By Mary Beth Hamilton – There has been discussion for years about whether public or private cloud platforms were more suitable to financial and investment management firms. And that debate continues, but with the addition of a new player – the hybrid cloud.
While the public cloud receives praise for its flexibility and potential cost savings and the private cloud for its robust security and reliable performance, the hybrid iteration essentially marries these features to create a compelling package for firms who don’t fit naturally into the previous two categories.
Take a closer look at how public, private and hybrid cloud platforms stack up against each other with our handy comparison grid.
As its applicability continues to surge, it is worth understanding the concepts and benefits behind the hybrid cloud. Let’s take a look at what makes hybrid environments appealing to some organisations:
• Agility & Flexibility: A hybrid cloud model allows a company to combine public cloud assets with those in a private cloud to increase agility and availability. For example, combine Microsoft Exchange and file services via the public cloud with robust security layers and 24x7x365 managed support via the private cloud, and suddenly you’re benefiting from the best of both worlds (hint: we’re talking about the Eze Hybrid Cloud).
• High-Touch Experience at Lower Cost: Speaking of managed support, it’s one of the most critical considerations for financial firms who don’t want to be relegated to a queue for troubleshooting or a simple IT question. In a hybrid model, you still benefit from the economies of scale, but you also receive the high-touch support your firm needs to feel secure.
• Deep Security for Data and Applications: As a careful investment firm, you want access to new features and functionality within your cloud platform, but not at the expense of your firm’s security posture. With a hybrid model, you benefit from new and innovative public cloud features, but don’t sacrifice the security measures that protect your sensitive assets. By relying on a managed service provider to secure traffic across private networks, you’ll have peace of mind that your communications and data transmissions are protected at all times.
Hybrid cloud use scenarios
Some of the most common uses for hybrid clouds across the technology industry, according to a TrendMicro survey, include:
• Using the private cloud for mission-critical applications and using public clouds for non-critical applications. A firm, for example, may use a private cloud for production deployment and a public cloud for testing and development of lower-tier applications.
• Another example is non-destructive Disaster Recovery (DR) testing. Organizations can test if their production environment is DR-ready by tapping the public clouds without any disruption.
