Enterprises are adopting a Hybrid Cloud, why is important?

Hybrid Clouds bring together the best of on-premises and Cloud Computing to deliver IT services cost-effectively and securely.  In this article I want to define Hybrid Clouds and share practical recommendations for a successful adoption. 

What is Cloud Computing?

Believe it or not, there is a lot of confusion in the IT industry about the concept of the Cloud beyond the user's famous phrase "I'm going to move my information to the cloud". The Cloud is not interchangeably with a data center or used to describe scale.

So, what does the Cloud mean? Well, we should refer to it as Cloud Computing, and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) give us a good definition:

Cloud computing is a model for enabling ubiquitous, convenient, on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources (i.e., networks, servers, storage, applications, and services) that can be rapidly provisioned and released with minimal management effort or service provider interaction.

For me, Cloud Computing prevents us from using a "sledgehammer to crack a nut" because it always comes with at least these two distinct capabilities: 

• Self-Service means that the service provisions storage and processing power on-demand without requesting to IT the capacity in advance.
• Elasticity means the service can increase or reduce storage, network bandwidth, and compute capacity almost immediately. In other words, we don't always have to provide resources for the peak.

You can say you have a Private Cloud if those capacities are available in your data center. If self-service and elasticity are provided for a fee by a Third-Party Service Provider, then you have a Public Cloud (i.e., in the case of Microsoft, it is Azure).

What is a Hybrid Cloud?

Let's start with Gartner's definition of Hybrid Cloud Computing:

Hybrid Cloud Computing refers to policy-based and coordinated service provisioning, use, and management across a mixture of internal and external cloud services.

A Hybrid Cloud, as the name implies, combines two or more distinct cloud infrastructures (Private Cloud plus or Public Cloud) that remain unique entities but are bound together by standardized or proprietary technology that enables data and application portability. 

Another way to see it is to have part of your IT services running in the Public Cloud and the others in your traditional datacenter connected by a secure tunnel such as Azure ExpressRoute. In this case, the cloud is one providing the capabilities of Self-Service and Elasticity. 

Let's take a retailer during holiday sales as an example. At a peak, they can use the Public Cloud to scale up during that period to meet their demand and go back down in January when their business slows down. You can find excellent Microsoft's customer stories at Via Varejo, Riachuelo, Linx, Asos and Albertsons. The same concept applies to Tax Collection Authorities [i.e., SAT in Mexico (using Azure since 2014), Agencia Tributaria in Spain, or IRS in the USA] when companies and citizens are requested to pay the appropriate taxes based on incomes.

In my opinion, the top three benefits of a hybrid cloud include:

1. Better agility and responsiveness to business needs.
2. An increased business alignment and focus.
3. A reduced total Cost of Ownership (TCO).

Adopting IaaS is not enough 

IT leaders such as Chief Information Officers (CIOs) and Chief Technology Officers (CTOs) should consider all cloud computing models (IaaS, PaaS, and even SaaS) when designing the organization's strategy to adopt a Hybrid Cloud.

CIOs and CTOs should consider all cloud computing models

Let's take a few minutes to review each model:

• Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS). While the Cloud Service Provider (CSP) manages the physical hardware fabric for raw computing, networking, and storage capacity, IT Pros continue to operate each virtual machine similarly to on-premises workloads.
• Platform as a Service (PaaS). In this case, the CSP provisions and operates a consistent runtime environment where applications will run. IT Pros' responsibility is to deploy and monitor these applications and manage access and data protection. Likewise, IT Pros can host the organization's operational databases and data lakes.
• Software as a Service (SaaS): An organization consumes an entire packaged application deployed and operated by the CSP. IT Pros are needed to manage access to these applications and the underlying data.

So, for instance, let's take Microsoft Azure Data Services to illustrate the explanation thought the article. In the case of SQL Server on IaaS, the IT Pros will need to manage the database manageability (i.e., on-demand scaling, Patching, Automatic High Availability/Disaster Recovery, Backup/Restore, etc.). Conversely, with Azure SQL Managed Instances (PaaS), your organization will have a version-less platform that is always up to date with the latest security patches. In other words, IT Pros will never have to patch or upgrade again (i.e., avoiding handling the end of support *).

* SQL Server 2012 extended support ended on July 12, 2012. Here you can find more information about SQL Server 2022 and your options to modernize to keep your organization secure.

Based on my experience, unfortunately, many organizations are adopting IaaS as the only model for hosting their applications. I firmly believe that PaaS is the future of cloud computing because, besides the value added to the infrastructure (i.e., reducing costs), it's an accelerator for innovation.

However, today's organizations struggle to control and govern increasingly complex environments across data centers and multiple clouds (i.e., Azure, AWS). Each environment and cloud possess its management tools and operational models. 

To help them, Microsoft provides Azure Arc, which simplifies governance and management by delivering a consistent multi-cloud and on-premises management platform. You can see it as a centralized, unified way to manage your entire environment (incl. non-Azure and/or on-premises resources)

Azure Arc can allow adopting IaaS and PaaS in your organization's infrastructure. In the case of PaaS, using Kubernetes and the infrastructure of your choice, Azure Arc-enabled data services are available for SQL Managed Instance and PostgreSQL Hyperscale.

4 Key Capabilities of Azure Arc-enabled Data Services

Something Microsoft's customers love is that Azure Arc-enabled Data Services bring to the table the following four capabilities:

1. Elasticity at Scale. Cloud-like elasticity on-premises enables you to scale databases up or down dynamically in much the same way as in Public Cloud (in this case, Azure), based on the available capacity of your infrastructure. In addition, you can also scale out database instances using the unique hyper-scale deployment option of Azure Database for PostgreSQL Hyperscale. 
2. Self-Service Provisioning. Thanks to Kubernetes-based orchestration, you can deploy a database in seconds using GUI or CLI tools.
3. Unified Management. Using familiar tools (i.e., Azure portal, Azure Data Studio, and the Azure CLI), you can now gain a unified view of all your data assets deployed with Azure Arc. Besides having localized log analytics and performance monitoring, you can leverage Azure Monitor for comprehensive operational insights across your entire estate.
4. Disconnected Scenario Support. Many services such as the mentioned self-service provisioning, automated backups/restore, and monitoring can run locally in your infrastructure with or without a direct connection to Azure. Connecting directly to Azure opens up additional options for integration with other Azure services such as Azure Monitor and the ability to use the Azure portal and Azure Resource Manager APIs from anywhere in the world to manage your Azure Arc-enabled data services.

In Summary

All organizations should have a Hybrid Cloud Strategy, and to be successful, you should consider Azure Arc as part of your execution.

If you are a Data leader, such as Chief Data Officer (CDO), you must also get familiar with Azure Arc-enabled data services. Definitely, a vehicle to drive cost efficiency from automation and better resource use.

CDOs must also get familiar with Azure Arc-enabled data services

Here are the top four benefits that Azure Arc-enabled data services can bring to your organization:

• Flexible Cost Structures: You can choose between allocating costs as Opex or Capex 
• Lower TCO: You can reduce costs with built-in capabilities and increase productivity from automation at scale 
• Reusable Investments: Your organization can still leverage existing infrastructure, environments, and SQL Server licenses
• Ability to Meet Regulatory and Data Sovereignty requirements since your hosting, securing, and monitoring can occur on-premises or in the public cloud.

For your information, Microsoft published a white paper that reveals how we underwent our own data transformation journey. Good reading to learn more about the CDO's role in the organization's cloud strategy. 

I want to finish sharing a presentation delivered by me at the Data and AI Summit 2022 organized by Seminarium in Abril 2022.