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What are the risks of hybrid cloud?

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Hybrid IT infrastructure is quickly becoming one of the biggest trends of the current decade, and this strategy can sometimes include hybrid cloud deployments. According to the RightScale 2015 State of the Cloud Report, 82 percent of surveyed enterprises were running a hybrid cloud strategy, and Data Center Knowledge stated in mid 2015 that adoption of these technologies was expected to triple by 2018. The benefits of embracing hybrid cloud are clear: Companies are able to improve IT flexibility and choose solutions that fit their specific needs, all while maximizing cost efficiency and asset utilization, according to FierceCIO contributor David Weldon.

As adoption goes up and more companies look into deploying hybrid strategies within their IT departments, so too do the number of issues that arise in dealing with the new technologies that hybrid cloud brings to the table. Let’s take a look at the biggest risks when it comes to cloud and hybrid IT, then discuss strategies for dealing with these issues:

“Software and application changes occur on the provider’s side.“

1. Loss of control

The CIO’s job is to manage risk within his or her company, and as such may view that total control over every part of the technology strategy of the organization is necessary. However, when cloud-based tools are utilized, software and application changes occur on the provider’s side, meaning IT executives may not have a say. Therefore, according to CIO contributor Shoeb Javed, one of the most important risks of hybrid cloud computing is the perceived loss of control on the part of the CIO and other members of the executive board.

“Applications change all the time, and when those applications are outside the company’s control, they could be caught unprepared when a sudden software update occurs,” Tripwire contributor Rick Delgado stated. “A single application change can create integration problems with other programs, leading to major disruptions among the most critical business applications.”

2. Cloud security

A lot has been said lately about the cloud and its apparent inherent risks as far as security is concerned. The market for cloud security tools keeps going up by the day, and it’s expected to reach a total value of $8.71 billion by 2019, according to a 2014 report published by MarketsandMarkets. This is a clear indication that security is on the minds of industry CIOs.

There are a few main security challenges for organizations that deploy hybrid cloud strategies, according to TechTarget. These include risk management, security management and poorly constructed service-level agreements. Most of these problems stem from the complications that can arise when private and public cloud are both used in conjunction with one another – managing two kinds of deployments can be a complex task for IT teams.

3. Compliance

This is an issue that goes along with the aforementioned security challenge. Businesses have to ensure that all parts of their cloud strategy are compliant with any industry regulations. It’s crucial to ensure the data traveling between private and public cloud environments is secure, as well.

For instance, organizations within the healthcare sector have to prove that their systems are compliant with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, which designates strict security standards for protected health information. If a business works with payment card data, it is subject to the rules set forth by the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard. All of these regulations need to be managed properly, and in certain circumstances, hybrid IT could complicate effective management strategies.

Companies that work with payment card data need to make sure their hybrid cloud deployments are secure and compliant.Companies that work with payment card data need to make sure their hybrid cloud deployments are secure and compliant.

Worth the challenge

Considering the risks of hybrid IT is one of the most important responsibilities of the technology department of any organization. However, the many benefits of investing in hybrid infrastructure outweigh these risks when they’re managed effectively. That’s why having a managed services partner around to help your organization deal with these hybrid cloud risks is not only a great idea – it’s essential to a successful hybrid IT strategy.

When you partner with a company like ISG Technology, you can rest assured that the risks of migrating data to and from virtual environments will be orchestrated by cloud experts. Get in touch today to find out more about how our hybrid cloud solutions fit your business needs.

Server virtualization: What can it do for your company?

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When it comes to making sure business is running smoothly, it often falls on the shoulders of the IT department to ensure that everything is aligned and working toward the end goal of more growth, higher revenue and better reputation among clients. To this end, server virtualization can be one of the better ways to ensure optimized resource use and preserve functionality within the IT department.

According to a 2015 study conducted by Techaisle, 54 percent of small to medium-sized businesses in the U.S. currently leverage server virtualization, a hefty increase from the 41 percent of 2013. For midmarket companies, penetration is at 88 percent. Clearly, organizations are jumping on the bandwagon of server virtualization. Let’s take a look at this technology and see how it can impact your company for the better:

“IT admins don’t have to worry as much about processing capacity.”

What is it?

Server virtualization is the act of taking one physical server and splitting it into multiple – and, compute resources permitting, sometimes infinite – virtual environments. Virtual machines run on a guest/host paradigm, according to TechTarget. This means that a single administrator (the host) can create virtual machines (guests) that use different operating systems. Guests sit on top of something called a hypervisor, or virtual machine monitor, which allocates resources and validates all of the guest-validated CPU information.

These guest machines, while not running from a physical location, still use up real resources. However, since it’s all managed via one physical server, resource use is curbed significantly, so IT admins don’t have to worry as much about processing capacity or resource management.

Creating virtualized servers can lead to significant OPEX and CAPEX savings.Creating virtualized servers can lead to significant OPEX and CAPEX savings.

Worth it in the long run

Virtualization doesn’t just save up space in the server room. By getting rid of physical infrastructure and deploying VMs within minimal real servers, companies can save money as well. Significant reductions in capital and operational expenditures are possible by transforming IT infrastructure in this manner. In fact, according to TechTarget contributor Rick Vanover, the more effective use of resources and greater computing capacity can lead to savings due to less space and power used within the data center.

ISG Technology is a certified partner of VMware, one of the tech giants in the world of virtualization. In fact, VMware was listed as the number-one virtualization company by ServerWatch, and Gartner named the company one of the leaders in the field in 2015. At ISG, we can help you choose and manage your VMware solution so you don’t have to worry about your IT resources or CAPEX/OPEX.

Contact ISG Technology today for more information!

Hybrid cloud forecast: Industry report

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The cloud is generating a lot of hubbub in tech circles lately. Verizon’s latest State of the Market report found that 87 percent of enterprises are using virtual environments for mission-critical workloads, and that number increases daily. A recent report published by Synergy Research Group found that the cloud services market – which includes six major verticals – grew by an annual rate of 28 percent. Operators and vendors in this market earned a total of $110 billion in the four quarters leading up to September 2015. In addition, the private and hybrid cloud services markets grew by 45 percent.

“The private and hybrid cloud services markets grew by 45 percent in 2015.”

The importance of hybrid cloud

While IT infrastructure spending still tops money spent on the cloud, the latter is inching upward. The hybrid cloud, especially, is becoming more important in the overall tech strategies of businesses at every level, including small firms and large enterprises. An important benefit of investing in cloud storage services that utilize these hybrid environments is in security.

One of the main draws to the cloud is its inherent flexibility. With hybrid strategies, however, this concept is taken a step further, as businesses can choose what they want and don’t want running in their cloud infrastructure. Hybrid clouds, according to CloudTweaks contributor Daniel Price, allow companies to take advantage of the vast scalable resources of public cloud environments. This can positively impact security in the long run.

Security is an important benefit to consider when investing in hybrid cloud environments.Security is an important benefit to consider when investing in hybrid cloud environments.

Demand for hybrid cloud expertise

The popularity of the hybrid cloud has skyrocketed in the last few years. It’s becoming such an important part of nearly every industry’s tech strategy that the specific skill set that comes with the hybrid cloud territory is now coveted by companies across the board. According to WindowsITPro contributor Cheryl J. Ajluni, there is a high demand for workers with these types of skills.

“As new cloud technologies emerge, enterprises are struggling to find employees who can keep up with the changes and deliver the skills they need,” Ajluni wrote. “Some of the new skill sets those employees will need training in include open source knowledge, particularly around OpenStack, and container expertise. They’ll also need vendor-specific skills tailored around the cloud solutions those vendors offer.”

By partnering with ISG Technology, companies can rest easy knowing their hybrid cloud strategy is in the right hands. The stress of having to find new employees to effectively manage the hybrid cloud can be alleviated when you consult our cloud and managed services experts. Contact ISG Technology today for more information!

Which industries are going to be affected by big data?

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The digital age has ushered in a level of information transfer that has never been seen before. A Cisco report predicted that in 2016 alone, the human race will generate more than a zettabyte of worldwide IP traffic. For those who don’t know much about data storage, a byte, as Tech Target describes it, can contain about a single letter of the alphabet. A zettabyte, on the other hand, is one sextillion or 10²¹ bytes. That’s a lot of letters zipping around the globe every year.

With all of this data creation, it’s not surprising that many within the field of IT are looking to analyze the massive piles of information out there to try to find patterns and trends. This is called big data analytics, and it’s become a hot topic in recent years. Until now, people hadn’t really dealt with data on the massive scale that the world is seeing now. As such, analytics experts hadn’t developed ways to sort through huge data dumps until recently.

As big data analytics becomes more popular, people are beginning to ask the question of which industries are going to be affected by this trend. While this is certainly an understandable inquiry, the real question is which industries aren’t going to be affected by big data. Just about every sector can benefit from analyzing massively produced data, and we’d like to take a look at some of the industries with the most potential.

“Those working outside IT can benefit from analytics.”

Insurance

Although a lot of people like to discuss the effects big data is going to have on the tech industry, those working outside IT can also benefit from analytics if they take the time to do so. Insurance is definitely one of these sectors, as agents within the field have to sort through a lot of information in order to assess risk.

Forbes contributor Bernard Marr brought up the interesting point of how big data analytics can help insurance companies set premiums for potential clients. He discussed how many insurance agencies install tracking devices in cars and use the information gained to analyze the driving behaviors of that specific client against the mass of data collected from other clients. Essentially, big data is helping to turn setting a premium into more of a concrete procedure rather than an educated guess.

Health care

As compliance standards such as HIPAA begin to accept more digital means of transmitting patient information, health care is increasingly seeing the benefits of big data analytics. Taking massive quantities of information and forming them into workable understandings of the current health landscape is going to be a critical part of the industry’s growth in the coming years.

One of the biggest areas with potential for big data analytics has to be the adoption of smartphones – and to a lesser extent wearables – into the general populace. About 68 percent of Americans currently own a smartphone, according to the Pew Research Center, which means a majority of U.S. residents are taking advantage of the ability to have a computer in their pocket.

These handy devices have a plethora of everyday uses, but one of the ways people are using them currently is to track their exercise and dieting habits. The number of apps that follow your activity levels are nearly innumerable, and all of them are gold mines when it comes to big data analytics.

Big data has serious implications within the health care industry. Doctors can seriously benefit from an analysis of health care data.

Imagine if doctors working on a cure for diabetes could see the dietary and exercising habits of the average diabetic. Years ago this would have meant intense research, followed by an even longer amount of time dissecting the results. Now, with modern technology and big data analytics, it is possible for diabetics to simply track their own activities via smartphones and upload that information straight to the doctor’s data storage method. Combining these specific studies with the millions of data points already created by diabetics using existing tracking applications like Glucose Buddy – an app that keeps a log of the food intake and activity levels of diabetics – could potentially allow for a breakthrough in the field.

Social networking

Although industries outside the tech field can obviously benefit from big data analytics, those within it are seeing endless possibilities for this unprecedented wealth of information. One of the most prominent areas would be social networking sites, which are known for their data storage habits when it comes to user information. Facebook is already using the comments and articles you like on the site to influence the ads you see, but many within the industry think these sites can go even further.

In fact, a recent study from Stanford showed that big data analytics has the potential to understand your personality better than your friends do. The study, which had a computer analyze what kinds of pictures and statuses a person liked on his Facebook page, attempted to find out how well a computer can get to know you personally. What they found was remarkable:

“Forget targeted ads.”

A computer, given only information from Facebook to match up against a personality inventory test of the participant, was able to guess personality patterns better than the participant’s friends and family. While this certainly has quite a lot of implications for sociology and psychology, this study shows the truly limitless power of big data analytics on social networking sites. Forget targeted ads; a properly calibrated machine is now able to comprehend the deepest workings of the human mind.

Although that may sound like something straight out of a dystopian novel, being able to fully understand the personality of an individual is immensely helpful in areas like criminology. Tens of thousands of felons could have their personalities tested in a much shorter time than one-on-one interviews, allowing for law enforcement officials to truly map out the mind of a criminal and discover preventative measures for the future.

The world is in the exploratory stages of big data analytics right now, and it’s really hard to know what’s going to happen next. That being said, it’s pretty obvious analyzing huge amounts of information could have serious benefits for multiple industries. Knowledge is always necessary for a society’s growth, and big data has the power to give people a level of understanding that has never been seen before.

Winter storm in the Midwest highlights need for disaster recovery planning

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Although it came a little later than usual, winter is finally here for much of the United States. Many parts of the U.S. have been blanketed in snow recently, but it would appear the Midwest has received an extra helping. Winter storm Ilias has made its presence known, with its icy fingers reaching from Kansas all the way to Tennessee and beyond.

Thankfully, no deaths have been reported yet as a result of Ilias. That being said, the occurrence of yet another cold and icy winter certainly isn’t welcome, especially for companies trying to maintain business continuity. Heavy storms like Ilias are incredibly threatening toward the livelihood of a business, and organizations should take steps to prepare a disaster recovery plan for them.

“Snow can very easily cause a roof collapse.”

What happens when your facility is damaged?

Although winter storms may not be as flashy or as obviously disruptive as other natural events like tornados, they can still cause some heavy damage to your company’s building. Snow may not seem heavy to you, but that’s only because you’ve only ever picked up enough to make a snowball. When it begins to pile high on your facility, snow can very easily cause a roof collapse if left unchecked.

What’s more, extremely heavy winter storms have been known to cause power outages. Nemo, a massive blizzard that ravaged the Northeast in 2013, caused the outage of more than 650,000 businesses and homes in the area, according to USA Today. The massive power of this particular blizzard shows that your business is completely open to the elements. The building housing your company simply cannot be 100 percent protected against the weather, and as such you’ll need a disaster recovery plan for when things go wrong.

What about when people can’t get to the office?

While damage to your office building would be terrible, everything contained there is just stuff. The part of your organization that really matters is the people working every day to further your business. Your employees should be your first concern when thinking of a disaster recovery solution for winter storms, as commuting to work in snowy conditions is incredibly dangerous.

Winter ice can result in car wrecks. The road can be a dangerous place in the winter.

Ilias emphasized this point recently when the roads near Kansas City froze over, causing multiple car accidents in the metropolitan area, according to KMBC. When storms get this bad and having your people come into the office becomes a liability, will your business be able to function? You obviously don’t want your employees to be in harm’s way, but how can you keep up business continuity if none of your employees have access to work-related resources?

You need a disaster recovery plan now

Waiting until tragedy strikes your business to make a disaster recovery plan is like putting your seatbelt on after a car accident: The damage has already been done. Anyone who doesn’t have protection against events like winter storms should absolutely be looking into disaster recovery solutions. Thankfully, ISG Technology can help you on your journey toward a more prepared workplace.

Check out ISG Technology’s page on disaster recovery planning and contact a DR expert today!

ISG Technology: Who we are

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We’ve spent a lot of time on this blog discussing what ISG’s services can do for you, as well as what kinds of specific problems we can fix. We’ve even done an opinion piece here and there about current trends within IT. What we haven’t done so far is explain what kind of a company we are on a more personal level.

As a modern company, it’s really important to us that you not only understand what we do, but who we are. In an effort to fully introduce ourselves to you, we’d like to explain the three guiding principles that drive our company’s innovation each and every day: people, technology and service.

“People come first.”

People

When it comes to business, even the business of technology and machines, people come first. When we’re considering initiating a business relationship with a company, the first thing we do is try to fully understand the people who work there.

The reason we do this is simple: We can’t figure out how to fix your problem if we don’t know anything about who you are and what you need from us.

For the average managed services provider, solving an issue starts with what the MSP can do to fix the problem, followed by how the company is specifically going to solve it and finally finishing with why that particular situation was a problem in the first place. While this gets the job done most of the time, we at ISG think these companies have it backwards.

We begin our problem analysis by first figuring out why this obstacle is in your way. Starting here works better because it allows us to fully understand all aspects of your particular situation, without coming in with any preconceived notions. After this, we begin to work on how we’re going to fix the problem, followed by a full and detailed investigation into what the actual problem is.

What this means is that you can rest assured ISG will solve the problem you’re actually having, and not the one you think you’re experiencing. While you may think you need simple malware removal – something ISG could easily provide for you – it may turn out that you actually need comprehensive firewall protection services. By figuring out why a situation is a problem for you first, we can diagnose the root cause of your dilemma and provide a solution based on your company’s specific needs.

Technology

Technology is evolving at a truly remarkable rate. The Pew Research Center found that in 2015, about 68 percent of American adults owned a smartphone. In 2011, that number was closer to 35 percent. In four short years, smartphone usage had almost doubled, showing how fully technology has been integrated into our everyday lives.

Technology is everywhere, and with around 84 percent of your American clients identifying as Internet users, being on the forefront of this revolution is absolutely vital to stay profitable. That being said, keeping up with the latest and greatest in technological innovation is extremely hard when you’re trying to run a business.

To anyone working outside of IT, something like server virtualization can sound like magic. Just wrapping your head around the concept of fitting multiple, virtual machines on a single server can be impossible if you don’t understand the finely tuned technology behind it.

Thankfully, our team of highly trained tech wizards can make this magically complex technology simple and easy to comprehend. With ISG, you can rest assured that you’re getting the technology your business needs, from experts who truly understand it.

ISG tech experts are extremely knowledgeable. Our tech wizards can help bring the magic of modern technology to your business.

Service

Although you obviously want a cursory understanding of the technology you’re investing in, we know that you want IT solutions to just work. You don’t want your business goals to be hampered by constantly having to figure out what’s going wrong with the services provided to you, and as such, ISG has always been focused on providing a quality service to all of our clients.

Whether it’s disaster recovery services, or even online backup of your mission-critical data, we value giving the businesses we work with the best product we can. Investing in ISG is investing in consistency, and nothing is more important to us than making sure your IT problems get solved as efficiently and as effectively as possible.

If you’d like to learn how ISG can help bring your business to the next level, make sure to check out the list of managed services we offer on our homepage.





Join the ISG Technology Team




Is your company ready for a power outage?

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When the word “disaster” comes up in a conversation concerning your company, you probably think of tremendously damaging events caused by nature. Most people jump to thoughts of raging fires or blistering winds from a tornado. These are obviously incidents to be concerned with, but what about the less-flashy disasters that may befall your business?

You’ve probably got a fire extinguisher somewhere on your premises, and you also most likely have a procedure in place for a strong tornado, but do you have a disaster recovery plan for when the power goes out?

Power is about more than keeping the lights on

Keeping the electricity flowing is an absolute necessity for business continuity. So much technology goes into the daily operations of organizations these days that having the power go off unexpectedly can have serious effects.

Power outages are extremely costly. A power outage can be a serious drag on your company’s profits.

According to Gartner, the average cost of downtime has been calculated to be roughly $5,600 per minute. That means that a power outage lasting only an hour could cost your business up to $300,000. That’s a huge expenditure for a single point of failure within your organization, and points to the highly important role electricity plays in the enterprise today.

Think of all the actions your business conducts that require power. Everything from using a VoIP phone system to talk with clients to simply sending out companywide emails all require your organization’s office to have power. Once this connection to the grid is severed, your ability to continue business is completely destroyed. Electricity is at the center of just about everything you do at work, and the loss of it can be devastating.

Power outages more common than you’d think

While the statistics about network downtime in and of itself should be enough to convince you of the importance of disaster recovery planning, the truly frightening aspect of losing power is how common it is. In fact, Allianz Global Corporate and Specialty has discovered that these kinds of incidents happen a lot more than the average person would suspect.

The company’s research found that from 2010 to 2014, power outages were the 10th most likely cause of disruption to business continuity. Although other, more natural forms of disaster beat out loss of electricity, this study still shows just how vital power is to the average business’s continued profitability.

“Take the time to make sure your company is safe.”

Disaster recovery planning is a must

With the knowledge in hand that your company’s power is absolutely vital to business continuity, it’s time to take action. The only way to truly be ready for a trying event such as this is to have a plan that comes in the form of a disaster recovery solution. Not only will a solid disaster recovery plan allow you to mitigate the risk of a power outage, but it will also make sure your business doesn’t fall victim to other disruptive events.

However, it’s important to note that there is a certain level of expertise necessary in the creation of a plan. Your IT team is undoubtedly talented at what they do, but they probably don’t have the experience required to make a disaster recovery procedure.

Many people like to think that doing something in-house will end up being cheaper. This may be true of other functions, but not so for disaster recovery. In fact, a study conducted by Computer Economics found quite the opposite.

Of the organizations surveyed in the report, 92 percent stated that their expenditures in the creation of a disaster recovery plan were the same or even lower than when they attempted to do so with internal staff. There are obviously many reasons behind this, but chief among them is the fact that tasking your internal IT team to create a plan pulls their attention away from internal goals.

This not only wastes the time of these employees, it also wastes your company’s money. Allowing an outside firm that actually knows how to set up a disaster recovery procedure lets your workers get back to keeping your business up and running, thereby increasing efficiency.

If you’ve ever thought about creating a disaster recovery plan, there’s been no better time than now. Waiting until an unfortunate event actually hits your company could result in major downtime for your services, which is going to cost quite a lot of money. Take the time to make sure your company is safe and contact an ISG Technology disaster recovery specialist today.

What to know before deploying: Cloud capabilities

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Cloud environments are being used for more things within every industry. Its advantages come in many flavors: IT executives polled by the Harvard Business Review Analytic Services named business agility, collaboration and cost savings as the biggest drivers for cloud adoption. In fact, a full 72 percent of those surveyed reported that collaboration was the best business benefit of deploying virtual environments. After all, with the cloud, business partners can more easily communicate and share documents from remote locations.

This is only the top of the list of cloud benefits. Let’s take a look at how the cloud was used in 2015 and how it’s likely to be used as this year progresses:

“The cloud presents itself as the ready answer to DR problems.”

Disaster recovery and business continuity

Keeping companies afloat was right up the cloud’s alley in 2015. Cloud Tech contributor Monica Brink noted that one of the biggest trends seen throughout 2015 was the use of the cloud as a disaster recovery tool. As IT budgets diminish and cloud adoption grows, these kinds of virtual environments present themselves as the ready answer to DR problems. The market for Disaster-Recovery-as-a-Service, as a result, continues to grow. Projections in a report published by MarketsandMarkets indicate the DRaaS market will be worth $11.92 billion by 2020.

IT management

As mobile devices continue their entrance into the workplace and new computers are constantly added, network administrators have their work cut out for them to try and manage the growing number of endpoints any one organization has to deal with. A poll conducted by IT management provider Autotask found that the increase in endpoints is more easily managed with the cloud. Around 55 percent of the IT service providers surveyed said they had seen significant or steady growth in the number of endpoints they have to manage.

The majority of these respondents noted that they used the cloud to manage all of these endpoints. With network virtualization and cloud computing, it’s easier to view, manage and define all the devices on any one network, and that in turn enhances security.

Cloud storage

The market is looking good from the cloud storage end, as well, and related verticals are beginning to show the impact of the cloud. For instance, the video surveillance market is on the incline, according to MarketsandMarkets. This vertical is expected to be worth a total of $18.28 billion by 2020, growing at a compound annual rate of 22.41 percent. As a result, the cloud storage market will also exhibit some growth, because where else are companies going to store those surveillance videos if not in the cloud? The value of this market is projected to grow at a compound annual rate of 40.55 percent from 2015 to 2020, according to Research and Markets.

The cloud is used to enhance business agility and decrease complexity within an organization.The cloud is used to enhance business agility and decrease complexity within an organization.

Unified communications in the cloud

The CIOs polled by the Harvard Business Review Analytic Services reported that collaboration tops the list of priorities in terms of cloud adoption – and it’s for good reason. When the cloud is paired with powerful communications technologies that bring all methods of contact into one suite, it becomes monumentally easier to exchange ideas and get business done. According to MicroScope editor Simon Quicke, small to medium-sized enterprises are adopting cloud-based UC at a faster rate than ever before. These communication tools are flexible, cost-effective and reduce complexity within an organization.

All of these capabilities are going to be crucial for IT managers to take advantage of in 2016. By streamlining business processes and investing in managed cloud environments, your company can make sense of complicated IT processes and increase agility where it counts. Contact ISG Technology today for more information about how the cloud can go to work for your business!

Deploying hybrid cloud in 2016: Tips, tricks and stats

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The cloud is everywhere. No matter where you look, it seems nearly every company is using cloud technologies or talking about the cloud in some form. Verizon’s recent “2016 State of the Market: Enterprise Cloud” report indicated that 87 percent of organizations are now using cloud-based tools to run mission-critical workloads, with 69 percent of enterprises touting the cloud’s usefulness in helping them revolutionize business processes. While adoption of private cloud is on the incline, hybrid architectures are also set to enjoy an increase in the coming months.

Why are enterprises across the board and within nearly every industry adopting cloud technologies? The advantages speak for themselves. Cost effectiveness, increased ability for collaboration and better flexibility are only a few of the benefits that companies can glean from deploying applications in these virtual environments. Private and public cloud environments are useful in their own rights, and hybrid cloud allows companies to choose the best of each kind of deployment – mix and match cloud, so to speak.

The ability to combine private and public deployments into one solution is enticing for many businesses, and as such, the outlook for hybrid cloud is good.

Cloud adoption: Past and future predictions

In 2011, Gartner projected the rise of hybrid cloud by saying that 90 percent of organizations had plans to hybridize their IT strategies in the near future. The subsequent years have shown that, yes, hybrid deployments have practically skyrocketed since those Gartner predictions were made. Research published by MarketsandMarkets in March 2015 projected that the total market value of the hybrid cloud space would reach $84.67 billion in 2019, growing at a compound annual rate of 27.3 percent beginning in 2014. This is a huge portion of the market share allotted to the overall cloud industry.

The new year is already beginning to see important changes when it comes to hybrid architectures. Cloud Cruiser contributor Dave Zabrowski predicted that in 2016, the hybrid cloud would become the standard for operation among enterprises and small businesses alike. Zabrowski cautioned that deploying hybrid cloud environments can add complexity to IT infrastructure, but drawbacks like these aren’t slowing the adoption rate any. Network World contributor Brian Butte noted that because enterprises are learning the real benefits and disadvantages of each kind of cloud deployment – public and private – they are more likely to turn to hybrid environments to serve them for different purposes.

“Hybrid cloud is being utilized for more than simply storing and running applications.”

Cloud containers: Good news for everyone

Hybrid cloud deployments offer a bevy of advantages to those enterprises that make the decision to hybridize their IT infrastructure. Enhanced flexibility, better business agility and customizable pricing are all important incentives for cloud adoption. However, these are only surface-level benefits.

One of the biggest advantages of the hybrid cloud lies in the ability to develop and deploy containerized instances that run applications and store data. Containers work in a similar manner to virtual machines, except that VMs run complete instances of servers and thus take up a lot of space. Containers, on the other hand, are extremely small. Essentially, they represent building blocks that can form complete instances, instead of coming as a complete package. According to WindowsITPro contributor Orin Thomas, this facilitates the movement of containers between hosts, because all you have to do is shift the container files themselves.

This enhanced ability for movement and application support is advantageous for numerous reasons. In a hybrid cloud environment, this allows developers to streamline app development and delivery.

“[D]evelopers creating applications can build a container on their development machine, push it into their organization’s private cloud deployment for wider testing, and then push that same container up into Azure when the application is ready to be deployed into production,” Thomas wrote.

Hybrid cloud is helping enterprises make the most out of their IT infrastructure.Hybrid cloud is helping enterprises make the most out of their IT infrastructure.

Considering hybrid? ISG can help

Hybrid cloud is being utilized for more than simply storing and running applications. Development and delivery are two other important aspects of IT infrastructure that should be considered when making the move to the cloud – additional benefits that may not be at the top of administrators’ minds when considering options in the new year.

Partnering with a managed services provider like ISG Technology can help take out some of the complexity of deploying a hybrid cloud solution. Our cloud experts can successfully guide you down your path to hybrid IT deployment – call us today for more information!

What is the future of the hybrid cloud?

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With 2015 in the rearview mirror, people are starting to look ahead toward 2016. Although most people are looking forward to a New Year’s resolution they probably won’t be following, many in the tech industry are eager to see what 2016 holds in terms of cloud computing development.

The cloud has completely changed how modern business is conducted, but it hasn’t stopped revolutionizing yet. Improvements in the technology have brought about something called the hybrid cloud, an incredible combination of the private cloud’s security and the public cloud’s affordability.

This advancement is working so well that MarketsandMarkets predicted that the hybrid cloud market would be worth a staggering $84.67 billion in 2019. That’s a huge improvement over 2014’s worth of $25.28 billion and simply points out how fast this technology is catching on.

Hybrid cloud is the ‘next step’

The hybrid cloud really is a breakthrough and has quite a lot of fans all over the tech industry. One of these fans is Brian Butte, a contributor for Network World. Butte states that the hybrid cloud is the next big thing for IT due to the rapidly changing landscape of modern technological innovation.

He states that advancements like the Internet of Things and real-time analytics are “cloud-dependent technologies” that work very closely with the end user, thereby requiring a public cloud option. However, the public cloud isn’t a perfect solution.

A hybrid cloud solution solves a lot of problems.Thinking about the cloud? Now’s the time!

Cybersecurity is always a huge concern for businesses these days, and the public cloud simply isn’t safe enough for all company data. Some information is simply too sensitive and therefore needs the security of a private cloud. That being said, the private cloud isn’t very cost-effective for housing all the data a business might produce.

This is why the hybrid cloud is so incredible, and it’s why this technological leap is becoming so popular. By combining the best attributes of both cloud types, the hybrid cloud is making quite a name for itself in the IT world.

As Butte puts it: “Deploying hybrid clouds is the next step beyond private clouds in the evolution of cloud computing.”

“The hybrid cloud is only getting bigger and better.”

Implement your hybrid cloud solution now

The hybrid cloud is only getting bigger, and there has been no better time than now to invest in it. If your company has needs that can be met by public cloud managed services, but you need a more secure option for other data, the hybrid cloud is right for you.

Make sure to check out ISG Technology’s cloud services page today and see what the hybrid cloud can do for you!