Many companies are now implementing several applications and their data in the public cloud. Depending on the specific application, the question arises about how the IT environment can benefit from a hybrid cloud. Extending data centers to include cloud resources, administrators can ensure that productive applications always have access to primary primary data, while less-used information is sent to low-cost and robust cloud storage.
To find out whether hybrid cloud integration is useful for business, IT managers must first understand the requirements for the scenario of placement and acceptance of internal changes. In addition, it must be determined whether the knowledge and IT resources needed are internally available to plan and implement hybrid cloud implementations.
Self-migration to cloud storage
Companies can choose their own approach to hybrid cloud integration using a REST-based API based on HTTP storage protocols. This will enable data centers and cloud applications to directly access cloud-based object storage such as Amazon S3 or OpenStack Swift. To optimize data placement, you can set up a hybrid cloud application that migrates data between local and external storage and moves inactive primary data to the cloud.
This approach is not suitable for any business, because it requires applications that are designed or modified for the cloud, which in turn requires a little effort on the part of the development team. If resources are available internally, the company has the flexibility to adjust the hybrid environment to the specific requirements and application fields.
Cloud Gateway Migration
It is likely that the company will benefit from a local gateway designed to provide on-site production application performance and cost-effective capacity expansion options. This approach is suitable for traditional applications where there is no point in developing a new architecture. Gateway products can be physical or virtual devices.
The gateway function can also be integrated in the storage system itself. These arrays come with workloads like traditional storage, providing large local performance caches and gateways for cloud capacity. Many solutions support many public clouds and in many cases provide multi-protocol support for Object, Block and File.
Cloud storage gateways are suitable for a variety of usage scenarios. These include cloud object storage, failover and recovery, Active Archive or long-term archiving, file synchronization and sharing, and data storage for cloud-based analytics. They can also be used instead of local primary storage in field offices or in remote locations. They provide local caching for performance and automatic synchronization back to the cloud. Ctera Networks is an example of a manufacturer that offers many offers for various application scenarios.
Checklist for alternative gateway cloud
Alternatives to gateway cloud include:
- Network optimization and capacity such as deduplication and compression
- Data encryption (on the way and at rest)
- Integration with local authentication systems such as Active Directory or LDAP
- capacity management
- cost control
- Migration of non-exclusive data from public cloud
Some gateways include smart cloud tiering as a default feature. One example is Microsoft StorSimple, an integrated cloud storage tool that automatically transfers and manages data across levels. These products can be used to automatically archive inactive primary data in a tier cloud and to store snapshots in the cloud. Automatic tiering functionality eliminates the need for external and secondary storage infrastructure and provides cost-effective options for managing data throughout its life cycle.
Evaluate cloud gateways
If the company evaluates the gateway offering and its functionality, the company must request a manufacturer's caching or tiering algorithm to ensure that the required performance is achieved and specific deployment requirements are met. IT managers need to search for products that locally process the current workload on the SSD, and move less actively active data, but transparently, to disk and finally to the cloud. A more comprehensive platform provides a retention policy that better adjusts the caching algorithm or tiering to meet your needs.
This is a rapidly growing market and new architectural concepts continue to emerge. It makes sense to see more SDS offers, such as Hedvig, Nexenta, and Qumulo, to manage and control hybrid storage (both local and cloud) in infrastructure. Other manufacturers are adapting their traditional hybrid cloud infrastructure stacks.
An example is Velostrata, which allows users to move computing resources to the cloud and maintain primary storage locally. This ensures cost-effective performance for productive applications.
When public clouds are gaining popularity and there are many innovative ways to connect local applications and infrastructure, the time has come for hybrid cloud storage. However, one must take the time to evaluate various integration options in order to decide which approach is best for their own environment.
