Cloud computing has become important in fields such as machine learning, life sciences, and high-performance computing. One of the reasons is that the cloud provides flexibility and scalability to allow researchers and enterprises to meet the demands of peak workloads. When projects or users require more resources fast, the cloud becomes the better choice for organizations because there is no real benefit in buying hardware for short peak demand.
Although the cloud provides scalability and flexibility, enterprises still greatly benefit from on-premises infrastructure because of lower cost, better data control, and data privacy and compliance. Given that both deployments offer great benefits, hybrid cloud is becoming an attractive solution.
What is Hybrid Cloud and How It Works
Hybrid cloud refers to the combination of on-prem, public clouds, and edge computing environments to enable data services across multiple locations. Combining these environments and leveraging their benefits, enterprises can deploy applications anywhere and quickly meet the demands of their workloads. Three scenarios for hybrid cloud can be considered:
- The first is when your main operation is on-prem and you use the cloud as an add-on. For example, some enterprises with on-prem deployments might use the cloud to provide more performance to their applications or run temporary workloads. Hybrid cloud infrastructures allow them to process their data in the cloud and store it on-prem.
- The second scenario is a typical edge use case. You collect and process data at the edge and need to move results to a central cluster, which can be on-prem or in the cloud. Clusters at the edge have limited connectivity/bandwidth, and moving large amounts of data to the cloud is not feasible due to bandwidth constraints. Therefore, clusters at the edge require high performance to do processing on-site to then just send results to a central cluster.
- The third scenario is truly distributed with permanent operations in multiple locations. In this scenario, you have clusters on-prem, in the cloud, and at the edge and need to move your data across them. This hybrid cloud strategy offers greater flexibility, allowing you to move results from the edge to your on-prem cluster and perform further cloud processing as your workloads demand.
For any of the scenarios mentioned above, it is essential to choose the right storage platform to enable a hybrid cloud strategy. With the proper storage system, enterprises can accelerate their digital transformation by leveraging the scalability, flexibility, and cost-effectiveness of hybrid cloud. Such storage platforms should provide the same environment everywhere so that organizations don’t have to modify their infrastructure, whether it is on-prem, in the cloud, or at the edge
Hybrid Cloud vs. Multi Cloud
These two terms may sound similar, and some storage vendors might use them interchangeably, but they do not refer to the same thing. As previously mentioned, a hybrid cloud deployment means you can have clusters on-prem, in the cloud, and at the edge, and they can all be connected through your storage system.
On the other hand, multi cloud refers to a deployment where you use different clouds. For example, you could use Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud Platform in your cloud deployment. Multi cloud can help you avoid vendor lock-in and take advantage of each cloud provider’s offerings.
Hybrid cloud demands more capabilities from a storage solution as it needs to run on bare metal, provide redundancy, and run on the cloud. At the same time, the storage system must provide the same environment everywhere. In contrast, multi cloud doesn’t require such capabilities, as it does not run on bare metal in your own data center, colo, or private cloud.
Hybrid cloud deployments can include several cloud providers, offering the same benefits as multi cloud. But this is only true if your storage system supports several cloud vendors.
In addition, multi cloud deployments create a major issue, which is data gravity. Moving lots of data (petabytes+) is difficult due to bandwidth limits, and it is very expensive due to egress charges on the cloud. Often that makes multi cloud cost-prohibitive. This is why a pure-cloud-based solution is not a good idea, because having full control over your data on-prem offers a great advantage.
Quobyte — Your Hybrid Cloud Storage Solution
Quobyte is a software-defined storage (SDS) platform that allows you to deploy anywhere: on-prem, in public clouds, and at the edge. It enables you to connect all your clusters, so you only have to manage one storage platform and have the same environment across all your clusters. In addition, with the Quobyte data mover, you can sync all your clusters. Some of the benefits Quobyte offers you for a hybrid cloud infrastructure are:
- Deploy Anywhere
Quobyte lets you download and install on-prem, in the public clouds, and at the edge. It runs on bare metal servers and cloud VMs, so you can choose what is best for your business. This allows users and apps to have the same file system and environment on-prem and in any cloud. So there is no need for changes to applications. - Seamless Integration
Quobyte allows you to access data from any interface, such as Linux, Windows, MacOS, Hadoop, S3, and much more. With Quobyte, you can seamlessly move and manage your data across multiple clusters in different locations. - Scalable capacity
When applications require more capacity than what you have on-prem, you can add more resources to your cluster. However, when adding physical servers is not an option, you could move some of your data to public cloud storage. This will help you expand your on-prem storage capacity to store as much data as you need. - Scalable performance
Sometimes workloads require more performance than what your on-prem resources can offer. With Quobyte, you can store data on-prem and then process it in the cloud. Having the ability to move data across your clusters makes it easier to expand your performance for peak workloads. - Storage at the Edge
Quobyte allows you to deploy small clusters in remote locations, enabling you to provide the computational power and capacity needed at the edge. That way, you can collect and process data at the edge and then move the results to the public cloud or an on-prem data center. In addition, with self-healing and high automation, admins rarely need to check the system. - Lower Total Cost of Ownership (TCO)
Quobyte helps you reduce your storage cost in multiple ways. It runs on any x86 server so that you can standardize your storage. It’s hardware agnostic, so it does not require expensive appliances. In addition, Quobyte handles any workload, allowing you to use NVMe for small files and random IO and HDD for throughput and cold data. It runs in public and private clouds, so you can choose what’s best for your business.
When opting for hybrid cloud, you can rely on Quobyte to have your data in multiple locations. You can also enjoy the benefit of having the same environment everywhere, so users and applications can migrate seamlessly between on-prem and the cloud. And with the Quobyte Free Edition, you can get started on your own. Download and install it in just a few minutes, and see how Quobyte can enable your hybrid cloud strategy.
Originally posted on Quobyte’s blog on May 30, 2023.
