Advantages and Disadvantages of Hybrid Cloud Model

Today, an increasing number of organizations are laying focus in the process of adopting a cloud computing model for the purposes of cutting down on capital expenditure as well as control and efforts operating costs (Marbukh, 2016). These are considered to be sufficient reasons driving organizations to trigger aggressive growth in regards to cloud implementation in business. This paper will discuss the type of deployment model and cloud service, which are most appropriate for an online store that is characterized by seasonal sales.

Hybrid Cloud Model

A hybrid cloud model offers business owners or managers within an organization the capabilities of a public cloud, which offers control as well as security provided by a private cloud model (Marbukh, 2016).  Typically, it is assumed to provide best technical services as offered by private and public cloud models, thereby, making it the most viable choice for a business that incurs seasonal sales such as during Christmas or Thanksgiving. Most recent studies have suggested that during the next few years, it is highly possible that hybrid cloud model will replace and outpace both private and public models (Marbukh, 2016).

Most importantly, a hybrid cloud model is highly likely to offer business owners or managers the advantages of the private and public clouds while at the same time, limiting their disadvantages (Marbukh, 2016). In fact, most companies or organizations regard the Hybrid cloud model as the fresh Private cloud. Therefore, a business wishing to process more orders during holidays needs to adopt the hybrid cloud model as evidenced by the rising number of users, which is recorded to be at 82% and is projected to keep rising in the subsequent years (Marbukh, 2016).

Benefits of Adopting a Hybrid Cloud

Cost Saving

Amongst the most apparent benefit of adopting and implementing a hybrid cloud approach has been found to cost savings (Hengliang, Guangyi & Wenming, 2014). Traditionally, business owners and managers were forced to spend large sums of money during the process of developing infrastructure with the aim of enduring infrequent bursts in system utilization, which often happen within a diminutive fraction of the time (Hengliang et al., 2014). In this case, businesses will be allowed to leverage public cloud provisions or offerings in the process of offloading a few heavy usages, and therefore, only pay for it every time they need it such as during high-selling seasons. Therefore, the business will be having fewer finances directed towards infrastructure, and devote more funds to other important, viable and productive projects, which will earn the business more profit instead of holding it back (Hengliang et al., 2014).

Enhanced Business Agility

Enhanced business agility is another key benefit brought about by hybrid cloud model.  It is worth to note that if business owners and managers decide to leverage the public cloud especially during heavy usage periods, it is more likely that the business will experience less downtime as well as fewer outages (Hengliang et al., 2014). Therefore, for purposes of testing and developing new business applications, the hybrid cloud model stands the chance of providing the attractive alternative for hosting them, thereby; holding on them until major decisions are eventually reached as to where the hybrid model will be hosted permanently (Hengliang et al., 2014).

Risks of Implementing a Hybrid Cloud Model

1. Skills and Tools

In order to successfully run a hybrid cloud solution, the business will require a high level of skills and tools. In this regard, most individuals are unable to offer such skills, and it will cost the business not only to get them but also to obtain necessary tools (Hengliang et al., 2014). If a business has just reached the decision of implementing a hybrid cloud model, it will require business owners or managers to search for external talent that has the required skill-set to achieve it. In addition, individuals responsible for the implementation process will require additional training for the purposes of learning and understanding the systems, which will cost additional finances or funds (Hengliang et al., 2014).

Estimated Monthly Costs

Cost plays a significant role during the planning process of implementing a hybrid cloud strategy. Public cloud is a preferred option for most companies because it provides an attractive alternative for its relatively low cost to operate and flexibility (Marbukh, 2016). However, developing a private enterprise cloud will need noteworthy expenditure and therefore can be extremely expensive as far as the necessary physical hardware is concerned. In order to estimate the monthly cost, the business first calculates expenses incurred in network infrastructure mantainance, network hardware as well as labor. The total sum is divided by the number of needed rack units in regards to hybrid cloud. In this context, developing a hybrid cloud model for a business that highly functions during important calendar dates such as Christmas or Thanksgiving will require an estimated $16,600.40 per month, considering other costs such as space, racks, and power.

Conclusion

In summary, the cloud carries inherent security challenges and a risk as far as information technology management is concerned, which is regarded to be not only costly but is also capable of causing harm for businesses to deal with. In this understanding, it is very crucial for organizations to properly identify and understand their requirements ahead of picking any available cloud deployment model. Founded on attributes, applications including business requirement regarding a particular firm, the cloud may be deployed using a number of methods as aforementioned.

References

Hengliang, S., Guangyi, B., & Wenming, G. (2014). An Implementation of Novel Cloud Computing Model - Improved Map-reduce Model. 2010 Ninth International Conference on Grid and Cloud Computing. doi:10.1109/gcc.2010.88

Marbukh, V. (2016). Systemic Risks in the Cloud Computing Model: Complex Systems Perspective. 2016 IEEE 9th International Conference on Cloud Computing (CLOUD). doi:10.1109/cloud.2016.0124