A hybrid infrastructure, or hybrid cloud is an IT infrastructure design and environment made up of a mix of on-premises data centers, private clouds and/or public clouds. Operating systems and applications can be deployed on any part of this environment, depending on the business needs and requirements. Hybrid infrastructure uses hybrid IT infrastructure services, or cloud services, to help manage and monitor an enterprise’s entire IT infrastructure. This is important as IT environments and requirements continue to become more complex.
A hybrid cloud architecture can offer important benefits to businesses of all sizes including:
While a hybrid cloud architecture may offer myriad business benefits, they can be challenging for an in-house IT team to manage. Cloud infrastructure services, also known as Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), allow third-party cloud vendors to access and maintain cloud resources.
Managed cloud service providers offer powerful storage, networking technology and servers to meet the needs of clients. They also provide comprehensivemanagement of hybrid cloud environments, which include on-premises data centers and public and private clouds.
Cloud infrastructure services are extensively automated and scalable, letting clients purchase resources on an as-needed basis. Applications, data, runtime, middleware and operating systems are often managed by a service. The cloud vendor is typically responsible for storage, networking and virtualization.
Hybrid infrastructure monitoring is the process of evaluating and managing cloud-based and physical infrastructure, ensuring optimization of performance. Infrastructure monitoring can also provide a comprehensive overview of a hybrid network from a security perspective. Managed cloud services can include monitoring tools across business applications, platforms (databases, middleware, virtualization and operating systems) and physical infrastructure such as servers, storage and networks. These monitoring tools allow for the accurate measurement of service delivery, giving IT teams visibility into an infrastructure that continuously fluctuates between scaling up and down.
Another aspect of hybrid infrastructure monitoring is IT service management (ITSM), which acts as a process management platform. ITSM offers a centralized service and a service request management catalog that provides a unified, single point of entry for the infrastructure.
Manual monitoring and management are not adequate for supporting a hybrid cloud architecture. Managed hybrid infrastructure services provide comprehensive automation, orchestration architecture and repeatable frameworks designed to cover the hybrid environment’s lifecycle. Examples of service automations include:
Overall, managed hybrid infrastructure services can simplify a complex hybrid cloud deployment by providing valuable expertise, oversight and automation. For enterprises with lean IT teams that lack expertise in all of the aspects of a hybrid cloud environment, managed and automated hybrid infrastructure services can be a worthwhile investment.
Hybrid cloud solutions enable you to build and operate your hybrid environment with the same foundation you use today in your data center.
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