Introduction

Welcome to Hybrid Cloud For Dummies. Cloud computing has become ubiquitous these days. It’s impossible to look at the current implementations of technology and not be consumed by references to cloud. But much has changed since Hurwitz & Associates wrote Cloud Computing For Dummies in 2009. Cloud computing has indeed evolved. Now, we’re looking at the new world of the hybrid cloud, an environment that employs both private and public cloud services.

The hybrid cloud, however, is more than just a collection of disconnected services running on different platforms. It’s a pragmatic way in which companies are starting to look at the best platform to provide the types of services that internal and external constituents need. Therefore, computing is increasingly becoming a set of business services that are architected based on need. As this happens, the very nature of what a data center is will change. Increasingly, IT and business management are working collaboratively to find new ways to streamline their computing infrastructure through a hybrid cloud model to make it more flexible and adaptive to change. Likewise, companies are finding that the ability to create highly optimized services for everything from compute to storage and e-mail is changing the economics of computing. Thus, the hybrid cloud begins to use new business models. Suddenly, software ecosystems are emerging that allow businesses to create their own cloud services as profit centers. Small companies can leverage a hybrid of services that enables even a tiny company to offer the most sophisticated business services.

It’s clear that the ability to combine public clouds with private cloud services is having a dramatic impact on computing for small and large companies as well as service providers and cloud application builders. In fact, the growing importance of hybrid cloud environments is transforming the entire computing industry as well as the way businesses are able to leverage technology to innovate. Economics and speed are the two greatest issues driving this market change.

No matter what type of cloud services will be best at meeting your business needs, the cloud is the foundation for the future of computing. Even for organizations that will use only minimal cloud services, the requirements to optimize computing will dramatically change how computing is delivered to internal and external customers.

As you can see, for many reasons, we think that it’s important to understand what the hybrid cloud is all about and what services are available to you. We wrote this book to provide a perspective on what the hybrid cloud is and how it’s changing the data center and the world of applications and infrastructure. We think this book will give you the context to make informed decisions.