In my recent blog on 2024 trend predictions, I mooted that companies that are hybrid by design will win competitive advantage going forward. After receiving questions about what “hybrid by design” entails, I’m here to break down this concept today.
Businesses have gone hybrid, but have done so “by accident”
In 2023, global research conducted by HPE found that 91% of companies are using a mix of public cloud, private cloud, and on-premises infrastructure in their current cloud operating model. This study tried to be as comprehensive as possible by surveying enterprise cloud decision-makers in more than 900 companies across nine countries.
An interesting discovery was that a significant portion of those interviewed said that they expected their cloud operating model to change over the next five years. This suggests that most companies did not end up with their existing models as a strategic choice. This is what HPE calls “hybrid by accident”.
In fact, when the cloud was first introduced, enterprises saw its potential benefits and shifted numerous workloads across while preserving their legacy systems. As a result, many enterprises ended up with a mixture of workloads across cloud platforms and on-prem infrastructure.
This shift to hybrid has helped reap benefits for many. However, in order to get the most out of a hybrid model, companies need to become more strategic about their workload distribution across the various platforms. In other words, they need to become “hybrid by design”. Being intentional about this mix of on-prem, private cloud, and public cloud infrastructure is key to obtaining optimal speed and performance for different workloads at the right cost controls.
Advantages of being hybrid by design
Being hybrid by design—from edge to cloud—is crucial for businesses to capitalize on the next phase of data-driven digital transformation. To be successful here, enterprises must embrace edge-to-cloud architectures that deliver a consistent cloud experience to all teams, as well as applications that can access and gain value from data everywhere. Following are the benefits that come from being hybrid by design.
Turn data into intelligence more quickly
Maximizing enterprise intelligence is only possible with a single source of truth: That is, the aggregation of multiple data sources into a single dataset. With a data fabric design made possible through hybrid cloud architecture, data can reside anywhere but still be treated as a unified cohesive source.
Being able to combine data sources from diverse locations (whether it’s on the edge, private cloud, or public cloud) enables more effective pattern finding, better reporting accuracy, and less overall effort to generate analytics. As a result, resources can be better coordinated and more effectively applied.
Share intelligence among a highly distributed workforce
As workers continue to work from remote environments and organizational teams are spread out across the globe, the need to ensure data can be securely captured and shared has increased tremendously. Having a hybrid environment allows for data to be acquired at the edge in one location and subsequently uploaded to a shared system. From this point, other workers can access the same data on demand.
Increase in data security and compliance
Hybrid cloud allows organizations the flexibility to implement different security levels for local data and cloud-based data. Local, on-premises data can be locked down at a deeper level, while the security of cloud-stored workloads can be outsourced to an expert provider. This frees up more time to focus on business needs.
Compliance risk can also be reduced, given that some data can be kept on premise and other data stored in the cloud—a scenario that is simply not possible with a monolithic cloud strategy
HPE GreenLake: Helping companies become hybrid by design
HPE GreenLake is an edge-to-cloud platform that is already helping thousands of enterprises transform their environments and operating models without having to move data and rearchitect workloads.
How does it work? HPE GreenLake provides organizations with a single-pane-of-glass view over their costs and utilizations across major public clouds and on-premises infrastructure. Consequently, HPE GreenLake customers can choose, on an ongoing basis, the right place for each workload. This can help avoid, for example, the mistake of repatriating expensive, egress-heavy workloads back on-premises after moving them to the cloud. Moreover, customers can embed their own compliance rules directly into the platform to ensure that compliance demands are included in all workload evaluations.
It's undeniable: The world is now hybrid. HPE OEM Solutions is committed to helping OEMs and their end customers thrive in this new operating environment. Talk to an expert about your hybrid cloud and digital transformation questions and problems today.
MattQuirk
With a passion for innovation and technology, I am lucky enough to work within high-growth opportunities across multiple industries including manufacturing, healthcare, energy, media and entertainment and security - with technology innovations that are advancing the way people live and work such as AI, autonomous everything and 5G.