Hybrid clouds present a strong option for the enterprise

Hybrid clouds offer all of the advantages of cloud computing with none of the drawbacks. Fundamentally, organizations move to the cloud in order to reduce their costs while increasing the amount of tactics they have for utilizing their data. By moving to a leased data center, groups can process information more quickly while reducing their expenses. It's a win-win for the organization. The other models, however, don't always give groups the same amount of advantages that the hybrid cloud offers. Private data centers are really only feasible for large organizations due to the expense involved in building and operating them. The public cloud, similarly, is more suited to startups and small companies that don't have much in the way of confidential data that could be leaked. On the other hand, a hybrid cloud allows organizations to keep a certain mount of information on a public server while still storing their most useful and valuable confidential information on their own servers, allowing them to give it all of the security measures that it deserves.

One feature that many users want as a result of the double duty that the hybrid cloud often pulls is seamless data transmission from one side of the hybrid cloud to the other. People want to be able to keep track of their information as it moves through a variety of different portals and gateways. Further, they do not want to have to "fix" their information to work between these systems. Employees want seamless connectivity between the public and private parts of the cloud, according to Computing. Further, they want to utilize their CRM, storage and disaster recovery plans in the cloud in order to ensure business continuity. The hybrid cloud is useful in this regard for keeping important confidential, secure data off of the cloud and safe somewhere else. 

Challenges faced by those adopting the cloud
The struggle for many groups moving to the hybrid cloud is whether or not they are able to get a good price for their services. Working with premium vendors can make it easier for companies to get the best advantages of cloud computing for their work place without paying too much. The issue is that there are many ways of charging for cloud use by hybrid organizations. A company may pay by storage, access, connectivity, uptime and other factors simultaneously, independently or on a sliding scale. Because of all of these different actors, many employees are confused when it comes time to pay for services that they are not sure they've asked for or used. Thus, establishing clean lines of communication with a hybrid cloud provider is essential for getting the best possible service at the lowest price. The way for organizations to do this is to establish expectations early on that they can use to determine how much they should be paying for various services.

It's good news, in the long run, that the reason that many groups haven't moved to the hybrid cloud is because of budget constraints, according to IT World Canada. That means that the technology is seen as useful and that many workers simply haven't convinced themselves to take the plunge. With a little bit of time, it is likely that most organizations will be running some variant of the hybrid cloud. Data security while still maintaining a large degree of flexibility is useful for organizations of all sizes, after all. With the advent of more global cloud computing, it will simply be a matter of course for some information to be stored on highly secured servers, while the majority of it goes on to be stored in other, less confidential locations.