This is Part 9 of cloud computing tutorial. In our previous two videos, we discussed public
and private clouds. In this video, we'll discuss what is a hybrid cloud, benefits limitations
and use cases. As the name implies, a hybrid cloud is hybrid, that is it's a combination of both the
private cloud and the public cloud. It's not a different cloud all together. It's just that,
both the private cloud and public cloud work together to meet our organization requirements.
I mean, it offers the best of both the worlds. For example, we can use the private cloud for security
sensitive business critical operations like financial reporting and the public cloud for high
volume low security needs such as web-based email. In a hybrid cloud, we have a concept called cloud
bursting. This sounds like a fancy technical term, but all it means is the following. Let's say you
have an application or a service. To start with, it's hosted and running in your own private cloud.
The application continues to run in your private cloud until there is a spike in the demand. When
there is a spike in demand, burst through to the public cloud to tap into the additional computing
resources provided by the public cloud, and when the spike in demand subsides, you scale down just
to your private cloud and no longer use the public cloud resources. Now, if you're wondering why will
there be a sudden spike in demand ? Well, there are a number of reasons. Maybe you're launching
a new business or a product line. Seasonal events like online christmas shopping or tax
filing for example may also increase the traffic and hence the spike in demand to your application
or service. With private cloud, you only have so much physical infrastructure. How much you can
scale up, depends on that physical infrastructure. Beyond certain point, if you want to scale up,
you have to buy additional hardware and this is not only expensive but also time
consuming to procure and set up and then when the spike in demand subsides we are no longer
using this additional infrastructure. Now, let's look at the benefits of hybrid cloud. The obvious
benefit is a hybrid cloud provides best of both worlds that is private and public clouds.
Better control. With the hybrid cloud you have better control on what runs where. For example,
you can use the private cloud for security sensitive applications and a public cloud
for those applications that have high volumes of traffic but not that security sensitive. Cost
effective. With the hybrid cloud you only use public cloud resources when you need them,
that is when there is a sudden spike in demand you burst through to the public cloud to use that
additional computing power provided by the public cloud. When the demand subsides you scale down
just to your private cloud. Next, let's look at the limitations of hybrid cloud. Low visibility
and control. Just like a public cloud even in a hybrid cloud you don't have much visibility
and control over the infrastructure that is owned by the public cloud service provider. Additional
complexity. Integrating private cloud with public cloud introduces additional infrastructure
complexity. Also, it involves considerable effort, time and complexity to maintain and evolve these
two different types of clouds as the organization needs change. Compliance and legal risks. Since
you don't have much visibility and control over the public cloud infrastructure you are relying on
the public cloud service provider to protect data and adhere to local and international regulations.
A company may still be liable if the public cloud service provider fails to live up to the task
and if there is a data breach. Cost concerns. If you use the public cloud resources for a very long
time, the overall price tag may be higher than what you have anticipated. Next, use cases. Hybrid
cloud provides best of both worlds that is private and public clouds. For example, you are an IT
company and provide services to two different sets of clients. For one set of clients, security is
not a massive concern. They just want to scale up and down at will. For this set of clients you can
use the public cloud resources. For the other set of clients security is the most important thing
and they want to have complete and rigorous control over the cloud infrastructure. For
this set of clients you can use the private cloud resources. So, the point that I'm trying to make
is, a hybrid cloud allows you to switch between different delivery models depending on your
clients security and scalability requirements. That's it in this video. Thank you for listening.