Cloud computing has no doubt taken the world by storm. Most of the focus has been on the consumer market, where mobile devices, apps, and cloud storage have transformed how people connect, socialise and work with each other. 

However, the true power of cloud computing lies in its ability to transform how businesses do business – streamlining processes, speeding up collaborative initiatives and cutting overall operational costs. From enterprises like Salesforce to infrastructure platforms like Amazon EC2, the cloud is changing the IT landscape as we know it. 

Yet, like all technology, cloud computing has taken a number of forms. With current options being private, public and hybrid, the question remains, which cloud computing variant is best for you? 

Public

Generally speaking, a public cloud houses services and infrastructure in an off-site location over the internet and is managed by a third party. Companies tend to look to public clouds when a standardised work process for applications is utilised by a large number of people – for instance, email. In addition to this, businesses will use public clouds when they want to test code or utilise SaaS (Software as a Service) applications from a vendor. 

However, they are also more vulnerable than private clouds, yet this is changing – fast. Speaking to the WSJD Live 2016 global technology conference, Amazon Web Services CEO Andy Jassy said that while some companies still put a very low security assessment on cloud computing, it is still the most secure way to run corporate IT applications.

Private

Although the public cloud offers companies a huge number of benefits, most enterprises will not deploy all of their applications in a public cloud. Generally, it's a lot simpler to transition from your on-premise hardware to a private cloud than it is to a public one. 

The main reason for this is that private clouds can be constructed to support just about any application. Companies turn to private cloud providers if they have legacy applications that may have trouble integrating or operating in the public cloud.

The side effect of this is that businesses know exactly where their data is stored and have complete control over it. Organisations use the private cloud if they are worried about hosting their own intellectual property on a public cloud, or must satisfy a number of regulatory requirements. 

Private clouds are not all internally operated, as many people think. In many cases, companies can utilise managed private clouds – where they receive assistance from a third party. This allows a business to select a custom cloud model that fits with their operational needs, while leveraging the expertise of a secure third-party provider. 

Hybrid

Colloquially known as a 'mix-and-match' approach, the hybrid cloud route allows companies to choose the elements they want. Enterprises and CIOs have the ability to shape the services to their needs, picking elements from the public cloud and/or private cloud.

For instance, an eBanking company could host its website – including sensitive customer information such as bank statements – on a private cloud, while its non-sensitive data could be posted on the public cloud. The benefits of hybrid clouds has not been lost on the commercial world either. In fact, research from RightScale showed that hybrid cloud adoption had risen from 58 per cent in 2015 to 71 per cent in 2016. 

One of the major reasons for this is the increasing adoption of private cloud resource pools to their inventory, with 77 per cent of respondents saying they are now using private cloud – a 14 per cent increase on the year before. According to Oracle, hybrid clouds are being used to modernise applications: ensuring business functionality as well as integrating those older, legacy applications, all the while creating a scalable model.

Due to the complexity of the enterprise architecture, hybridity offers larger organisations a processual approach to moving to the cloud. It also appeals to companies that experience institutional hesitancy due to security concerns with the public cloud. 

A hybrid cloud system allows a business to keep hold of veteran staff and legacy applications and infrastructure, all the while opening new business processes in the cloud. It is a cost-effective way to take advantage of technological change while managing organisational risk. 

Yet, with all the options and benefits that cloud computing brings, hybrid environments and other cloud solutions are only as strong as the integration that unites them. Performance monitoring, regular testing and data mapping will illuminate future areas of difficulty, while also revealing when and how to progress the application. 

At ANATAS, we have the expertise and the experience needed to deliver an integration strategy that not only fits your needs but can deliver increased ROI. Rather than use an ad hoc approach, we can create a number of clear guidelines and processes that structure how we integrate your cloud environments. If you would like to know more, make sure you talk to the experts at ANATAS.