The COVID-19 pandemic has transformed the world as we know it. Isolation requirements have imposed a work-from-home policy on most of the organizations, making a remote work option compulsory. The main obstacle for changing the format of business operations and shifting it online is the lack of IT infrastructure for such a transition. At the forefront of digitalization, savvy companies experienced little to no hardships with transferring workloads online and sending their employees to home offices. The reason for that is the flexibility and move towards cloud computing integrated into their business models.
Cloud: Not an Option, but a Priority
Digitally native industry leaders have been adopting innovative technologies for obvious benefits of super efficiency and cost savings. Cloud environments with fast and secured data processing have become the backbone of the digital data-driven economy. Migrating business to the cloud is now an integral part of digital transformation and a must for businesses to keep up with their competition.
In 2019, global spending on public cloud data increased by 7%, while traditional data center and private cloud expenditures fell by 1% according to the latest Synergy Research Group report. However, skyrocketing demand for online services of video conferencing, remote project collaboration, e-commerce, education, and streaming video has only amplified the need for seamless cloud migration.
The first thing to keep in mind is a number of ways you can go about adopting a cloud service. There are different deployment strategies and models for accessing cloud computing.
Cloud deployment models:
- Public
- Private
- Community
- Hybrid
Cloud service models:
- Software as a Service (SaaS)
- Platform as a Service (PaaS)
- Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)
Public cloud has become an appealing option of cloud deployment for many organizations in times of the ongoing pandemic crisis for versatility and flexible usage options. On the other hand, the global work-from-home mode stimulated the adoption of hybrid cloud deployment for its combination of public cloud computing power and private cloud security.
Which option brings the most value for an organization? Let’s look into this question in more detail.
Public Cloud
The commercial appeal of public cloud services lies in their simplicity and accessibility. They are open for public use to generate and store data on third-party servers. Being sold as an on-demand service, public cloud is a great choice for small businesses due to its pay-per-use model, which allows them to pay for the used CPU cycles, storage, and bandwidth. This type of service infrastructure is relatively easy to switch to because the management and administration of the hardware are on the service provider. The range of services is wide and can be customized – from email and applications to infrastructure environments. Public cloud is praised for its flexibility and scalability for any workloads.
Public cloud deployment is a perfect choice for companies with low privacy requirements. Because one of the major drawbacks of this cloud model is its cybersecurity gaps. A consumer does not have control over the platform security infrastructure and protocols that sometimes can lead to compliance issues.
Hybrid Cloud
The hybrid cloud deployment model is set to combine the best features of the public and private cloud. Hybrid cloud computing is a perfect option for large organizations and a popular choice among the IT & ITeS, telecommunication, BFSI (banking, financial services, and insurance), and Government sectors for its seamless balance and ability to divide sensitive and less sensitive workloads between private and public cloud respectively.
The most valued advantage of hybrid cloud is its dynamic workloads, which allows different apps and workloads to share computing resources between public and private cloud platforms. A typical use case includes the allocation of resources to control spikes in network traffic caused by seasonal demand affecting the transactional system. In other words, applications can run on the public cloud with occasionally accessing computing resources from the private one.
High prices and infrastructure complexity for managing private and public cloud architecture are considered the main limitations of this deployment option.
A Cloud that Is Right for Your Business
However, when choosing a cloud environment for business, a company should carefully assess all variables such as networking and storage requirements as well as financial and professional resources that would align with its business and strategic goals.
Move to public cloud when you need:
- Flexibility and scalability for workloads
- Reduced infrastructure complexity
- Affordable pricing options
Move to hybrid cloud when you need:
- Enhanced security for sensitive workloads
- Reliability of multiple data centers
- Variety of operational, security, regulatory requirements to meet
Key Takeaways
The COVID-19 quarantine has brought a myriad of challenges to business reality. A compulsory work-from-home policy spurred organizations to change and adapt to the new requirements of the remote working paradigm. The cloud market has been steadily rising in recent years, when, due to the global pandemic, demand for cloud migration skyrocketed as the only option to maintain business. The impact of COVID-19 is estimated to significantly affect the size of the cloud market – from $233bln in 2019 to $295bln in 2021.
Increased demand for SaaS solutions, digital payment systems, and online marketplaces are the major contributors to the global digital transformation through cloud computing. A 2020 crisis has triggered a new digital revolution aimed at transforming legacy systems and migrating them to modern cloud platforms to keep up with the challenges and growing pace of the digital economy. Thus, cloud migration is no longer a complementary option but a strategic priority for organizations.
Summarizing all the above, the answer to the question from the heading is the following: when choosing between public and hybrid clouds, there is no right or wrong decision. The final choice depends on the requirements, resources, and goals of a particular business. Consider the options and your needs carefully and reap the benefits of cloud computing.