LOCAL cloud and data center services firm IP Converge Data Services Inc. (IPC) believes that Hybrid Cloud setups, a combination of public cloud infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) and physical hardware-driven systems, are key business growth strategies, especially for medium to large enterprises that already have operational information-technology (IT) systems in place.
“Businesses of today face challenges that not only dampen growth, but moreso, threaten their very survival,” the ePLDT subsidiary said in a statement. “As the digital age forces companies to rely heavily on ICT [information and communications technology], business processes are changing and IT systems have become mission-critical, thus compelling CTOs [chief technology officers] to seek IT infrastructure options that bring high systems availability without breaking the bank or getting into a fight with the CFO [chief financial officer].”
A Hybrid Cloud configuration involves the use of public cloud resources combined with hosted physical machines to run and maintain specific systems for an organization, according to IPC.
“There are companies that would like to take advantage of the cloud, but would also like to maintain data or applications using their own physical resources,” the company said. “This setup is a viable solution to a slew of business concerns, i.e., maintain control over a particular component or set of data within a system, backup and disaster recovery, security or compliance issues and data sovereignty.”
IPC’s statements came three months after the International Data Corp. (IDC) forecasts in its latest research titled “The State of Cloud in Southeast Asia” that 70 percent of enterprises in the Southeast Asia countries will commit to a Hybrid Cloud strategy. While the transition may be fraught with challenges in calculating the return of investment and getting management buy-in, enterprises realize that adopting Hybrid Cloud is important to reduce cost and achieve business transformation, agility and scalability,” IDC said in a statement in June.
“The research further reveals that enterprises in Southeast Asia still prefer to manage their infrastructure and applications using internal resources rather than outsourcing services. However, such traditional in-house deployment of services will gradually decrease as enterprises begin to realize the value derived from moving to the Cloud,” IDC added.