Unifying data environments to drive efficiency is priority number one in the modern data space, but for many organizations, data centralization isn’t as simple as adopting a centralized data cloud platform like Snowflake. Shifting data systems and tools to Snowflake can be difficult for companies with broad data toolsets, complex compliance and privacy hurdles, or thin margins that make sudden, large-scale operational changes unfeasible.
Organizations facing these challenges often depend on various cloud environments that serve different functions. On-premises systems may oversee internal workflow tools, while a public system may facilitate customer-facing functions in a variety of forms (SaaS, PaaS, IaaS, serverless). Private architecture, meanwhile, can offer customer-facing functions while nonetheless ensuring absolute control of privacy and security functions for more sensitive data functions.
Each of these cloud environments serve important functions for companies who have need for each, but how can these wide-ranging environments actually be unified? How does data centralization actually work, if a variety of cloud environments are necessary to organizational success?
Enter hybrid cloud architecture: a data approach that automates how public, private, and on-premises architecture gets deployed for the most optimal functionality possible. Through the power of AI and Snowflake data architecture, organizations can employ a hybrid cloud approach to ensure rapid adaptability and precision, in order to get the most out of their various data environments.
In this article, we’ll discuss how hybrid cloud architecture works, what its benefits are, and some established use cases for this sort of environment that drive value.
The Key Features of a Hybrid Cloud Environment That Take Data Unification to a New Level
There are crucial differences between “multicloud” architecture, which simply unifies various cloud environments under a centralized data platform, and a hybrid cloud ecosystem, which does what multicloud architecture does and so much more.
With hybrid cloud architecture, organizations can not only unify their cloud environments but also leverage total control of when and how they deploy various data tools and services across their larger data ecosystem. This greater degree of control helps to minimize “lock-in,” performance issues, limited options, and unnecessary costs.
On a more technical level, a unified hybrid multicloud ecosystem includes three key components:
- Support for cloud-native application development and deployment across all cloud types (public and private) and cloud providers
- A single operating system across all environments
- A container orchestration platform—typically Kubernetes—that automates the deployment of applications across cloud environments
Cloud-native development empowers developers to transform previously-monolithic applications into functions that can be run anywhere and be reused within various applications.
Then, a standard operating system allows developers to build any hardware dependency into any container.
Finally, kubernetes orchestration and automation gives developers precise, set-it-and-forget-it control over container configuration. Functions like security features for real-time monitoring, load balancing, scalability and more are then deployable across multiple cloud environments.
Why Organizations are Turning to Hybrid Cloud Environments to Empower Data Teams and Drive Value
The more specific benefits of a hybrid cloud environment all arise from the superior agility and precise control that this sort of architecture makes possible.
- Enables developers to work faster and smarter: The increased agility of a unified hybrid cloud platform enables developers to more easily employ DevOps methodologies, allowing teams to develop once and deploy to all clouds.
- Increases Infrastructure Efficiency: Precise control over resources, development, and IT optimizes spending across services, clouds, and vendors. Modernizing legacy tools is also much faster through a hybrid cloud approach, and makes it easier to connect cloud services to data on cloud.
- Improves compliance and security: With a unified hybrid cloud approach, organizations can use best-of-breed cloud security and regulatory compliance technologies while consistently implementing security and compliance across all environments.
- Accelerates workflow to drive value: The benefits above accelerate operations, leading to shorter development cycles, speeding up time-to-market, enabling faster response to customer feedback, and facilitating rapid delivery of applications closer to the client (for example, edge e-commerce).
Beyond these benefits, there are lots of other use cases for hybrid cloud architecture.
Scalable and resilient, a hybrid cloud approach can be built to weather sudden spikes in traffic without impacting private cloud workloads. Adopting new tools and switching out old tools is easier than ever, as integration doesn’t require provisioning new on-prem infrastructure.
Workloads can be discriminately deployed to the public and private clouds, depending on capacity, which optimizes resources.
Cloud migration is quicker and more efficient, and using backup and disaster recovery (BDR) is a breeze, ensuring your data is always backed up in case of data loss or corruption.
Hakkōda Helps Organizations Get the Most Out of Their Cloud Environments
Hybrid cloud architecture delivers on the promise of data unification while still allowing organizations to use the cloud services and tools they need to keep operations moving. This architecture doesn’t simply “connect” the multiple clouds an organization is using; it synergizes these clouds to get the best out of each one through greater control and agility.
At Hakkoda, our Snowflake-certified experts are passionate about building cutting edge tools and architecture to help our clients get the most out of their data. We have a proven track record of helping organizations like Fivetran build hybrid cloud solutions that get results, and we always have our eyes on the future of data innovation.
If your organization is ready to tap into the benefits of hybrid cloud architecture while extracting more value and flexibility from your technology stack, let’s talk today.
