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DECEMBER, 2017

Enterprises are employing hybrid Cloud technologies globally due to their cost effective storage, pay as you go model and global remote accessibility. Cloud based services greatly elevate the value of data and turn it into an asset. The hybrid cloud model introduces significantly new capabilities that can drastically upgrade IT infrastructures and processes.

There are a number of ways hybrid cloud can be integrated with IT operations and processes.

Integrating the Hybrid Cloud Computing Model with IT infrastructures

Cloud Backup using Cloud Gateway & StoneFly Cloud Connect

IT infrastructure is most commonly used for backup purposes. Cloud backup strengthens backup and facilitates availability and recovery. It is the most easiest and effective way to upgrade your infrastructure by establishing a hybrid cloud infrastructure. Using cloud backup is recognized by enterprises as a cost effective measure for securing data. Public clouds such as Microsoft Azure and Amazon AWS along with StoneFly and Veeam offer complete backup solutions for your on premise infrastructure.

StoneFly is a technology partner of Azure and Amazon. You can backup to Azure or AWS using StoneFly’s certified and reliable gateway appliances. You can acquire a number of solutions and the setup of virtual machines in Azure is simple and convenient. The backup storage options available are of different sizes, so the enterprise scale doesn’t matter. You can pay as you go and expand your storage space as your data requirements grow.

Cloud High Availability & Disaster Recovery (DR)

Another way to integrate hybrid cloud with IT infrastructure is that you can acquire high availability and disaster recovery. For instance, you can utilize StoneFly’s Storage Concentrator Virtual Machine (SCVM^TM) and acquire failover-and-failback operations besides securing high availability and DR. Enterprises that cannot tolerate disruption, even for a moment, need services that can immediately facilitate failovers. In a disaster situation, either man-made (ransomware, malware, malicious deletion etc.) or natural, disruption is unavoidable unless you have a way to restore your services from an offsite location. That way, even in the event of a disaster, your enterprise continues to provide services to your customers.

Cloud Smart Storage

Another convenient and innovative way to integrate hybrid cloud with your infrastructure is to utilize smart storage solutions. These enterprise cloud storage solutions are capable of differentiating data based on access frequency. Then the data gets distributed between your IT infrastructure and cloud solutions. The hot data (high access frequency data) is stored on your backup infrastructure to ensure speedy access while cold data (infrequently accessed data) is moved to the cloud. You can acquire smart storage solutions such as Microsoft’s StorSimple and storage tiers such as Azure Cold Storage or AWS S3-IA for cold data. You can also archive your data in Amazon Glacier.

In order to access a number of these storage tiers and facilitate migration from one storage tier to another; you can acquire StoneFly’s cloud gateway appliances with Cloud Connect to Microsoft Azure, Amazon AWS and AWS S3 compatible clouds. Public cloud providers do enforce limitations on data migration from one storage tier to another.

Hybrid Cloud Management

You can acquire platforms or development and test environments, with all necessary licenses and management without a bit of the usual hassle. You can utilize your existing infrastructure for data that you wish to immediately access and you can combine it with these services for maximum affect. This way, your resources can utilize your infrastructure to its maximum potential.

StoneFly’s backup appliances come with cloud connect services. You can Storage resources from Microsoft Azure or Amazon AWS cloud or any other AWS S3 compatible cloud and enjoy services from multi-public cloud providers.