Many businesses in the UAE and around the world claim to be ‘using the cloud’, but in truth, only a small minority have fully migrated to solely using a cloud environment. By contrast, the majority of businesses remain dependent on on-premises (on-prem) solutions and technologies.
Integration of cloud and on-prem is commonly known as Hybrid Cloud
It unifies and combines computing, storage, and services in a mixed environment, often consisting of on-premises infrastructure and private cloud services and/or a public cloud such as Microsoft Azure or Amazon Web Services (AWS). In doing so, your business is able to connect environments, optimising greater control and placing all the services and features that you need at your doorstep. These include:
- Supporting a migration between your current on-prem infrastructure to a cloud solution. This may take the form of Email Migration, a Data Migration or even a Server Migration.
- Protecting your data. Less sensitive data can be stored within the public cloud, whereas sensitive or confidential data, such as customer information, can be safely secured within private infrastructure.
- The capacity to expand beyond your current on-prem infrastructure.
- Single Sign-on (SSO) provides access to multiple platforms through just one set of credentials
- Performance and efficiency can be optimised according to workload, with additional capacity often found at a lower cost in the public cloud.
What’s the difference between the private cloud and public cloud?
Private clouds provide an infrastructure that is exclusive to your business located in Dubai or any other emirate. They offer greater flexibility, security, control, and customisation than public clouds. They can also offer lower total cost of ownership (TCO), although they can be associated with higher costs and a greater level of responsibility.
Meanwhile, public clouds utilize a shared infrastructure. This has obvious ramifications on the security of the infrastructure. Furthermore, public clouds run at a higher operational expenditure than private clouds. That being said, there are concrete advantages to public clouds, too. They offer greater scalability, whether you’re growing or downsizing; an enhanced reliability, and a lower capital expenditure.