What is hybrid cloud and what about security?

Covid-19 has been a disruptor in many ways, it has also been a catalyst for change with many digital transformation projects being fast forwarded (in some cases by several years).

A recent study COVID-19 and the future of business, released by IBM's Institute for Business Value, reported that 59 percent of organizations surveyed have accelerated their digital transformation plans due to the pandemic.

This rapid pace of change has seen a further surge in cloud adoption, and it is important to understand what the cloud is and how it operates. There are a multitude of options to consider, and it is important to take the right advice to ensure the most appropriate solution for your needs.

Do not be confused by hybrid cloud solutions, some people enjoy making things sound complicated, but these are relatively straightforward and easy to understand.

Hybrid cloud simply combines both public and private cloud services from multiple cloud providers to create a single, flexible, cost-effective IT infrastructure. By its very nature, a hybrid cloud is adaptable and should deliver the best performance, and cost efficiency possible. A hybrid cloud could also include on-premise (or traditional hosting) infrastructure as part of its configuration.

Utilizing both public and private clouds will typically happen when an organisation has requirements that cannot be addressed by using just one or the other. For example, sometimes data in a particular sector will legally need to be stored in a private cloud whilst core applications may need the public cloud’s scalability.

The benefits of hybrid cloud are flexibility, burstable power and bandwidth, security, and cost efficiency.

CyberSecurity or Cyber Resilience should always be front of mind and no CIO, CTO or IT provider should be constructing projects that ignore the concept of ‘secure by design’. Unfortunately, too many people ignore this and piece together solutions (often reinventing the wheel) at great cost, both in terms of finances and time.

I encourage a comprehensive multi-faceted approach to hybrid cloud security. This strategy should always take into account both internal and external vulnerabilities — internal breaches often occur with greater frequency and can incur as much damage as external threats. Equally important is an appropriate approach to encryption. Avoid selective encryption which can result in obvious vulnerabilities; bad actors can identify specifically encrypted data as their target, as it is logical to assume that it is the most valuable.

Smaller businesses can often make the mistake of assuming that the industry leaders and their solutions are going to be cost prohibitive (or be too large for their requirements), in my experience that is simply not the case.

I have had a relationship with IBM for many years and their approach to cybersecurity and data management is a great example of this misconception. They continue to make it simpler than ever to reduce the risk of business disruption.

The new IBM FlashSystem 5200 is a small form factor (pizza box) storage solution which delivers up to 1.7 Petabytes of storage capacity in a compact, 1U form factor for 20% less cost than its predecessor. It is certainly a very compelling solution which includes advanced data protection capabilities, to help organisations safeguard continuity, increase both productivity and revenues, and hopefully gain competitive advantage.

IBM have recently announced a commitment to continue advancing hybrid cloud capabilities across its storage portfolio. The new IBM FlashSystem range and its continued integration of hybrid cloud and container capabilities is exactly what's needed in this digital transformation landscape for organizations of any size.

You can find out more about investing in secure data whilst saving on storage by visiting: ibm.com