For modern businesses, data storage and management can be incredibly complicated. With various options for physical servers, cloud computing, and other IT solutions, it can be challenging to determine which option is best for your company’s needs. In this blog post, we’ll discuss how hybrid IT storage solutions can help you get organized and make managing your data more effortless than ever before.
A hybrid IT storage solution involves the utilization of on-premises storage AND cloud storage.
On-Premises Storage
- Hard to scale
- Robust level of security against unauthorized personnel
- Upgrades are difficult, not automated, and less flexible
- Internet connectivity is not required at all times
- Reduced internet costs
- Someone cannot access the data remotely
- Space needed for servers
- Slow data recovery and backup
- High maintenance and acquisition costs
- Easy to customize
- An internal IT team is required
- No operating software costs
Cloud Storage
- Easy to scale
- Weaker level of security against unauthorized personnel
- Upgrades are easy, can be automated, and more flexible
- Internet connectivity is necessary
- Someone can access the data from anywhere
- Higher internet costs
- No server space needed
- Disaster recovery and backup are faster
- Low maintenance and acquisition costs
- Hard to customize
- No internal team is required
- On-going software costs
Benefits of a Hybrid IT Storage Solution
As laid out above, both on-premises and cloud-based storage have an array of pros and cons. Hybrid solutions offer the pros of both physical on-premises storage and cloud-based storage all in one package. Therefore, combining the benefits of both technologies allows you to simplify and streamline your IT storage while getting all the necessary features. What exactly do these benefits look like?
Lower Total Cost of Ownership
“Fifty-four percent of surveyed executives cited the most popular reason for implementing hybrid cloud solutions: lowering the total ownership cost of technology” – IBM .
By not having all your data on-premises, you can avoid refreshing equipment and let a separate party endure the expenses of running a data center.
Optimize Resources
Using a hybrid IT storage solution allows you to choose the optimal computing environment for every workload. You can choose to process complex workloads in the public cloud, where additional capacity is low-cost and easier to access, and keep your simpler workloads on-premises or in a private cloud infrastructure to easily customize your storage requirements.
Process Larger Amounts of Data
By growing an on-premises infrastructure with cloud capabilities, businesses can unlock the power of their big data. Subsequently, companies can access the computing resources needed to analyze big data sets and extract insights to drive business decision-making.
Data Protection
With a custom hybrid solution, businesses can choose the most secure place to store important data sets. Additionally, a hybrid solution offers stronger business continuity and disaster recovery where core on-premise data is replicated in the cloud. This can help extend the use of legacy systems.
The Future of Data Storage
In today’s data-driven environment, data can be considered the most essential asset to any business. Data is the key to everything, from increasing competitiveness in the market to improving risk reduction and cost control. But, someone can only use this data meaningfully if it is stored and utilized the right way.
International Data Corporation (IDC) reported in January of 2023 that spending on cloud infrastructure will have a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 12.9% over the 2021-2026 forecast period. Meanwhile, spending on non-cloud infrastructure, such as on-premises storage, will have a CAGR of 2.3% over the 2021-2026 forecast period. While both storage solutions are expected to grow, they each carry their own weaknesses. However, combining the two to create a hybrid solution will bring their strengths together and minimize weaknesses to develop the most efficient IT storage solutions for your business.
A hybrid-cloud solution presents scalability and flexibility, with better performance and cost-effective savings. By using a hybrid cloud solution also provides a competitive advantage by empowering a business to quickly make changes to increase innovative solutions to their products using the cloud, thus enhancing the customer experience. The added security of pairing cloud storage with on-premises storage allows a company to be better prepared in an emergency and increases the likelihood of their business continuity.
IP Pathways Hybrid Solutions
IP Pathways is here to help each business evaluate its storage needs and create a solution that leads to success. Our hybrid solutions allow you to utilize what you currently have and move into the cloud at your own pace. IP Pathways is your future data storage solution and support team.
IP Pathways operates our cloud storage on a consumption-based model where you only pay for what you use. This competitive pricing is 24%-60% less than major hyperscalers. With IP Pathways, data is natively protected and secured. Our data center is state of the art with temperature control, enhanced fire detection and management, robust power supply with back-up generators, and high-level security. With IP Pathways, 24x7x365 support is available. In case of an emergency, our team can quickly recover your data with disaster recovery and backup.
We are invested in our customers’ success, so we take the time to ensure your hybrid solution fits your unique requirements. Combining our architecture and engineering expertise to move your workloads to the cloud will free up staff, allowing your team to focus on growing the business!