Gust post by Jennifer Marsh
The hybrid cloud gives businesses the ability to integrate an existing internal network with the power of a hosted cloud network. That way, the business can choose what parts of the process can benefit from the cloud and keep other critical systems in-house.
Here is what you need to know about the hybrid cloud.
Cloud Architecture for Ecommerce
A simple, basic hybrid architecture combines the public-facing website, which takes the customer’s information, with secure cloud technology. The combination asynchronously passes credit card information to the cloud’s database to process credit card information without putting the burden of security on the internal network management team. The passing of data is encrypted, so the customer’s information is secure, and IT managers do not need to worry about the encryption and protection of credit cards on the local, internal network.
Typically, the cloud host is PCI compliant for all regulatory rules for encryption and data security. For this reason, ecommerce sites can benefit from using a hybrid cloud to store sensitive data such as social security information or credit card numbers.
A Hybrid Cloud for Internal Data Sharing
Not all websites require ecommerce processes, though. Still, businesses that rely on any type of customer service applications can still take advantage of a hybrid cloud. Small or medium companies that need better performance but don’t have the revenue to buy better equipment can use the cost efficiency of cloud application deployment.
For the business to take advantage of the cloud, IT managers should deploy the resource-intensive applications to the cloud network and take advantage of the power of cloud data centers. The employees connect to the cloud’s network in the same way they log in to the local network. All of the data transfer is invisible to the employee, except the boost in performance increases productivity and reduces timeout issues.
A true cloud host will charge only for the resources used in the hybrid architecture, so the new design and infrastructure is cost-efficient for a growing business. Most cloud hosts assist the business in deployment and support during the conversion to make sure deployment goes as smoothly as possible. Look to these hosts to help design and build the hybrid solution that works best in the company’s environment.
This post is written by Rackspace blogger Jennifer Marsh. Rackspace Hosting is the service leader in cloud computing, and a founder of OpenStack, an open source cloud operating system. The San Antonio-based company provides Fanatical Support to its customers and partners, across a portfolio of IT services, including Managed Hosting and Cloud Computing.
