Distributed cloud, hybrid cloud or hybrid IT: complex infrastructure decisions but with a common goal of ensuring exceptional end-user experience

Extracting value from cloud infrastructures

Interest in hybrid cloud computing is rising. The reason is simple: many customers need to deal with technologies that they already own and operate (mostly in their own data centers) and cannot immediately abandon those in favor of a complete migration to the public cloud model.

These conversations are sometimes labeled as hybrid cloud, when in fact they are not. A hybrid cloud scenario would imply a combination of both public and private cloud environments. But what many customers are really talking about is hybrid IT, where non-cloud technologies and public cloud-inspired private cloud are used in combination with public cloud services.

Building private cloud environments is not easy either, and most organizations are faced with the challenge of maintaining and supporting a hybrid infrastructure for multiple reasons (many of them valid!).

So, how do you take full advantage of the cloud value proposition?

Well, I encourage you to investigate the concept of a distributed cloud. This implies the distribution of public cloud services (often including necessary hardware and software) to different physical locations (i.e., the edge), while ownership, operation, governance, updates, and evolution of the services remain the responsibility of the originating public cloud provider. Putting the computing resources closer to the end-user has major advantages while maximizing the scalability value of the cloud itself.

To conclude, there is one common theme to this complex environment of public cloud, hybrid cloud, hybrid IT, and edge: how do you ensure maximum end user experience and no disruption to performance?

Today more than ever, it is imperative that CIOs and their teams have the ability to proactively monitor and provide IT assurance across every single layer of the IT infrastructure. This ultimately translates into revenue assurance and effective deployment of digital transformation initiatives.