Hybrid Data Storage Strategies: Balancing On-Premises & Cloud Solutions

Cloud adoption has surged in the past years, with an estimated growth¹ of 21.7% globally to reach nearly $600 Billion in 2023, from $491 Billion in 2022. For businesses embarking on digital transformation, the shift to the cloud has become an essentiality rather than a choice. However, adopting the Hybrid Data Storage model, combining cloud and on-premise storage, is equally significant. Hybrid Data Storage seamlessly integrates the on-premise and cloud-based data, giving advantages in faster access to essential data, additional security, and meeting regulatory norms.

Let’s look at the benefits of Hybrid data storage models and tips to charter the perfect strategy to leverage their multifold advantages.

The Need for Hybrid Data Storage

Conventional on-premises data storage comes with a higher TCO and associated expenditure on maintenance and security but scores high in faster data access and regulatory compliance. Businesses also have reservations about storing critical data on a public cloud, which is a crucial driver for using a Hybrid data storage model.

With a pay-as-you-go subscription model, cloud storage addresses all the above challenges and gives much-needed flexibility, scalability, and security. A conflux of both data storage models offers businesses the perfect advantage in the aspects below.

Data Segregation: Businesses can store frequently used data in local storage for faster access and use the cloud for dormant or unstructured or data that requires cloud services or applications with more scalability or burst requirements.

Data Backup: A backup of on-premises data can also be stored in the cloud, giving the benefit of easy disaster recovery and ensuring seamless business continuity. You can improve upon affordability and flexibility when implementing a hybrid backup solution rather than a conventional on-premises data backup strategy.

Burst for Capacity: A Hybrid data storage model gives the much-needed scalability in adding storage capacity with flexible subscription models, compared to the high TCO incurred in investing in additional on-premise data storage infrastructure. In a Hybrid data storage model, you only pay for what you use and scale on demand. This brings in an OpEx model that does away with budget constraints and complex procurement and deployment cycles.

Burst for Compute: Hybrid data storage models can make your on-premise data easily accessible for analytics, data modeling, and much more, using applications available on the cloud. This feature does away with paying upfront licensing costs and creates room for innovation in your business operations using cloud-based solutions.

Security and Compliance: A Hybrid cloud data storage model ensures data security with a defined access policy. As per region-specific policies, you can ensure regulatory compliance by segregating the data that must reside on-premise or in the cloud.

Mobility: Mobility is a crucial advantage of the cloud-based data model, as users can access the data anywhere and anytime across any device. This feature gives the much-needed speed and agility and does away with the limitations of conventional on-premise data accessibility. It suits a remote and distributed workforce, as seen with the challenges in the recent pandemic.

Single Orchestration: With Hybrid data solutions, you can have a unified point of administration for your on-premise and cloud-based data storage, paving the way for seamless interconnectivity and simplified data governance.

Data Synchronization: With a cloud-based architecture, users working on a selected file will have the changes automatically replicated with other users accessing the same file. This feature saves time and resources needed for manual data synchronization.

Hybrid Object Storage: In Hybrid data storage models, you can aggregate and distribute individual data objects across other storage locations or on the cloud. This scalability gives you an advantage over on-premise legacy data storage platforms.

Top Tips for a Successful Hybrid Data Storage Strategy

1. Check the required platform compatibility and load balancing before shifting, as this will offset any potential challenges you might face while moving to a Hybrid data storage model.
2. Regulatory compliance with regional or country-specific norms sometimes requires data to be stored in the same location where your business operates. We recommended prior planning and strategizing the move to ensure seamless compliance.
3. By shifting to a Hybrid model, you can leverage cloud-native Artificial Intelligence (AI)and Machine Learning (ML) capabilities. It would help if you determined how to get the most out of your shift to the cloud and ensure faster connectivity to such applications.
4. Evaluate what you have, where data sovereignty and security are absolutely critical, and maintain that risk assessment regularly to ensure you understand your data and where it resides.
5. Create a change management strategy and stakeholder alignment within the organization before implementing a Hybrid data storage strategy. This keeps your workforce aligned to the change, simplifies cloud adaptability, and gives faster ROI.

If you want to transition towards a Hybrid Data Storage model, New Era Technology can be your perfect technology partner for making the shift. We partner with HPE to provide a secure, reliable, and robust solution that includes the below advantages, with a service on-demand model.

1. Ensure optimal usage of virtual resources and proactively predict and resolve disruptions.
2. Reduce storage costs and improve speed and latency with 99.9% uptime.
3. Ensure data integrity and security.
4. Scalable solutions that cater to fast-paced changes in market dynamics, customer requirements, and your business operations
5. Risk-free transition using industry standards and best practices

If you want to learn more about how this can work for your business, contact us, and we will be glad to help.

References:

1. https://www.gartner.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/2023-04-19-gartner-forecasts-worldwide-public-cloud-end-user-spending-to-reach-nearly-600-billion-in-2023