The Hybrid Cloud: Notes from Red Hat Summit 2017

Attending a user conference is arguably one of the most efficient ways to get a direct look into the minds and innovations of both emerging and veteran companies. This year’s Red Hat Summit in Boston proved to be a perfect example of this concept. Over 5,000 attendees, nearly 600 speakers, and 300 sessions made this user conference a one-stop shop for all things IT ops. Industry giants like Microsoft, Intel, and Hewlett-Packard Enterprise dedicated their booths to demonstrate how they use Red Hat technologies in their digital strategies.

Among the many topics covered, the cloud was a primary subject of many of the general sessions and breakout talks. Below is the summary of one of those sessions.

If It’s a Multi-cloud World, Where in the World Do I Go?

Gerald T. Seaman, Director of Hybrid Cloud Scale, Intel

Today’s IT enterprises have three main areas of focus: increasing efficiency and productivity, reducing costs, and continuing to expand their product capabilities and features. These priorities rely heavily on the development and ops teams to consistently and proactively innovate, but when resources are tight, such innovation becomes stunted. For many of these enterprises, the cloud is one of those resources. According to the 2017 State of the Cloud Report, 95% of enterprises are currently using the cloud; when utilized strategically, cloud services can be beneficial in resource allocation and savings, but if implemented blindly, it can produce the inverse effect. The trick is understanding the differences between the public and private cloud and creating a hybrid method to fit your business objectives.

Public vs. Private

It’s important to have a clear understanding of the differences between the public and private cloud to use them as efficiently as possible. Here are some basic business considerations every enterprise should keep in mind:

Public- Services on the public cloud require fewer regulations, yet there is a dire need for more unique services in this category. While public cloud services often offer flexible service level agreements (SLAs) and global reach, there are some reliability implications to be considered. Many of these services rely on third parties to manage their data, which reduces your control and can put your performance at risk.

Private- Some of the benefits of using private cloud services revolve around innovation and security. These services are more likely deliver regular, timely updates to their features and capabilities, which makes it easy to scale with the growth and evolution of your own product. They also follow strict regulatory guidelines, such as PII compliance, and are more likely to fit your security needs.

When it comes to implementation, there is no single answer. For most of today’s enterprises, though, a hybrid cloud method seems to be the key. Rackspace reported that 60% of IT companies see hybrid cloud as the culmination of their cloud strategy. Furthermore, 70% of US organizations are considering implementing a hybrid strategy in the next 24 months.

At this point in time, it’s not really a matter of if enterprises will adopt a cloud strategy, but when. Take the time to carefully consider your business objectives and resource allocations to build a scalable, reliable hybrid cloud strategy.