Hybrid-working is here to stay, but what does this mean for cloud storage?

Hybrid-working is here to stay, but what does this mean for cloud storage

 

Heralded “the future of work”, a hybrid working model can solve many a problem for businesses and answer many questions for an entire generation of employees such as better productivity, retaining and attracting the best talent, reducing costs, and healthier work-life balance to name a few. And, according to the Office of National Statistics (ONS), 85% of remote workers want to use a hybrid approach of both home and office-based methods.

Furthermore, the pandemic has shown businesses and employees across the globe that remote working is both viable and preferable for many employers. As a result, in 2022 we expect businesses will be looking to make longer-term investments in better remote working technology.

As more organisations adopt cloud services, they are also moving away from traditional desktop infrastructure and adopting cloud-based desktop as a service. This approach gives much more flexibility to individuals and IT departments, as employees can access their digital desktop at any time on different types of device. Cloud services will also enable businesses to scale such services up or down instantly, saving costs and increasing resiliency to change.

 

Public cloud

A public cloud solution stores your information off-site on a shared platform managed and maintained by your chosen service provider. Users access the services via the internet and can share storage, devices, or hardware without any upfront costs. In some cases, vendors employ subscription-based facilities, where users pay based on their cloud usage.

Advantages of Public Cloud

  • Zero maintenance – your data is stored in your chosen vendor’s data centre, as a result they are responsible for managing the cloud infrastructure
  • Affordable – public cloud is often seen as the most affordable option as they can be scaled as required. Usually, public cloud providers will offer a pay-as-you go service model
  • Scalability – one of the main advantages of public cloud is the OPEX model, enabling businesses to scale up or down as required

 

Disadvantages of Public Cloud

  • Basic DR and security compliance – the majority of cloud providers don’t have any cyber, disaster recovery or business continuity experience – in fact, they’ve intentionally positioned themselves away from that responsibility. Rather, they sell themselves as platform and micro-service providers, only
  • Concentration of risk – while a public cloud provides a flexible and stable IT environment, there are growing concerns around its operational resilience. As more businesses adopt a cloud-first strategy, more and more businesses are handing over their business-critical infrastructure to a small number of major providers. This is particularly worrisome within the financial services industry and as a result, the FCA is looking to impose restrictions
  • Lack of visibility – public cloud users do not know where their data is stored and who has legal jurisdiction of their data, and vendors are generally tight-lipped about this

 

Private cloud

A private cloud solution hosts your business on a dedicated platform with access and management limited to your business only. The network is protected by a secure firewall and offers high performance due to its single use.

Advantages of Private Cloud

  • Single-tenant infrastructure – providing dedicated hardware and network for your business managed by an in-house technical team
  • Greater control over security – as it is a single customer environment with your own applications, you have greater control over the security of your business-critical data
  • Tailored to your business – allows your business to take advantage of platforms that public cloud does not support, such as IBM environments and non-standard applications

 

Disadvantages of Private Cloud

  • Higher cost – the private cloud model is more expensive in the context of the total cost of ownership compared to that of a public cloud
  • Maintenance can be costly – as a tailored environment, it can sometimes be more expensive to maintain a private cloud than a public one
  • Less flexibility – you have less flexibility in scaling IT resources up or down as your needs change

 

Hybrid cloud

Hybrid cloud is the best of both worlds, taking the core benefits of both private and public cloud. By utilising the flexibility of private cloud for ‘known’ workflows and combining these with the efficiencies of public cloud for ‘variable’ and ‘unexpected’ workloads, to create a tailored cloud experience built around your business needs and requirements.

Advantages of Hybrid Cloud

  • Improves business continuity – a hybrid cloud model enables businesses to backup key data (by replicating business-critical data to the cloud)
  • Greater security – adopting a hybrid cloud model enables businesses to have greater control over their data. It also enables you to take advantage of the security that comes with a private cloud as well as the power options that come with public clouds
  • Greater control – instead of putting all facets of your IT infrastructure into the hands of a third-party provider, you can customise and tailor the private side of your cloud model to meet the exact needs and requirements of your business
  • Peace of mind and flexible recovery options – a full-service hybrid cloud vendor, like Daisy, can add significant value to your hybrid cloud strategy by offering tailored end-to-end protection, including full recovery options to keep you running 24/7

 

Disadvantages of Hybrid Cloud

  • Can be difficult to implement – it is essential that your public and private components are strongly linked and orchestrated in order for a hybrid cloud to deliver maximum benefit. Management, integration and security can become complex and need to be carefully managed
  • Skills shortage – there is a shortage of hybrid cybersecurity specialists in many businesses, particularly those that understand the cloud. This can leave businesses exposed to risk if they have no third-party provider managing this
  • Up front expense can be costly – while a hybrid model saves money in the long term, the initial set up costs can be much higher than those of public cloud, if you are using your own infrastructure

 

Daisy’s hybrid cloud environment offers cost efficiencies by being multi-tenanted, or if required dedicated, together with the option of running non-public cloud capable workloads, such as IBM, as well as non-cloud native applications.

Combined with public cloud, all managed under one roof, your business can take advantage of public cloud where it’s appropriate to do so, and suitable workloads can be moved if needed.

 

Daisy cloud security and operational resiliency

Both private and public cloud put the onus on the customer to manage and protect their environments and business from cyber and other threats that can disrupt or shut it down completely.

Daisy is different, we have dedicated security teams to advise and manage security for you, from individual project engagements through to co-managed and fully managed services, providing peace of mind that your business is secure and protected.

Daisy is also the leading end-to-end operational resilience provider in the UK, helping you plan for and prove your operational readiness should a disaster strike, whether that be cyber related, a failure in your or your suppliers’ environments or a real-world incident, such as the weather, utilities, social incidents or other disruptions outside of your control.

With more than 30 years’ experience of delivering operational resilience services, you know you are in good hands.  Our award-winning planning services, such as Shadow-Planner, ensure you are prepared to manage any event effectively. Our consultancy services, as well as helping you plan, can also run exercises, including crisis management, to further ensure your preparedness. Our recovery services can ensure that no what the event, your people and IT environments can continue from operational resilience centres, their homes, or indeed, any other location.

The adoption of public cloud is also leading to a concentration of risk. As more businesses adopt public cloud, more of their customers, suppliers and services are running on those same public clouds.  An event that would have only affected you, one customer or supplier, now has the potential to disrupt or even stop your entire supply chain, as organisations are all using the same public cloud environments to do business.

The Daisy hybrid cloud model helps to minimise the risk and reduce the impact of solely relying on public clouds.  This has been recognised by several regulators, such as the FCA in the UK, who are now starting to advocate for hybrid clouds, rather than public cloud adoption.  We are starting to see similar moves being taken by auditors and insurers, to both highlight the risks to the businesses they work with and limit their liabilities.

Talk to one of our specialists.
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0344 863 3000