The Three Reasons Hybrid Clouds Will Dominate

In the short term, hybrid cloud is going to be the cloud computing model of choice.

Amidst all the disconnect at CloudConnect regarding standards and where “cloud” is going was an undercurrent of adoption of what most have come to refer to as a “hybrid cloud computing” model. This model essentially “extends” the data center into “the cloud” and takes advantage of less expensive compute resources on-demand. What’s interesting is that the use of this cheaper compute is the granularity of on-demand. The time interval for which resources are utilized is measured more in project timelines than in minutes or even hours. Organizations need additional compute for lab and quality assurance efforts, for certification testing, for production applications for which budget is limited. These are not snap decisions but rather methodically planned steps along the project management lifecycle. It is on-demand in the sense that it’s “when the organization needs it”, and in the sense that it’s certainly faster than the traditional compute resource acquisition process, which can take weeks or even months.

Also mentioned more than once by multiple panelists and speakers was the notion of separating workload such that corporate data remains in the local data center while presentation layers and GUIs move into the cloud computing environment for optimal use of available compute resources. This model works well and addresses issues with data security and privacy, a constant top concern in surveys and polls regarding inhibitors of cloud computing.

It’s not just the talk at the conference that makes such a conclusion probabilistic. An Evans Data developer survey last year indicated that more than 60 percent of developers would be focusing on hybrid cloud computing in 2010.

Results of the Evans Data Cloud Development Survey, released Jan. 12, show that 61 percent of the more than 400 developers polled said some portion of their organizations' IT resources "will move to the public cloud within the next year," Evans Data said. "However, over 87 percent [of the developers] say half or less then half of their resources will move ... As a result, the hybrid cloud is set to dominate the coming IT landscape."

There are three reasons why this model will become the de facto standard strategy for leveraging cloud computing, at least in the short term and probably for longer than some pundits (and providers) hope.