3 challenges businesses must overcome to reap the benefits of a hybrid cloud environment

The question “Why should businesses migrate to the cloud?” has long been answered. The tangible benefits are well documented.
Organizations are now forced to assess what type of cloud deployment best suits their needs. Be it the agility and affordability of a public cloud or the control and security of a private environment, there’s no one-size-fits-all answer, which is why it’s no surprise that 80 percent of enterprises are expected to commit to hybrid cloud architectures by 2017. But the route to hybrid cloud environment success is not without challenges. There are three steps to getting it right:
1. Select the right provider
The demand for flexibility, scalability and security hasn’t gone unheeded by hybrid cloud providers. A host of companies offer hosted and on-premises environments that enable businesses to leverage all the benefits of a public cloud service in a hosted or on-premises private cloud environment. But selecting the right provider is just one of the challenges that organizations need to overcome. Whether your business is looking to add cloud capability to its existing virtualized IT environment or its looking to bring private cloud elements to its existing public cloud set-up, compatibility with existing software and services is key. IBM Blue Box runs on the open-source cloud software platform OpenStack, which means that organizations can integrate Blue Box with their existing infrastructure without the need for translation and with no downtime.
2. Clearly identify your needs
The key to successfully deploying a hybrid cloud environment is aligning the cloud strategy with the desired business outcomes. Security remains a core consideration. If an organization’s data is subject to compliance regulations, it faces heavy fines if it fails to meet them. IBM Blue Box offers robust security features including authentication and identity management. Blue Box can integrate with existing, third-party customer IdP systems to ensure control of users and two-factor authentication. That means businesses can operate safe in the knowledge that their data is safe and complies with industry regulations and data sovereignty. Data can reside in-country, or wherever you need it; Blue Box has data centers throughout the world and can deploy hosted or on-premises solutions, providing a truly hybrid model.
3. Seamlessly manage your hybrid environment
For some businesses, the thought of IT teams having to juggle the management of both a private and public cloud infrastructure is perhaps the most daunting element of adopting a hybrid environment. IBM Blue Box provisions and manages organizations’ private clouds for them, leaving them to focus more on business-critical operations.
The benefits of a hybrid cloud environment are manifold: reduced costs, scalability to meet changing business needs, the ability to shift workloads between private and public environments and being able to isolate and protect business-critical data quickly and easily being just four examples. The choice to migrate is simple and with IBM Blue Box, so is navigating the challenges.
To find out more about IBM Blue Box, the OpenStack platform and learn how to ensure your business can reap the benefits of a hybrid cloud, watch our free webinar.
A version of this post originally appeared on LinkedIn.
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Quelle: Thoughts on Cloud