With hybrid cars, you combine the complexity and maintenance of a traditional engine with electric car technology. You also have to ‘fuel up’ twice. Technically, it's quite complex to make these two worlds work together effectively. Moreover, with a hybrid car, you miss out on the simplicity of fully electric driving. You might wonder what the actual advantages of such a car are. In practice, we often make the choice with our wallets: hybrid cars come with lots of subsidies!
The layer
So what about hybrid cloud or multi-cloud? This too is technologically complex, but because it's software (infrastructure as code), you can put a layer on top that largely conceals the complexity. This way, you could combine a private cloud and a public cloud without directly experiencing the drawbacks of the two clouds. However, such a layer also requires effort and thus money, and unfortunately, there are no subsidies for a hybrid cloud. So, the question remains: why would you choose a hybrid version?
Where did we come from?
Let's look in the rearview mirror: we come from an IT environment where traditional file-share applications and client-server applications were the norm for a long time. Security played out within the local network. Then came the internet, with all kinds of convenient applications for consumers, like websites and email. SaaS avant la lettre! Subsequently, our own ‘computer room’ was expanded with Citrix solutions (and variants from VMware and Microsoft). This centralized workplace in the LAN could be safely accessed via the internet from employees' laptops. You could say this was the first hybrid solution, where public infrastructure – the internet combined with private PCs – was connected to the private cloud: your own data center, whether outsourced or not. For years, this was the architecture we were satisfied with: we could work (together) with our applications and data anywhere in the world. And with any computer capable of connecting to the internet. But as often happens with technology, we weren't quite satisfied yet. Two major developments were in store for us.
Rise of the smartphone
The first development was the rise of the smartphone: born and managed with the internet in mind. Alongside the client-server architecture, app-cloud software quickly emerged as we still know it today: all kinds of useful applications where the front-end exists as an 'app' on the smartphone and presents data maintained in the cloud. These apps are centrally managed by the provider and automatically distributed worldwide through app stores. The concept of consumerization of IT gained traction because of this. It didn't take long before business email (=cloud) also made its way to smartphones.
One version of the software
And then the second development: the described simplicity of the app-cloud architecture stands in stark contrast to the increasing complexity of traditional client-server infrastructure. Due to the growing dependence on IT and the risks of data loss (through malicious intent or technical deficiencies), we were forced to implement more complex IT provisions. Every company was busy – by themselves – keeping all software constantly up to date with the latest technology and managing provisions to keep data always available. This could be done smarter, namely with SaaS, or app-cloud technology for enterprise software. A version of the software that is kept safe and current by the provider, where each customer can connect to their own database. Salesforce and Google were shining examples at the time and are now the norm. They initially worked with specific accounts per SaaS application, and gradually became federated, with central user registration, such as Okta, Ping, Active Directory, and now also Entra.
From a security perspective, this obviously created a significant breach in the traditional LAN/Citrix approach. This has been partly resolved with a zero-trust policy, where only trusted (MDM-managed) workstations are allowed access to SaaS applications. Everyone now has a business laptop, tablet, or smartphone, and can thus work location-independently. And that works out well, as home PCs have rapidly decreased with the rise of smartphones and tablets.
Old and new side by side
So why the discussion now about which cloud best suits 'us'? That's actually simple to explain. We live in an era where old and new technologies exist side by side. For example, own data centers with fileserver and client-server applications and SaaS. Moreover, many large companies still have much self-developed software that often still runs on traditional infrastructure. The path to a more open and flexible IT architecture that requires less operational attention is very attractive for many companies. After all, the technical side of IT is a tool and not an end in itself. The journey to the cloud will mean that SaaS becomes the norm for many companies. But meanwhile, many companies still struggle with their own traditional applications in their own data center: are we going to maintain that data center or put it in the cloud? And in the latter case: which cloud then? Simultaneously, there's also the discussion around various privacy laws and regulations. The major public cloud providers are without exception American. What about the data that resides on 'their' servers? This discussion also keeps flaring up.
Precise analysis
The key question is: how do we combine our legacy applications with modern as-a-service solutions in the smartest, most cost-efficient, and most reliable way? And by that, we as an IT partner primarily mean IaaS and PaaS building blocks. This transition requires a precise analysis of all applications, their specific characteristics, and the provider's future vision. How much longer do we still need 'our own' servers? How secure and reliable should our data be? Which risks do we still consider acceptable, and which are no longer acceptable? What insights do we now have about the costs per application and what does that tell us about the most logical solution? Does it make sense to choose best-of-breed or is it preferable to opt for a more universal solution? That's what the real discussion is about.
Our cloud architects are happy to help you with this complex puzzle and create a multi-cloud solution that's transparent where needed. So, no power cord and fuel hose to your hybrid car, but IT-from-the-wall, as the cloud was meant to be.
