Hybrid Cloud Popularity Due to Flexibility, Ability to Commercialize Data Insights

With cloud security worries still very prominent, according to a recent survey from Consilio, it’s not a huge surprise to see new data from IBM (News - Alert) showing the growing popularity of hybrid cloud deployments. Aside from giving companies the option to maintain on-premises storage for more sensitive data, the hybrid cloud approach delivers a lot of functional benefits as well.

IBM’s new global study of hybrid cloud, entitled “Growing up Hybrid: Accelerating digital transformation,” is based on a survey of 500 hybrid cloud implementers from 13 countries and 23 industries. From this survey, IBM discovered that two-thirds of organizations implementing hybrid cloud report they’ve already gained a competitive advantage. These respondents also reported they’re nearly three times as likely to use their hybrid deployment to assemble data assets or monetize data.

With a hybrid cloud approach, businesses can choose when to use the cloud and when to stick with traditional IT infrastructure. The result is the best functionality, with greater speed, flexibility and resiliency, while being better equipped to handle security and regulatory requirements.

“We live in a world where companies must take advantage of all of their resources to succeed and deliver services and apps in an as a service model regardless of whether they reside in a public or private cloud or on their existing infrastructure,” said IBM’s Global Technology (News - Alert) Services general manager for Systems Services Laura Sanders. "Not surprisingly, clients are seeing great value from hybrid environments in driving business results and transformation. It's a positive balance of optimization with flexibility and agility.”

IBM’s study also revealed that “leaders,” defined in the study as companies more likely to use hybrid cloud for commercializing insights, are more likely to use hybrid cloud to jumpstart next generation initiatives. They are also five times more likely to use the hybrid cloud for cognitive computing. In addition, over a third of the leaders surveyed are already using hybrid cloud to enable Internet of Things (IoT) initiatives.