Bangalore: Cloud computing is one of the most discussed subject in the enterprises today. Working in the cloud has proven to be beneficial to companies, but at the same time there are risks associated with it. Hybrid cloud is being considered as a reliable option by most of the companies today who look to achieve maximum benefit from this infrastructure. Hybrid clouds are strategically designed to minimize flaws and maximize the efficiency of the infrastructure.

CIOs these days are of the opinion that the smartest way to play the cloud is to rent the spike. Allan Leinwand, Zynga’s Infrastructure CTO says “We own the base, rent the spike. We want a hybrid operation. We love knowing that shock absorber is there.” as per an article by Gregg Ness on aonetwork.com

A study conducted at Gartner's 2011 Data Center Conference in December showed that 78 percent of 2,500 attendees surveyed said they plan to build private cloud services by 2014.  "We believe that the vast majority of private clouds will migrate or evolve into a hybrid model," says Gartner researcher Thomas Bittman. "We're telling clients to design and build their private clouds with hybrid in mind."

Ness says that “innovative companies have found ways to move virtual machines between clouds and that has given them considerable competitive advantages over peer companies trying to shim the network with elaborate schemes or create an eighth layer.  They are also using commoditized hardware increasingly to deliver highly custom infrastructures, tightly aligned with their applications and services, that can be easily scalable.”

Due to commoditization of server hardware and the potential of commoditization of network hardware, enterprises are gaining more control over their applications, services and even data center. Companies are now utilizing IT to an even fuller extent to gain competitive advantage.

Consumerization is creeping into IT with as much speed as it has spread to users.  That means more choice, more differentiation and more influence over future vendor releases and the design and construction of new data centers.

Considering the niggling worries of cloud security linked with private and public clouds, the Hybrid cloud is most certainly emerging as the future of computing. Offering the best features of both public and private clouds, the hybrid cloud infrastructure is no doubt a veritable boon for companies aiming to foray ahead in the market.