IT Infrastructure

The Top 7 Hybrid Cloud Solutions

Explore the top Hybrid Cloud Solutions that combine public clouds, private clouds, and on-premises resources. Key features include seamless integration, workload management, and scalability.

Last updated on Jun 25, 2024

Written by Caitlin Jones

Technical review by Laura Iannini

The Top 7 Hybrid Cloud Solutions include:

1. AWS Outposts
2. Azure Stack
3. Google Cloud Anthos
4. IBM Cloud
5. NetApp
6. Oracle Cloud Infrastructure
7. VMware Hybrid Cloud

Hybrid cloud solutions offer businesses the cost-effectiveness and scalability of cloud computing, without having to give up the privacy and security of hosting sensitive assets on their private, on-site servers. The hybrid cloud model combines public clouds and private cloud services, allowing businesses to move workloads between the cloud systems as needed. This reduces the cost of managing and maintaining IT systems, improves disaster recovery and business continuity, provides businesses with more control over where their data resides, increases scalability, allows for flexibility, and optimizes performance.

Hybrid cloud solutions are delivered by cloud infrastructures providers. They work by establishing connections between on-site and off-site IT environments, then enabling IT teams to split workloads across these environments. So, the public and private clouds remain are distinct and independent, but IT teams can move data and apps between them for greater flexibility and deployment options, and centrally manage policies for unified governance, orchestration, and security.

In this article, we’ll explore the top hybrid cloud solutions designed to help you leverage a combination of public cloud, private cloud, and on-premises resources. We’ll highlight the key use cases and features of each solution, including integration capabilities, load balancing, workload management, networking, scalability, security, and compliance.

AWS Outposts

AWS Outposts is a suite of managed solutions designed to provide a hybrid experience by extending AWS services and infrastructure to almost any on-premises or edge location. The service supports applications and workloads that need low-latency access to systems on site, local data processing, compliance with data residency policies, and application migration when local system dependencies exist.

AWS Outposts consists of two main components: the AWS Outposts rack and AWS Outposts servers. The AWS Outposts rack brings AWS compute, storage, data management to any datacenter or co-location space, while allowing access to a broad array of AWS services available in the region. It supports up to 96 racks for larger-capacity needs. AWS Outposts servers, on the other hand, are available in 1U or 2U form factors, offering local compute and networking services to on-premises and edge locations with limited space and smaller capacity requirements.

AWS Outposts facilitates low-latency computation for high-frequency trading, medical diagnostics, and manufacturing execution systems. The solution guarantees data residency for compliance with regulatory changes, supports seamless migrations of legacy on-premises applications, and allows local data processing for data lakes, machine learning model training, etc.

Overall, AWS Outposts provides a highly flexible, fully managed infrastructure solution that significantly reduces the resource burden, operational risk, and downtime associated with managing IT infrastructure. It allows AWS services to be run on-premises, while guaranteeing a consistent hybrid experience through unified hardware infrastructure, APIs, tools, and management controls.

Azure Stack

Azure Stack is a collection of Azure-based services that can be extended into your preferred environment, including data centers, edge locations, and distant offices. The solution empowers you to build, deploy, and operate hybrid and edge computing applications consistently throughout your IT ecosystem, providing flexibility for a variety of workloads.

The Azure Stack portfolio encompasses three products: Azure Stack Edge, Azure Stack HCI, and Azure Stack Hub. Azure Stack Edge focuses on running edge-computing workloads. It offers an Azure-managed appliance equipped with hardware-accelerated machine learning capabilities to help businesses manage Internet of Things (IoT) and AI workloads, as well as transferring data from the edge to the cloud. Azure Stack HCI is a hyperconverged infrastructure solution designed to modernize your on-premises data center. It provides scalable infrastructure, storage, and high-performance workloads. Finally, Azure Stack Hub lets you run your own private, autonomous cloud—either connected or disconnected with cloud-native applications utilizing consistent Azure services on-premises.

Overall, Azure Stack delivers an efficient, flexible solution for running a range of applications across different work environments. Through integration with Azure, businesses can modernize their infrastructure, run edge computing workloads, and manage private, autonomous clouds with greater consistency and ease.

Google Cloud Anthos

Google Cloud Anthos is an enterprise container platform that enables businesses to run a more diverse range of workloads securely and reliably. The solution is available through Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) and Google Distributed Cloud (GDC).

Anthos’ key capabilities include automatic enforcement of security and compliance best practices, multi-team and multi-cluster management, and an integrated container platform. This suite of features allows for a more streamlined operations process, including enforcing compliance policies, managing traffic securely, and increasing deployment velocity with team-based management.

By offering a single, unified user interface, Anthos also improves observability, with an Advanced Vulnerability Insights for language packs (AVI) feature that continuously scans for vulnerabilities in GKE workloads.

Google Cloud Anthos is an innovative solution. With the ability to manage multiple clusters and enforce compliance policies across those clusters, organizations can use Anthos to improve reliability and security, while streamlining management across their workloads.

IBM Cloud

IBM Cloud is an open hybrid cloud solution that enables businesses to integrate features from any environment—be it cloud or on-premises— to create a unified, interconnected environment that maximizes the value of your existing IT investments. Built on open-source technology, IBM Cloud gives DevOps teams easy access to their data wherever it resides, helps optimize workloads, and enables teams to build applications where they’re most needed.

IBM Cloud harnesses Red Hat OpenShift’s open-source architecture to seamlessly connect private clouds, public clouds, and on-premises environments. The solution’s single operating system approach with a container orchestration platform eliminates hardware dependency and enhances workload distribution, integration, and management across separate digital environments.

IBM Cloud also offers AI-assisted application modernization to help boost enterprise agility. The solution’s watsonx Code Assistant for Z empowers businesses with generative AI and automation, enhancing developer productivity during the application development lifecycle while reducing costs and risk. This enables businesses to more easily modernize and migrate applications to deliver superior customer experiences.

Finally, IBM Cloud improves data access across IT environments. By breaking down siloes between separate environments, the solution facilitates seamless data mobility, reduces redundancy, and boosts response times. Its premier storage offering, IBM FlashSystem, bridges data and applications between on-premises and off-premises storage solutions and allows easy data and application movement from on-premises to cloud-based production without requiring specialized skills.

NetApp

NetApp’s hybrid cloud solution helps organizations reduce complexities, costs, and security risks within both on-premises and multi-cloud environments. The solution enables IT teams to develop, execute, and evolve their hybrid cloud strategy for better on-premises and cloud resource balance, simplified infrastructure management, cost control, and data protection.

NetApp offers on-premises storage and cloud storage services, featuring a comprehensive set of all-flash, hybrid-flash, and object storage systems. The platform also supports Storage-as-a-Service, AWS, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud solutions, giving businesses more control over how their data resides and how they manage it. NetApp uses ONTAP data management software and BlueXP to create a robust foundation for a hybrid cloud storage environment and to help unify cloud management.

NetApp’s product suite also facilitates hybrid workloads by seamlessly merging on-premises and cloud resources. It offers a VMware hybrid multi-cloud, DevOps enablement, and cloud bursting to provide businesses with greater control and agility, and it offers built-in resilience measures and data tiering to provide defense against cyberthreats.

Overall, NetApp offers a broad range of features to help organizations manage complex hybrid cloud environments, with capabilities that enhance operational efficiency, data protection, and cost control. It’s a strong solution for businesses seeking a secure and flexible cloud data management tool.

Oracle Cloud Infrastructure

Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) is a comprehensive cloud computing service that combines on-premises and cloud infrastructure. It enables organizations to modernize their infrastructure and applications, with a particular emphasis on flexibility and adaptability to workload, regulatory, and latency requirements.

OCI offers a standardized operating environment that combines on-premises and cloud infrastructure, providing dynamic scaling and elasticity for better resource utilization. Organizations can control the location of—and access to—their data and applications within their hybrid environment, which is critical for those with specific regulatory and data residency requirements.

OCI also enables IT teams to bring cloud capabilities into their data center using Exadata Cloud@Customer and extend their on-premises network via OCI FastConnect. In terms of security, the solution’s Oracle Data Safe service reduces risk and simplifies compliance, while the Oracle Identity Cloud Service helps prevent unauthorized access. The solution also offers unified monitoring for all resources, tracking system availability, and application performance to help IT teams respond quickly to any changes or outages. Finally, OCI also provides improved application mobility by extending on-premises VMware deployment to Oracle Cloud.

Oracle Cloud Infrastructure is a flexible, adaptable, data-driven solution that allows IT teams to modernize their IT infrastructures without the need for re-architecting. Whether for data control, network extension, hybrid operations optimization, or security enhancements, OCI is a complete and robust hybrid cloud solution.

VMware Hybrid Cloud

VMware Hybrid Cloud is a versatile solution designed to provide a consistent operating experience across private cloud, public cloud, and edge environments. The solution uses VMware-based infrastructure to boost business agility, lower operational costs, and create a functional developer experience for all application types.

VMware Hybrid Cloud’s key feature is its ability to provide software-defined solutions for compute, storage, networking, security, and cloud management. This allows the smooth operation of both traditional and containerized applications in private or public environments.

VMware Hybrid Cloud is compatible with a range of cloud services, including AWS, Azure, Google Cloud Platform, and IBM Cloud. It also offers a choice from over 4,300 VMware Cloud Provider Partners, and can be deployed in various forms: installed as hyperconverged infrastructure, pre-installed on hardware, or as-a-Service from various cloud providers.

Overall, VMware Hybrid Cloud is a flexible platform that increases business agility, optimizes IT efficiency, and reduces business risk by providing a consistent operating model across multiple environments. Its broad compatibility with various cloud services and the variety of deployment options makes it a valuable tool for any business seeking a versatile and reliable hybrid cloud solution.

Everything You Need To Know About Hybrid Cloud Solutions (FAQs)

What Are Hybrid Clouds?

Hybrid clouds are IT environments that combine public clouds and private cloud services, including on-premises and “edge” datacenters. Usually, this involves a connection between an on-prem datacenter and a public cloud, with sensitive data kept on-site and less-sensitive data is stored on the public cloud. This provides a balance between cost-saving and security measures. However, users can share and manage workloads between the different environments in a hybrid cloud, allowing them to create flexible, complex setups that align with their business need.

Hybrid clouds are one of the most common types of IT infrastructure used today. This is mainly due to the fact that organizations often implement a hybrid cloud during the cloud migration process, as they transition their on-premises resources to the cloud over time.

However, for many organizations, hybrid clouds aren’t just a temporary setup; organization are increasingly choosing this type of environment because it enables them to utilize their on-premises resources, whilst embracing the flexible data storage and application access that public clouds offer.

How Do Hybrid Cloud Solutions Work?

Hybrid cloud environments combine the resources from two or more separate computing environments. These can include:

Private cloud services, such as on-premises datacenters, which typically store mission-critical or sensitive data over which the organization needs direct control
Public Infrastructure-as-a Service (IaaS) platforms, which are used to store data that’s less sensitive, or experimental deployments

These environments also need to have a strong connection between those environments, and a software solution that enables IT teams to discover and manage separate private and public cloud environments as a single, unified, hybrid environment.

Traditionally, hybrid cloud environments were created by building a virtualization layer or hypervisor on top of on-prem infrastructure. This enabled organizations to support virtual machines and container-based workloads. Then, a private cloud software layer would be built on top of the virtualization layer. This delivered capabilities such as improved automation, orchestration, and resilience, and it integrated with public cloud APIs.

Today, hybrid cloud solutions are usually offered by public cloud providers, who extend their services into private, on-premises data centers. The way that the public cloud services are connected with those on-prem differs between providers, but it often involves establishing a local area network (LAN), a wide area network (WAN), a virtual private network (VPN), and APIs. It also involves containerization to allocate resources to different environments.

What Are The Benefits Of Hybrid Cloud Solutions?

There are multiple benefits to using a hybrid cloud solution:

Cost-effectiveness: By leveraging the public cloud, organizations can expand their computing capacity without the cost of buying, installing, and maintaining new servers.
Scalability: A hybrid cloud solution enables you to scale up and down instantly as your computing and processing needs change.
Security: You can keep your sensitive data on your private cloud or on-premises, offering more robust security.
Agility: You can quickly test and develop new projects in the public cloud while maintaining your usual operations in the private cloud or on-premises.
Productivity: Hybrid cloud solutions often provide access to the latest technologies without you having to change your existing infrastructure. This means that you can easily leverage tech such as AI and machine learning to optimize resource utilization and boost productivity.
Business continuity: Having a mix of cloud and on-premises resources ensures a higher level of resilience, helping you maintain business operations in the event of a disaster.
Governance: You can decide where your data resides within a hybrid environment, which can help improve data privacy and ensure compliance with relevant data protection standards.

What Features Should You Look For In A Hybrid Cloud Solution?

Here are the top features to look for when comparing hybrid cloud solutions:

Data Management: The solution should provide tools for data backup, replication, synchronization, and archival, as well as data governance features to ensure compliance and data integrity.
Automation and Orchestration: Automation and orchestration capabilities help streamline management tasks and improve efficiency in hybrid environments. Look for features such as automated provisioning, workload placement, resource allocation, and policy-based management.
Security: Make sure that the solution offers robust security measures such as encryption, access controls, identity management, threat detection, and compliance certifications to protect your data and applications both on-premises and in the cloud.
Performance: Look for a hybrid cloud solution that offers high performance and low latency to support mission-critical workloads and applications. This may include features such as optimized network connectivity, caching mechanisms, and workload placement policies.
Disaster Recovery and High Availability: Ensure that the hybrid cloud solution offers robust disaster recovery and high availability to minimize downtime and data loss in the event of an outage or disaster. This may include data replication, failover mechanisms, and geographically distributed redundancy.
Scalability: The hybrid cloud solution should easily scale resources up or down based on demand, without significant downtime or disruption.
Integration Capabilities: Look for a solution that seamlessly integrates with your existing on-premises infrastructure, private cloud, public cloud services, and any third-party applications or tools you use. This will ensure smooth data and application migration and interoperability across environments.
Compliance and Governance: If your organization operates in a regulated industry, make sure that the hybrid cloud solution meets relevant compliance requirements and offers features for enforcing governance policies and auditing usage.
Cost Management: Choose a solution that provides visibility into usage and costs across on-premises and cloud resources, as well as offering tools for monitoring, forecasting, and optimizing spending.
Vendor Support and Ecosystem: Consider the support and ecosystem offered by the hybrid cloud solution provider, including documentation, training, support services.

Caitlin Jones

Deputy Head Of Content

Caitlin Jones is Deputy Head of Content at Expert Insights. Caitlin is an experienced writer and journalist, with years of experience producing award-winning technical training materials and journalistic content. Caitlin holds a First Class BA in English Literature and German, and provides our content team with strategic editorial guidance as well as carrying out detailed research to create articles that are accurate, engaging and relevant. Caitlin co-hosts the Expert Insights Podcast, where she interviews world-leading B2B tech experts.

Laura Iannini

Cybersecurity Analyst

Laura Iannini is an Information Security Engineer. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Cybersecurity from the University of West Florida. Laura has experience with a variety of cybersecurity platforms and leads technical reviews of leading solutions. She conducts thorough product tests to ensure that Expert Insights’ reviews are definitive and insightful.