As the name suggests, a hybrid cloud is a cloud infrastructure made up of a combination of cloud deployment models. Typically, a hybrid cloud combines elements of a on-premises infrastructure, a private cloud and a public cloud, with data and applications being shared between them.
A hybrid cloud approach is favored by many organizations who wish to migrate to the cloud while keeping some workloads in-house. The oil and gas company BP (through the Microsoft Azure platform) has adopted a hybrid cloud infrastructure, keeping certain localized features on-premises while gradually migrating other workloads to the cloud.
One of the main benefits of a hybrid cloud model is that it allows business to migrate at their own pace; as it typically combines on-premises infrastructure with a mix of private and public clouds, a hybrid approach can support a gradual transition of on-premises data and workloads into the cloud. It also allows organizations to optimize resources by deploying the most appropriate solution for each workflow.
By combining local, on-site resources with private and public cloud services, businesses can operate a hybrid cloud infrastructure. In order to migrate workloads between the public and private cloud platforms as computing demands change, an organization divides instrumentation among the three. A hybrid cloud approach functions primarily by sharing data between on-site and off-site platforms. Data virtualization is used to connect the platforms first, and then connective tools and protocols like application programming interfaces (APIs), virtual private networks (VPNs) and/or wide area networks (WANs) are used.