As businesses become more reliant on the Internet, cloud hybrid models support a company’s need to manage internal resources with external support and data centers. This combination provides the flexibility and reliability of the cloud for proprietary business systems. Along with considering the issues, the business owner or IT manager needs tools to monitor the cloud’s resources and application uptime.
The logistics behind the hybrid cloud solution are dependent on the company requirements, but each solution should allow for support and a cloud management interface that upgrades resources, checks for downtime, and provides for any “spillover” when traffic spikes or the internal data center fails. Hybrid examples include connecting public and private clouds, connecting the cloud to dedicated servers and data centers or running cloud applications within the company infrastructure.
For companies that store sensitive data like credit cards or social security numbers, the cloud must stay PCI compliant to protect the customers’ data. A typical set up is to store sensitive data in the internal infrastructure along with shopping cart and payment functions and keep external, non-sensitive processes in the public cloud. The advantage is a load-balanced feature, safe for customers and PCI-compliant for companies. It also provides an increase in performance for regular Internet traffic.
Monitoring can be done through a control panel or an application programming interface (API). Using an API, the company can customize and make calls to a web service. The web service data can then be used to customize reports and a proprietary control panel that integrates with the internal resource monitoring. The API or control panel can be used to upgrade server software, expand storage resources, view server statistics or change configurations.
The cloud hybrid model allows for any type of setup, but the flexibility and reliability between the internal and external hybrid models also allow the organization to plan for an expanding business without the high costs of the server equipment. By carefully choosing the right model, the cloud can be deployed with little-to-no downtown for customers and employees.
This post is written by Rackspace blogger Jennifer Marsh. Rackspace Hosting is the service leader in cloud computing, and a founder of OpenStack, an open source cloud operating system. The San Antonio-based company provides Fanatical Support to its customers and partners, across a portfolio of IT services, including Managed Hosting and Cloud Computing.