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You’ve no doubt noticed just how many news stories pop up in your feed or elsewhere concerning cybersecurity threats these days. It doesn’t matter whether you’re running a small business, a medium one, or a huge corporation, the fact is that your company’s data, including data relating to your customers, is at risk of a hacker’s attack.
While this probably isn’t the focus of your day, with so many things on your schedule to get through, make sure you take some time regularly to examine the security protocols your business operates on. When you do, it’s likely you’ll notice things aren’t quite as secure as you’d like.
There are many ways to increase security and keep cybercriminals at bay, but one that’s growing in popularity is the idea of using a hybrid cloud solution. Not sure what this means or how it could benefit you? Here’s the lowdown.
Defining a Hybrid Cloud Solution
The phrase “hybrid cloud” is one that refers to a technological solution involving a hybrid method. It combines computing and storage done both via private infrastructures (using on-premise hardware and services) and public cloud platforms (such as Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud Platform, Microsoft Azure, etc.).
In a hybrid cloud construction, private and public technologies may operate independently of each other, doing their own jobs separately. However, often people like to set them up so that the two platforms can communicate with each other over an encrypted connection. This is usually done using a private, dedicated link.
Each business will set up a cloud security solution slightly differently, depending on their particular firm’s needs and current and future priorities. Entrepreneurs and I.T. managers, thus, must think about the ideal balance between private and public solutions for their business.
The end result will be based on factors such as the operation types to be handled, the current level of infrastructure available on-site, security issues, migration potential, uptime guarantee needs, and regulatory and legal compliance considerations.
Why You Should Consider Using a Hybrid Cloud Option
There are many benefits to be enjoyed from running a hybrid cloud system. The main one is that by doing this, you get to enjoy the best of both worlds. That is, you’ll be able to take advantage of the reliability, control, security, and speed often achieved through top private networks (including private cloud systems), while at the same time leveraging the usage-based billing, agility, scalability, flexibility, and support that comes with public cloud platforms.
Other reasons to consider a hybrid cloud solution for your firm include:
- Business continuity, whereby you know that in the event of a tech disaster or other failure, your organizational data will remain accessible, being replicated elsewhere.
- Better scalability and more ease to utilize the cloud as company needs and demands evolve.
- Increased opportunities for innovation, as cloud options provide a good testing ground for new system prototypes.
- A “softly, softly” process where businesses who would like to move to a mainly cloud-based environment in the future can test out the capability of providers and understand likely workload and work flow needs first.
Tips for Successful Implementation
If you’re keen to start moving to a hybrid cloud system, begin the process by considering exactly what it is your company needs today and in the future. Understand your goals, too. For example, are you interested in cloud-based options because of security factors, automation options, data storage needs, cost cutting, or something else?
Also, think about whether you require outside assistance from a specialized cloud consultant to get you set up and everything running or if you can use a dedicated IT manager who’s in-house already. Smaller businesses who don’t have a specialist on staff will likely need to opt for a solution where outside help is provided.
For success with a hybrid cloud solution, also separate your firm’s information and applications into the different types of categories that make sense to you, and decide where you want each type of data to sit. Some pieces of information may be too sensitive to risk on one option or the other, while many things can and should be stored both locally and remotely.
Do your research into the various cloud service providers as well, so you know exactly what fees you’ll be faced with. Also, ask each tech service about their security, scalability, and customer support offerings.
With hackers coming up with increasingly sophisticated means of breaking into networks and stealing data or crashing systems, you must take the time to set up the best storage and security for your business details today. As you research options, you’re likely to find that a hybrid cloud solution is just what you’ve been looking for.