In order to reap the benefits and realize the full potential of your new cloud applications, you must embrace the term “hybrid” by fully integrating them with your existing, on-premise applications and business processes.
Questions to ask include:
- How are you going to get data into or out of the cloud application and into your on-premise systems?
- Does the cloud application have an API and/or support on-demand exchange of data?
- Does the cloud application have a scheduled exchange (e.g., daily updates instead of on demand)?
- Does the cloud application support standards like Web services, XML, etc.?
For example, if you move from an old, back-end integration to an on-demand, real-time integration, will this have a knock-on effect (i.e., a secondary effect) with other applications, especially your on-premise applications? How will the applications accommodate this effect (particularly in light of the fact that you actually have less flexibility when integrating applications in the cloud, as you have to work with the integration points provided by the cloud application itself, not the on-premise points you’ve provided)?
By considering the above three key issues and answering the questions surrounding them, the daunting implications of our initial question, “What is a ‘hybrid cloud’?” will diminish. Organizations that aren’t ready to simply switch off their existing on-premise systems and re-invent them in the cloud can rest assured that they aren’t losing anything from holding onto a legacy system. Instead, they can benefit from a new approach — one that draws on the incomparable agility of the public/private cloud and the time-tested security profile of on-premise systems — and enjoy enhanced business operations using a hybridized whole that’s truly greater than the sum of its parts.
(This post was first published at http:blogs.axway.com)
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