CIO OPINION
Why hybrid cloud is so important
To provide a personalised , relevant customer experience , which is also slick , smooth and secure , there needs to be a switch up from traditional data centres . The hybrid cloud model enables companies to do this , so it ’ s little wonder that 47 % of UAE businesses are currently investing in hybrid cloud solutions .
People don ’ t tend to realise that when they ’ re interacting with an app or website , there are actually a number of complex systems working independently and connecting to each other in the background .
Because of the rise in the number of apps and microservices that need to seamlessly integrate , there ’ s been a major corresponding growth in data requirements . Today , it ’ s not possible to self-manage apps within data centres – it isn ’ t cost-effective and can ’ t scale quickly enough . To succeed in the new environment , a company needs to deploy a hybrid cloud model , with a mix of cloud hosting and fully managed services . This provides companies with a combination of the value of on-premise systems with the scale and agility of the cloud and fully managed services .
For the industries that still rely on legacy systems , hybrid cloud is vital . New apps may be in the cloud , but they need to be able to interact seamlessly with data in data centres . At some point , it may be possible to move to cloud-first or cloud-only solutions , but it ’ s likely to be only in the distant future – if at all .
The challenges of data exchange for hybrid cloud
With many companies now choosing hybrid cloud , it ’ s never been more essential to ensure data can be shared and updated effectively between systems both on- and off-cloud . If it can ’ t , companies may well find their cloud hybrid approach doesn ’ t work effectively . For example , when updating customer details on the cloud – do the updates pull through automatically to where the on-premises data is held ? If they don ’ t , it can cause serious problems .
Generally , the approach to data exchange uses the same principles as mainframe architectures – directly linking systems that need to talk to each other . This is reasonably effective if there are just a few systems involved , but when there are many , it becomes chaotic .
A new approach
To effectively solve the issue of data exchange , a new solution is required – and that ’ s where data streaming
To succeed in the new environment , a company needs to deploy a hybrid cloud model , with a mix of cloud hosting and fully managed services .
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