Hybrid Cloud: Realising the Best of Both Worlds with Azure Stack

The cloud is one of the most important modern technologies for businesses. After all, the benefits of the cloud platform are unparalleled – with many businesses opting to use the cloud within their infrastructure, although using a single cloud-based solution is often not the best option for some businesses. 

A hybrid cloud solution – one that utilises both on-premise and cloud-based environments, both public and private – lets you take advantage of the benefits of both cloud and on-premise systems. Azure Stack is Microsoft’s hybrid cloud solution that will help you ensure you’re getting the most out of cloud systems.

In this article, Extech Cloud explains why your organisation needs the hybrid cloud, as well as how Azure Stack works and how to get started with the hybrid cloud today.

The need for hybrid cloud 

A hybrid cloud solution is a computing environment that combines both public and private clouds as well as on-premise systems to create a new, integrated system. This system exists to help your organisation stay agile and keep costs down, while also reaping the security benefits of the private cloud.

There are a few benefits to this:

• Reduced costs: The private cloud is more expensive than using the public cloud, but you may have data requirements that necessitate on-premise or private cloud infrastructure. However, paying so much more for the private cloud when you don’t exactly need it everywhere will lead to higher costs. This is why the hybrid cloud saves costs – it lets you use the on-premise or private cloud infrastructure when required but also takes advantage of the reduced price of the public cloud.
• Flexibility and agility: On-premise servers are far less flexible than the public cloud – especially when it comes to remote working. The hybrid cloud lets you take advantage of both the benefits of the private cloud and on-premise as well as the flexibility of the public cloud – meaning you can keep your important data secure while also supporting remote working.
• Business continuity: If your business experiences downtime in your on-premise implementation, having a hybrid cloud solution will mean that you can utilise the public cloud to ensure business continuity. This means that you can easily ensure everything remains up and running in the meantime while figuring out what’s wrong with your private cloud and fixing it.

There are lots of different solutions that can facilitate the hybrid cloud. Much like in the wider cloud landscape, Microsoft Azure’s solution – Azure Stack – is the best way to facilitate the hybrid cloud in your organisation, letting you take advantage of the benefits of the hybrid cloud.

Introducing Azure Stack 

Azure Stack is Microsoft’s solution to allow you to run Azure services flexibly in the environment of your choice.

From data centres to edge locations and even remote offices, Azure Stack lets you build and mobilise cloud environments that let you take advantage of and fully implement the hybrid cloud – allowing you to use both private and public cloud solutions as well as take advantage of on-premises infrastructure.

Azure Stack essentially works by letting you run cloud services on your own servers, meaning that you can keep your data on-premise if it needs to while also allowing you to use cloud services. With this, you can also create applications that work both on-premise and within the cloud, making your organisation more flexible overall.

Azure Stack use cases 

Azure Stack can be used in a lot of different scenarios to help you take advantage of both on-premise and cloud-based benefits:

• Latency within edge and remote locations: Azure Stack can be deployed in locations where low-latency processing is necessary. These locations are known as edge locations and include manufacturing plants, retail stores, and remote offices. By taking advantage of Azure Stack’s ability to deploy within on-premise systems in these locations, you can deploy essential and high-priority applications without having to worry about latency or connectivity issues.
• Disconnected environments: In environments where you have a lack of internet access or difficulties maintaining the levels of network connectivity that are required for using the cloud, you can use on-premise systems using Azure Stack to store data locally without being dependent on cloud connectivity. This is useful for industries like defence, mining, or maritime operations where network connectivity won’t always be a given.
• Data sovereignty and compliance: Azure Stack can help organisations keep up with compliance and regulatory requirements using on-premise hardware to keep their sensitive data protected and safe, and cloud services for other, less sensitive workloads.
• Hybrid development and testing: Using Azure Stack to leverage both cloud and on-premise systems to fully facilitate hybrid development and testing and create and deploy hybrid applications that work both with on-premise integration and cloud infrastructure – meaning you can create more flexible and agile applications for your organisation.

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How we can help 

The hybrid cloud is integral to ensure you’re taking advantage of the cloud’s full potential. By using a hybrid cloud implementation, you can be sure you have the flexibility that comes with a public cloud service while also using on-premise systems to ensure your most sensitive data is under your control.

Azure Stack is Microsoft’s solution to facilitating the hybrid cloud. By using Azure Stack, you can deploy cloud services in on-prem systems – meaning you have the best of both worlds.

If you’re looking to get started with Azure Stack but don’t know where to start, reach out to us today. Extech Cloud’s team of experts are here to help you get started with the ins and outs of the Azure platform.