Public vs. Private: Integrating Hybrid Cloud in the Enterprise

With 42 percent of company decision makers saying cloud will be a key focus for their enterprises over the next 12 months, the New York Tech Council recently convened a networking event and panel discussion titled, “Public vs. Private: Integrating Hybrid Cloud in the Enterprise.”

Moderated by Andrew Nusca, editor at ZDNet, the distinguished panel included Shelagh Montgomery, Executive Vice President for Sales, Quality Technology Services (QTS); William Whelpley, Customer Solution Design & Business Development, IBM North America; Erick Rosenkranz, Business Development, Microsoft; and Jim Anthony, Vice President of Sales Engineering, Verizon Terremark.

The panelists exchanged insightful opinions on the top factors that Fortune 1000 companies should consider when exploring hybrid cloud computing as a strategy of choice. Key elements included architecture, security, disaster recovery, cost, application development and outsourcing.

Unsurprisingly, the panelists agreed that the economics for deploying a cloud environment are “clearly demonstrated,” and that personal preference and company specific risk tolerances would determine which cloud platform is best.

Verizon’s Jim Anthony noted that key constraints that characterize a business such as compliance, security and regulatory requirements will determine whether public, private or hybrid cloud was optimal for their business model.

“Furthermore, the infrastructure used to deploy cloud cannot be a weak link. For example, at Verizon Terremark our data center in Miami, FL has been built to withstand category 5 hurricanes. It’s important to closely look at the provider to ensure that they can handle natural disasters,” Anthony added.

The panelists also noted the need for companies to go into their decisions with eyes wide open to avoid the pitfalls of hidden costs.

“As a consumer of cloud, enterprises must understand where the delineation of responsibility lies between their business and their cloud provider,” Anthony continued.

Software licensing, workload demands and storage were all cited as critical factors for understanding specific cost parameters.

When asked which applications belong in the cloud versus in the data center, the panelists encouraged enterprises to prioritize and consider each application’s use cases in a cloud environment. Virtualization and elasticity of demand were also cited as key considerations.

As for the top reasons that enterprises do not outsource their data centers, panelists cited fear, compliance and security among the biggest factors.

Despite these concerns, the panelists noted that certain industries and sectors may no longer have the economies of scale to continue to run their own data centers. As a result, the panelists concurred that migration to the hybrid cloud will eventually become a logical end point for many enterprises.