Hybrid Cloud Challenge

Below are some of the key challenges of implementing a hybrid cloud strategy.

Support for Legacy Apps

A major concern hybrid multi cloud architecture when adopting a hybrid cloud deployment is compatibility between legacy applications and new services and environments. Certain applications may work on one system but not another, making moving to the cloud challenging. Older applications are not always suitable for the cloud, even if they perform critical functions.

For example, you might have an application built using Java or .NET, usually with a monolithic architecture. Legacy applications are often designed to run locally with all network dependencies and connections built in. Building modern cloud applications often involves using loosely coupled microservices, which help minimize latency and downtime.

However, rewriting legacy applications for the cloud can be expensive or time-consuming. For critical applications, rewrites can be complex and specialized. If these applications are migrated to a hybrid cloud environment, it is imperative to ensure that the cloud connection has low latency.

Implement a multi-cloud deployment

In addition to hybrid cloud, most companies are also taking a multi-cloud approach. Using multiple clouds presents challenges, as each cloud may have a different management interface or vendor-specific APIs. Different providers offer different cloud services, with different features, pricing models, and IT skill requirements.

Therefore, you can choose to have a dedicated hybrid cloud implementation for each purpose, so that most applications run on a single cloud environment. However, if you cannot use all applications in all environments, you will need a more complex management strategy with different protections to protect each implementation individually.

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Another significant challenge with hybrid cloud deployments is maintaining compliance with regulatory requirements and industry standards. Even if you use a secure cloud provider, you need to ensure your organization complies with laws and regulations such as GDPR, HIPAA, and PCI DSS. A hybrid cloud implementation adds a layer of complexity that requires you to take additional security measures.

Maintaining data security and privacy is a core requirement of regulations such as HIPPA and GDPR. If your organization is subject to these regulations, you must implement data security measures, such as encryption of data in storage and in transit. These security measures require active participation—you can't expect a hybrid cloud to automatically protect your data.

Another compliance issue with hybrid clouds is data locality -- you may be required by law to store data in a specific geographic location. The major cloud providers (i.e. AWS, Azure, Oracle, and Google Cloud Platform) may support data localization requirements in some cases, but you must enable this feature.

However, some cloud providers cannot support your data location restrictions. In this case, you can adopt a hybrid cloud strategy, keeping data in local databases while outsourcing processing to cloud services. This type of deployment requires low-latency connections.