In the cloud computing age, flexibility and scalability are vital pillars for virtually every enterprise. Multi-tenant cloud environments provide excellent business opportunities, enabling companies to cut costs and improve security, all while utilizing a platform that gives them the agility to adapt and grow with their market demands.
As more enterprises look to connect and deploy apps across multiple different cloud environments, it gives rise to a hybrid cloud infrastructure.
In this article, we’ll find out what a hybrid cloud is and how you can configure your systems to leverage the power of this type of cloud system.
What is Hybrid Cloud?
A hybrid cloud is a type of IT architecture that integrates a private cloud with one or more public cloud services, using proprietary software to orchestrate operations and communications between the disparate services.
Traditionally, public clouds ran off-premises. Nowadays, many companies own data centers so that public cloud providers can set up their cloud services on-premises. By comparison, private clouds have shifted from on-premises to off-premises data centers owned by the vendors.
With this in mind, we can define a hybrid cloud as a software infrastructure that does the following:
-Connects multiple computers on a single network
-Consolidates existing IT resources
-Scales out new IT resources
-Moves workloads between cloud environments
-Orchestrates processes with automation
-Acts as a single, unified management tool
What is the difference between hybrid cloud and multi-cloud?
A multi-cloud environment is a software system that comprises more than one cloud deployment of the same type, like public or private, and where different vendors provide each type.
Hybrid cloud incorporates multiple deployment types, public or private, that have a level of integration or orchestration between each type.
For example, a multi-cloud may include two private clouds and two public clouds. In contrast, a hybrid cloud may have one public cloud, one private cloud, and some middleware, APIs, or containers to facilitate communications and workload portability.
In short, you can have multiple cloud deployments that are either interconnected (hybrid) or not connected (multicloud).
How to Connect Apps in Multiple Deployments
As enterprises look to improve performance and security, multiple cloud deployments are on the rise.
There are a myriad of different deployments models, such as:
How do you connect the apps?
ION API is a component service of the Infor OS, acting as a system integration platform and API management tool. This software system provides a single secure channel to broker requests from web and mobile applications and access Infor and third-party SOAP web services and RESTful APIs.
When you want to connect applications in hybrid cloud architecture, you can use ION API. Just follow the steps below:
1.) Open the APIs Menu – Navigate to the administrator’s app switcher, and click on the Infor ION API icon.
2.) Add new API – Click the Add button. You can then select from templates or create an API from scratch.
3.)Create an API – Fill out required fields for the application, version number, description, etc. Then, choose an icon or upload your own.
4.)Add target endpoints – You need to add at least one endpoint, so the API gateway understands the destination API URL. Often, the vendor will provide this information. For example, Neutrino uses an API key method, and Amazon and Google use OAuth 1.0 method.
5.)Save definition – Once you fill out the fields for the target endpoints, you can save the definition, and the status will show as live.
6.)Provide documentation – You can add documents in a JSON format. With this installed, you can open the API specification in ION API to view all of the services available and navigate to find the information about any particular API.
The Rise of Hybrid Cloud Containers Services
As public cloud environments have grown in prominence, software developers have sought to bring parity between cloud systems and on-premises infrastructure. In recent years, container services have begun changing the dynamics of the hybrid cloud.
Kubernetes is the dominant platform for managing containerized services and workloads. Its portable infrastructure is a good fit for running operations across multiple physical machines on private and public cloud deployments.
As Kubernetes has grown in popularity, large-scale cloud vendors, like IBM, Google, Microsoft, and Oracle, have started offering managed Kubernetes services.
The Certified Kubernetes Conformance Program sets the standard for every version of Kubernetes, whether from an open-source community or an established organization or vendor. This program makes it easy for companies to switch between vendors seamlessly.
Due to the guaranteed compatibility across multiple cloud environments, a combination of containers and Kubernetes has quickly become the foundation of modern cloud infrastructure. As a result, this form of hybrid cloud is the de facto gold now favored by many startups and large enterprises alike.
Wrap Up: How Doppio Can Help You Do More With Hybrid Cloud
When you have a successful hybrid cloud strategy in tandem with Kubernetes, your company can leverage workload portability across several cloud environments. This approach offers a greater degree of flexibility, making it easier to consolidate resources, automate tasks, and scale systems.
At Doppio, our expert support services specialized in setting up and managing innovative hybrid cloud infrastructure for Infor M3 customers. We offer comprehensive training on the ION API system, so you can connect deployments, run API health checks, and perform grid monitoring for your distributed runtime environment.
Furthermore, with our help, you can develop a containerized application on macOS and deploy it on a virtual machine on vendors like Amazon EC2, Google Compute Engine, or Azure with absolutely no changes to the code and configuration.
Get in touch with Doppio Group by filling out the contact form to discuss your hybrid cloud vision, and let us bring it into reality.
