RESEARCH
PAPER
Integrating the
hybrid cloud
It’s time for IT to get full value
from the cloud
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ConTEnTS
Executive summary p3
The challenge p3
Storage of data and applications p4
Security and governance concerns p7
Problems and solutions p9
Conclusion p10
About the sponsor, Talend p11
Executive summary
There’s no question that cloud computing is a disruptive technology. It promises that when deployed correctly that it can allow organisations to reduce costs, increase computing scalability and strengthen system security.
For businesses of all sizes and in all sectors the predominant architecture that emerges will be a hybrid cloud set-up. Hybrid clouds combine the traditional enterprise applications that we refer to as on-premises with a private or public cloud environment made up of the newer type of application delivered in as Software as a Service (SaaS). Of course this is a very simple description of what could in fact be many different combinations of cloud based and on-premises environments made up of both internal systems and those of trading partners in a network supporting Business to Business (B2B) transactions.
It is one thing to embrace the vision of cloud computing; another to actually make it a reality.
While there are undoubted benefits to implementing a hybrid cloud infrastructure, there are dangers too. It is hard enough to control data and applications within a corporate environment, and if it is not managed correctly it would be even harder to manage in a cloud environment.
The problem is compounded when data is flowing between on-premises and cloud architectures.
Organisations also have to contend with a plethora of other integration issues relating to corporate governance, performance, security and compliance.
A Computing survey finds that these concerns are uppermost in the minds of today’s IT
executives. Many are keen to embrace the technology, but are concerned about the repercussions of doing so. So what, in practice, can IT directors actually do to surmount these integration hurdles and get the most out of the technology?
This paper investigates the issue.
The challenge
The benefits of cloud technology are well documented. Clouds allow organisations to quickly deploy new services; cope with spikes in demand; improve disaster recovery and systems availability; and deal with the ever increasing data volumes.
Not surprisingly, almost every large and medium-sized business today uses cloud technology in one form or another, be it in a public or private cloud architecture. But increasingly, organisations are moving towards hybrid cloud infrastructures, which combine on-premises, private cloud and public cloud architectures.
According to industry analysts Gartner, over half of enterprises will be using some combination of public and private cloud by 2017. But while there are significant advantages to migrating to a hybrid cloud arrangement, the challenges involved should not be underestimated.
In the first place, there is the whole issue of security. It’s hard enough to lock down data and applications within a corporate infrastructure. When data is flowing back and forth between that architecture and a public cloud, things can get even harder. The same applies to compliance – it may be difficult to comply with government and industry regulations when sensitive data is held off premises by a third party provider.
Performance management is another key issue. Most organisations have some type of IT monitoring in place to ensure that key assets work as anticipated and emerging problems are halted in their tracks. But that functionality begins and ends within the corporate walls; there’s no straight forward way of accomplishing the same goal in a public cloud.
Then there’s the challenge of handling workload management and governance. Typically, organisations want to have the ability to execute workloads and manage changes – such as a sudden spike in demand – directly and in a business-orientated manner. At first glance, it’s hard to see how this can be managed adequately in a hybrid cloud environment.
But the biggest challenge of all revolves around integration. Any organisation embarking on a hybrid cloud implementation needs to find a way of linking in-house applications to applications managed in the cloud. Everything must be done to ensure that silos – applications that stand alone – are not created when on-premises and cloud applications are combined.
What’s more, without tight integration between on-premises and cloud services, organisations find it difficult to orchestrate business processes, deliver workload mobility and provide a coherent user experience.
At present, there are a number of products on the market that claim to bridge the gap between on-premises, private and public cloud, thereby doing away with the need to integrate applications.
Unfortunately, these tools rarely deliver what is expected of them. Some tools have been purpose built to manage workloads on an Amazon public cloud, for example, and they do this perfectly adequately. Then there are other systems which perform well in VMware-based virtual infrastructures. The trouble is that these environments are often limited in scope and lack feature support. Vendors also make it difficult for organisations to use their own tools in these hybrid cloud environments.
Given these factors, it is no surprise that many organisations find maintaining visibility and control over their hybrid environments a challenge. Concerns about platform integration figured prominently in an exclusive survey of 110 IT managers that Computing recently commissioned.
Storage of data and applications
Respondents were first quizzed about their current use of cloud technology. Almost three fifths (58%) said they used cloud technology as part of their production environment. Of the remainder, 39 percent said they did not use any cloud technology, but about half of these said they would be moving some data or applications to the cloud (public or private) in the next 12 months.
This shows that some usage of the cloud is now not only a majority pursuit, but also one that is growing all the time.
The interviewees were also asked if they stored data and applications on-premises or in the cloud.
A sizeable proportion said that they stored their data and applications on-premises. An average of 71 percent of applications and 68 percent of data is still maintained on-premises. Private cloud accounted for just over a fifth (22%) of applications and 26 percent of data, while the public cloud was home to seven and six percent of applications and data respectively.
Fig. 1 : Please estimate the percentage of applications and data held in
the following environments
The findings seem to indicate that many organisations, whilst professing enthusiasm for cloud technology, remain wary of moving their data and applications off-premises.
In a supplementary question, the interviewees were asked to estimate what percentage of their applications would be in the cloud in three years’ time. The responses support the proposition that hybrid cloud is the new normal, with private cloud on equal footing as on-premises infrastructure for both data and application. Interestingly, public cloud, while doubling its share, will remain a minor element of the whole, according to the respondents’ prognoses at least.
Applications in private cloud (%) Applications in public cloud (%) Applications on-premises (%)
22%
71%
7%
Data in private cloud (%) Data in public cloud (%) Data on-premises (%)
68% 6%
26%
Fig. 2 : What percentage of applications and data will be held in the
following environments in 3 years’ time?
There is a common perception in the IT community that cloud deployments happen by accident.
This is partially borne out by the survey results with a quarter of interviewees indicating that they had acquired their current cloud infrastructure as a result of ad-hoc initiatives by different parts of the business, and four percent saying that their current mix is a result of a structural changes and mergers and acquisitions.
However, almost two-thirds (65%) said that they had planned their cloud deployment, which as we have seen is overwhelmingly hybrid, as part of their IT strategy. Clearly, most organisations are now well aware of the pros and cons of the various cloud and on-premises options and are structuring their systems accordingly.
Of all the potential benefits cited as reasons for moving from a fully on-premises set-up to a hybrid cloud environment, better disaster recovery and fault tolerance and on-demand flexibility for hosting workloads on-premises or in the cloud, were the two items that were top of the list.
Applications in private cloud (%) Applications in public cloud (%) Applications on-premises (%)
45% 42%
13%
Data in private cloud (%) Data in public cloud (%) Data on-premises (%)
12%
44% 44%
Security and governance concerns
Despite the appeal of cloud, the old reservations about data security and governance remain (Fig 3). Almost three out of five respondents (58%) said that they were very concerned about the security implications of storing data outside the firewall in the cloud. A significant number (40%) were similarly concerned about the governance of cloud data. Others were very worried about establishing performance and quality of service for cloud applications (36%); getting value for money from their cloud platforms (25%) and the cost of integrating their cloud and on-premises environments (22%). Smaller numbers were very concerned about the need to re-architect applications to work in a hybrid cloud environment (14%), and creating and managing shared networks between the data centre and public cloud provider (14%).
Fig. 3 : How concerned are you about the following issues?
7%
concernedNot Very
concerned
1 2 3 4 5
The security of data residing outside your firewall in the cloud
Governance of the cloud data Establishing performance and quality of service for cloud applications
Your cloud platform being value for money going forward
The cost of integrating your cloud and on-premises environments Your cloud platform meeting your future business needs
The need to re-architect applications to work in a hybrid cloud architecture Creating and managing shared networks between the data centre and public cloud provider
Supporting access from mobile users and branch offices to cloud applications
Building consistent visibility and control of virtual applications across the data centre and the cloud service
In a related question, the survey asked hybrid cloud which aspects of managing their infrastructure they find most challenging.
Difficulties with integration were an over-riding theme – integration. Forty-two percent mentioned difficulties with integrating data across different platforms, while 33 percent did the same with reference to applications.
Meanwhile others referred to the effects of incomplete integration. Two-thirds (68%) of the respondents said they were struggling to improve data governance in their hybrid cloud environment, and a similar number (64%) mentioned difficulties in enforcing security policies across applications and workloads. Forty-two percent were attempting to establish performance and quality of service parameters for cloud applications (Fig. 4).
Fig. 4 : Which of the following issues do you find most challenging?
*Respondents could select multiple answers.
Data governance in a hybrid environment
Ensuring security policies on
applications/workloads are enforced on-premises and in the cloud
Establishing performance and quality of service for cloud applications
Integrating data from on-premises and cloud-based systems
Integrating applications in a hybrid cloud environment
Re-architecting applications to work in the cloud
Providing access for mobile users to on-premises and cloud applications Managing your on-premises and cloud resources
68%
66%
44%
42%
33%
27%
27%
23%
Problems and solutions
There is no question that hybrid cloud computing is set to be the dominant model. According to a recent study by Microsoft and 451 Research, 68 percent of organisations are set to adopt some kind of hybrid cloud model over the next two years, a figure supported by the current survey.
But it is not always easy to create an IT environment where cloud-based and on-premises infrastructure can thrive as one. Security can be compromised when data is crossing operational boundaries. Managing workloads in two different environments can be a fiendishly difficult task.
Then there is the whole challenge of securely integrating applications and data across on-premises and cloud platforms.
Integrating applications and data across cloud and on-premises platforms is one of the biggest challenges facing companies moving to hybrid cloud environments. So how can organisations overcome these integration hurdles and get the most out of their hybrid cloud platforms?
For many organisations the simple answer to this question is to write new code – or to hire a third party to do that for them. But this brings challenges of its own. New code takes time and money to create, de-bug and roll-out. And there’s always the possibility that the new code will not work as expected.
Alternatively, instead of writing expensive code, organisations can try to adapt existing systems to solve hybrid cloud issues. Take monitoring. An organisation with an existing on-premises monitoring system might be able to extend its reach into the cloud.
Insights gleaned from these tools can also be put to further use. Workload balancing is a prime example. Once an organisation has visualised and quantified how its cloud assets are being used, it can use the information to prioritise workloads based on business goals.
At first sight this approach is appealing, but it is only likely to favour organisations with an extensive range of cloud compatible tools. Even companies with these tools in place may only be able to use them in very prescriptive ways.
Organisations can also use pre-defined templates and technologies to tackle this issue. A company might, for example, want to route information from a Salesforce application situated in the cloud to a SAP application running on-premises. To carry out this operation it could use a template with the necessary logic to perform the routing.
There is no question that templates and point solutions can be used to solve particular issues in a hybrid cloud environment. But in the longer term, these quick fixes can create more problems than they solve by introducing complexity. Hybrid cloud environments containing lots of templates are harder to manage and service.
There is a complementary approach for organisations to explore. They can use open source cloud management frameworks to manage their hybrid clouds. These offerings provide a common framework to manage resources, both on-premises and in the cloud, and are free to deploy.
Open source products have the added benefit of being backed by proactive teams of developers.
Release cycles tend to be shorter, feedback loops between users and developers are tighter, and new features and fixes generally come on stream very quickly.
Conclusion
There is no doubt that hybrid cloud, arrived at either by accident or design, is becoming the new normal, as the use cases and best practice for the various types of cloud and on-premises environments are becoming clearer. But despite widespread enthusiasm for cloud platforms, many companies continue to harbour reservations around security and control.
Many of these concerns revolve around the central issue of integration. As our exclusive survey reveals, today’s executives are all too conscious of the difficulties involved in combining on- premises and cloud environments. Many of the interviewees said that they were wrestling to improve corporate governance in their hybrid clouds. Others indicated that they were deeply concerned about the security implications of combining on-premises and cloud resources. And a large number of respondents told us that they were struggling to integrate data across both environments.
Clearly, these issues need to be resolved in a satisfactory manner if the hybrid cloud set-up is not to create as many problems as it solves as a result in increasing overall complexity. While there are plenty of tools and point solutions on the market that can provide a partial fix to common hybrid cloud integration issues, their limited scope may just end up adding to the complexity. However, as hybrid cloud integration platforms are maturing and start to address the complexity and specific security concerns of the space today. Open source solutions integrating data, applications
& processes provide a viable option.
Longer term, however, organisations will need to re-think the way they approach hybrid cloud implementations. It is all too easy for businesses to get caught up in the technology and miss the bigger picture. Enterprises should focus on creating an organisation that transcends silos and brings everyone impacted by the implementation on board. By focusing on people and processes from the start, businesses can unlock the full potential of cloud and get a rapid return on their investment.
About the sponsor, Talend
Talend’s integration solutions allow data-driven organizations to gain instant value from all their data. Through native support of modern big data platforms, Talend takes the complexity out of integration efforts and equips IT departments to be more responsive to the demands of the business, at a predictable cost. Based on open source technologies, Talend’s scalable, future-proof solutions address all existing and emerging integration requirements. Talend is privately-held and headquartered in Redwood City, CA.
For more information visit:
www.talend.com Twitter:
@Talend
