What is the Hybrid Cloud Architecture Pattern?

The hybrid cloud architectural pattern combines an on-premises private cloud with one or more public cloud providers' IaaS offerings, which are then managed as a unified, policy-driven cloud environment. This approach can extend capabilities from private cloud to public cloud and vice versa, such as leveraging the economics of cloud-based storage to leverage existing data protection tools for archiving and backup.

Additionally, the hybrid cloud model includes utilizing the public cloud as a sandbox to test applications before deploying them enterprise-wide. Many organizations migrate certain applications to public cloud providers, initially migrating stateless front-end applications with limited data processing requirements, and then increasingly deploying in cloud-based containers (such as Docker) using APIs and microservices, etc. Applications developed with modern methods, and managed through deployment tools like Kubernetes, can span public and private cloud infrastructures.

This differs from a multi-cloud architecture, which utilizes multiple public cloud providers to take advantage of each public cloud provider's capabilities, tools, pricing, or geographic ties.
What are five things you should consider when building a hybrid cloud architecture?

Enterprises considering a hybrid cloud strategy should evaluate current and future needs, including assessing current on-premises and used cloud infrastructure, and rationalizing why a particular application is running in its current location. Below are some key considerations for developing the public cloud database as a sandbox to test applications

Which cloud operating environment should you use?

Hybrid clouds are managed through a cloud operating system (OS) that enables management, orchestration and monitoring of the entire hybrid environment from a single pane of glass/single toolset.

Organizations should choose a cloud operating system that provides the data management and flexibility needed to manage applications without requiring retraining of the entire organization. Cloud operating system frameworks such as VMware Cloud and Kubernetes often work together to achieve desired IT goals.

The cloud operating system decision often influences all subsequent decisions, so organizations should invest time in ensuring they adopt the cloud operating system that best suits their organizational and IT needs.