Analysing the performance of your hybrid cloud

Hybrid cloud is set to dominate the next phase of cloud computing. Enterprises are beginning get to grips with the benefits of a hybrid cloud solution. Research from Technology Business Research predicts that in 2015 the hybrid cloud market will grow by 50%. The benefits are clear for enterprises. You can enjoy the security, peace of mind and resilience of on-premises infrastructure to host your most precious, sensitive company data at the same time as the tremendous flexibility, scalability and ease-of-access provided by an off-premises cloud.

For IT departments, performance and analytics have become bigger areas of focus in recent years. Cloud computing provides a perfect example of a technology area that is ripe for analytics. IT decision makers need to maximise ROI, but they also need to prove that they are doing so. With such an array of cloud opportunities available to you – whether you use a private, public, hybrid cloud or stick to a virtualised server environment – how do you prove that you made the right choice?

Having a thorough set of ongoing performance metrics is vital for enterprises deploying a hybrid cloud solution, but the nature of the hybrid cloud can make these performance metrics slightly harder to obtain. IT professionals need a platform such as NetApp OnCommand Insight that makes accessing and maintaining visibility of a complete set of performance metrics across all their various data pools easy. They need to know what data is attached to each storage environment, what is stored in on-premises and off-premises storage solutions, and how all of these data pools are performing in terms of capacity, speed and security.

Measuring reliability and scalability

There are numerous benefits from having a cross-domain view of performance metrics when it comes to the hybrid cloud. The first is simply maintaining visibility of how your different storage environments are performing. Are any of the cloud environments, public or private, reaching capacity and, if so, how can you prevent an overflow of data? Is it a simple case of moving data around? This may be easier in a public cloud environment. However, if it is your on-premises private storage groaning in terms of capacity, this data may take time to move or there may not be anywhere else you can to store it due to security concerns.

This is where the benefits of hybrid cloud come into play. Data is difficult to turn on and off, but with the hybrid cloud, assuming that you are using a common format across both on-premises and public cloud you have more options in terms of moving data around and scaling your solution up and down. These options are wonderful to have, but if you can’t predict when you’ll need to use such services, they carry less value.

In terms of audit control and report compliancy, it’s vital to ensure that your data is backed up and secure. This can mean running back ups and routine security checks across multiple platforms and having to assess the results of each test, as well as addressing any issues you find. It’s helpful to be able to identify that your public cloud is susceptible to a certain virus, which needs to be protected against, from one central platform. In addition, having a data pool in your private cloud that needs to be backed up saves time and increases your control over the entire storage environment. You can also easily identify who you need to speak to, what their SLA is, and ensure that any issues are resolved as quickly as possible.

Maximising value

One of the challenges when deploying hybrid cloud solutions is that you can involve multiple parties. For example, a different vendor or cloud service provider may be providing your private cloud, public cloud and virtualised storage. This means you will have different SLAs, different levels of control and the value of scaling back on one solution and up on another will be comparable. The ability to monitor all of these environments in one place is therefore hugely beneficial for an IT professional when making decisions on how best to maximise the value of the existing solution.

There may be services that you are paying for but not using, or applications that are being underused that could be streamlined. If services remain dormant, it’s vital that the IT administrator is the first person to notice this and that they work with the service provider to find a different solution containing more of the services the enterprise is using most. Being able to see a cross-domain performance view of each storage environment gives IT operatives that power. It also means they can pinpoint what the areas of focus should be and, therefore, what providers they should contact first.

IT decision-makers are under constant pressure to provide better technologies and services in a cost-effective manner. Therefore, real-time analytics can be used to assess the claims of vendors and pre-empt the questions budget handlers are likely to pose. Are you maximising ROI by investing in the hybrid cloud? If so, how are you getting a better deal? For this to be the case, it is important that IT managers can analyse performance across all storage environments from one central place to identify any issues proactively and solve them in the best possible manner.