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Enterprise customers are weighing the best options for taking advantage of cloud computing models. (Photo: Rich Miller)

A new special report seriesexplores hybrid IT and the colocation industry, and this entry highlights the impacts andevolving relationship between the cloud and the data center.

During the 2019 Data Center World conference, there was a particular question and concern around the impacts of cloud on the enterprise data center. Although the cloud will continue to play a critical role in how we deliver core applications and services, it will not replace data center solutions. This is evident by the types of investments that major cloud providers are making so that their solutions run within your on-premises data center. This is the cloud telling all of us that data locality, application performance, and working with local resources is still significant.

In the most recent AFCOM State of the Data Center report, we saw a significant trend in how organizations are leveraging cloud solutions. Trends are showing that cloud now has a broader meaning that goes beyond just public cloud solutions.

Three in four respondents (72%) report noticing a trend for organizations to move away from public cloud and looking to colocation or private data centers. As mentioned earlier, the definition of private and hybrid cloud is becoming increasingly blurred as major cloud providers (AWS Outposts, for example) are offering their native solutions directly on-premises at a data center site. Currently, 52% of respondents have implanted some type of private cloud solution, and 48% are leveraging some sort of public cloud solution.

The cloud trends with the most impact on respondent organizations include IoT (Internet of Things) growth resulting in more big data (47%), data center operations management (DCOM) tools (42%), and integration with AI, data-driven services, and machine learning (39%).

All of this translates to a better understanding of cloud, and where Hybrid IT makes sense.

With a greater understanding of cloud computing, there will also be better integration around Hybrid IT. Its important to examine where cloud and Hybrid IT join forces to make a difference:

In a Hybrid IT scenario, you can leverage cloud-like delivery models to accomplish data security.

In a Hybrid IT environment, enterprises can continue to get value out of their existing infrastructure (sometimes legacy) until a technology or business event makes it worthwhile or necessary to replace it with a cloud-based alternative. This can include significant hardware or software upgrades, the need to decommission or consolidate a part of a data center, a fundamental change in business processes, or even a merger and acquisition.

If youre working with a capable data center partner and you have a good Hybrid IT strategy in place, allowing some of those systems to continue to operate while still being economically feasible can make all the sense in the world. Hybrid IT can act as your gateway into new and emerging technologies by allowing you to adopt those systems at your own pace. And there are significant benefits to making this happen. This includes:

To get started, many organizations are turning to providers of retail colocation data centers, hosted colocation data centers, and cloud-based facilities.

To create a Hybrid IT approach, you have to take a step back and understand how it applies to your business. And youll need to understand:

To get started, many organizations are turning to providers of retail colocation data centers, hosted colocation data centers, and cloud-based facilities. Most of all, theyre turning to partners that are both cloud and edge-ready. To that extent, heres what you need to know to develop a Hybrid IT mindset.

Catch up on the first entry in the special report series, and over the next few weeks, we will also explore the following topics:

Download the full report,Hybrid IT Supporting Critical Initiatives During a Journey to Digital Modernization, to explore further how hybrid computing is fueling the data center industry.

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Making the Cloud and Data Center Work Together Effectively - Data Center Frontier