstand interruptions to any single service.

• Flexible: By design, hybrid cloud environments offer more flexibility than traditional configurations, making IT infrastructure resources easier to integrate and manage.

• Compartmental: Hybrid cloud storage lets companies compartmentalize operations. A business can house sensitive data on a dedicated server as other apps work in public clouds.

• Ready to restore: When planning for disaster recovery, hybrid cloud storage proves its worth, using on-premises storage to speed up recovery actions during real-time events.  

Despite offering numerous benefits, hybrid cloud storage does have its share of potential problems, most of which are by-products of the complicated nature of hybrid cloud storage:

• Integration: Something as complex as hybrid cloud storage doesn’t occur by accident. It requires considerable management to implement the initial design and oversee pricing for the installation.

• Compatibility: When new IT capabilities (such as automation and machine learning) are onboarded to a hybrid cloud environment, it can present new security problems and compatibility issues.

• Complexity: The more specialized a storage infrastructure becomes, the more complex it can be to effectively manage distributed storage architectures and multiple storage pools.

• Lack of clarity: Visibility issues can become an obstruction when a single environment is using multiple clouds. Seeing everything all at once can be challenging.

• Extra needs: Hybrid cloud storage needs more ongoing maintenance than public cloud storage, and managing private cloud data and software poses added administrative costs.

There are numerous ways that an organization can reap substantial utility through implementing hybrid cloud storage. Here are some of the most common use cases:

• Disaster recovery: Hybrid cloud storage can step in if an on-premises data center becomes nonoperative and automatically switch over to public cloud services as an emergency measure, thus preventing system failure and downtime.

• Big-data analytics: Hybrid cloud storage caters to companies that want to explore the power of big-data analytics processing without subjecting their prized assets to the potential of exposure. Such organizations can use public clouds for their research pursuits.

• Cloud bursting: Cloud bursting is a cloud management technique in which an application that’s running in a private cloud or data center is suddenly switched over to a public cloud when a traffic spike requires a larger need on demand.

• Backup and archival: Hybrid cloud solutions help organizations with their file storage needs and object storage requirements. This includes assisting companies as they manage large amounts of unstructured data, which might not be easy to organize by hierarchy.

• Multicloud availability: Hybrid cloud storage is perfect for companies comfortable with splitting up their workloads based on sensitive data. The public cloud functions well for most workloads, but mission-critical downloads might need the security of private clouds. High-performance computing (HPC) applications can run normally on on-premises equipment or can be put into “high gear” by shifting those workloads to a public cloud.

Many cloud providers support and service this burgeoning market. Here are some of the leading hybrid cloud storage solutions.

AWS offers four products devoted to hybrid cloud storage services. These programs offer automated data backup and apps that accelerate data transfers from on-premises systems to AWS. Their other programs provide storage gateways and optimize business-to-business file transfers to deliver low-latency data access.

IBM’s hybrid cloud storage product specializes in managing portable workloads, letting users deploy cloud architectures on-premises and extend them seamlessly to public cloud environments. IBM’s system of application modernization depends on data lifecycle management policies to prevent excessive accumulation of backup data in the cloud.

Microsoft Azure addresses hybrid cloud storage with services to their own on-premises data centers. Azure’s program fosters a steady and consistent environment between the public cloud and the local infrastructure, supporting the same management tools and application programming interfaces (APIs). Azure also supplies management tools for on-premises assets.

By operating with Microsoft Azure, Microsoft Windows users can take advantage of Azure’s features that are dedicated to hybrid cloud storage. These Windows programs let users access cloud data through local network drives, manage high-performance computing (HPC) data transfers and offer a central interface for managing on-premises storage.

As with other hybrid cloud storage providers, NetApp’s storage solutions depend on ensuring that a platform that lets users easily monitor and freely move their data assets is created. One of their products uses a “data fabric” design to enable the free flow of data between on-premises sites and cloud infrastructure. Other products offer pay-as-you-go pricing and ample scalability.

VMware uses a software-defined data center (SDDC) architecture that allows a unified storage environment to exist through different cloud platforms. One of its products specializes in network virtualization, while another enables distributed storage across hosts. VMware has associations with other public cloud providers, so users can unleash their VMware talents on public clouds.