In most cases, migrating your business apps from in-house servers to the cloud makes sense. Your apps can leverage greater processing power, memory, and storage in the cloud than in an on-premises (on-prem) system.
 
However, there are cases where the need for greater control over data security and compliance with data regulations compel you to keep mission-critical apps on premises. Your staff would need to access one system to utilize on-prem apps and another to tap cloud-based apps, often at the same time. This is not as simple as it sounds.
 
First, the cloud has its own protocols, and users’ lack of familiarity can result in cloud misconfigurations or data breaches. Second, admins have to monitor two data access points instead of just one. Finally, users connected to both systems may transfer malware from one system to the other.

Hybrid cloud to the rescue

All of the problems above can be solved with a hybrid cloud solution. As an intermediary between your on- and off-prem infrastructures, your hybrid cloud can pull apps from both locations so that users only need to access one convenient portal instead of two.  And while the hybrid cloud is another infrastructure to monitor, your administrators can treat the hybrid cloud as the only hub of user activity. Finally, the hybrid cloud can also act as a layer of defense that blocks cyberthreats from reaching either your on-prem network or your cloud.

Five aspects of an optimized hybrid cloud environment

Still, a hybrid cloud is not all rainbows and sunshine, especially if an enterprise attempts to build one by themselves instead of using one from a cloud service provider (CSP). If you’re considering the first option for your own business, you need to know the five aspects of an optimized hybrid cloud environment:
 
1. Ease of use
On-prem and cloud systems have completely different architectures. Your hybrid cloud must be able to reduce the complexities of using both systems so that regardless of where an app lives, users can use that app as intended. If complexity slows down your employees, they’ll become less productive.
 
2. Unified and streamlined data regulations compliance
Regardless of where your data lives, your company must protect it per applicable data regulations. For example, if your firm provides healthcare services, you need to comply with HIPAA protocols.
 
3. Automation
Automation reduces human involvement in the utilization and management of your hybrid cloud, resulting in fewer human errors that can mess up your operations. Still, your IT admins need to impeccably develop and implement automation processes in the first place, which is challenging since they must do so for two disparate systems.
 
4. Security
If your IT team misses security gaps in your public cloud, cyberthreats that pass through those gaps can negatively affect how your company utilizes your hybrid cloud. This risk only grows as you use more clouds from various CSPs since providers apply different security protocols for their respective clouds.
 
5. Identity and access management (IAM)
You must use IAM to limit employee data access according to their role in the organization. If a hacker hijacks an employee’s account, that hacker is constrained to the data that the employee can access. If access is not restricted, hackers or the account holder can abuse it to compromise troves of company data.
 
As you can see, creating and implementing a hybrid cloud solution yourself is daunting and fraught with peril, which is why you’re much better off leveraging SimplyClouds’ hybrid cloud. We’ll handle every aspect of it so that you can fully utilize all of your applications, whether they be on-prem or in the cloud. Contact our cloud specialists today to learn more.