Businesses are increasingly opting for a hybrid cloud model, in which they use both their own virtualized private set up as well as systems hosted by other providers. There are a number of clear benefits, but also challenges, to this arrangement.

On the plus side, with a hybrid cloud setup companies have the opportunity to keep particularly sensitive data within their data center’s own four walls, ensuring security, and allowing rapid system customization where required. Those same companies can push less-sensitive data out to a public cloud, allowing a host company to affordably handle spikes in traffic and manage some of the infrastructure.

Mitigating the challenges

There are also a number of issues associated with managing a hybrid cloud setup, and these require specific solutions. Firstly, businesses favoring a hybrid cloud need to be extremely clear how their public and private clouds serve them and what the differences are …