If you’re new to cloud technology and terminology associated with it, it can be at times confusing. Most people these days who work within a technology sector have heard of cloud computing or cloud hosting, and all the benefits for businesses looking to help save money and resources by moving to the cloud. Cloud service providers generally offer one or more of the following three different types of service layers.

1) Software as a service – this includes services like Microsoft Hosted Exchange Email and SharePoint File sharing. The end user does not need to purchase or maintain the hardware, connectivity, operating systems or service software.

2) Platform as a service – this a cloud hosted computer operating system that enables the end user to develop their own applications/services without having to purchase and maintain the undying hardware, operating system and connectivity.

3) Infrastructure as a service – this allows clients to create multiple servers and network without having to purchase or maintain hardware and connectivity

Depending on the cloud service provider the above service layers can be setup in three different deployment models. These are Public, Private and Community.

1) Public cloud deployment is the normal dynamically provisioned services to end users. Charged on a fine- grained self-service basis via web applications/services.

2) Private cloud is the deployment of infrastructure services for a specific organization. These services are not shared and hence do not realise any cost benefit of scale or shared resource management.

3) Community cloud is the deployment of services to a group of organizations that have the same specific community concerns (Security, compliance, jurisdiction, etc).

One new term that a lot of people have not heard before is the term ‘hybrid cloud’. You probably thinking what on earth is a hybrid cloud? Or what’s the difference between hybrid cloud and the other three?

The simplest definition we would give you here at Bison Grid as to describe a hybrid cloud as a combination of a private cloud, public and community cloud deployments, utilising different service layers in each. If you are still feeling a little in the dark after that short but sweet description, hopefully you will understand by the end of this post.

Essentially and explaining it in the simplest terms, a hybrid cloud is similar to a business that may have severs that are located at the business premises for bespoke mission critical applications, whilst also using the public cloud software as a service to reduce costs for the provisioning of common applications like email. Bison grid will manage both parts of the hybrid cloud and use its own private cloud systems to help manage migration, connectivity and data sovereignty. This will ensure you meet you specific data policy requirements whilst giving you reliable accessibility to your data from anywhere in the world but with the cost benefits and flexibility of cloud computing.

To help you understand here is an example:-

The image which is from Clouding World explains in really simply terms what a Hybrid Cloud looks like;

A Bison Grid client runs a bespoke application that needs to reside in their office but shares data with the Microsoft Public Cloud SharePoint Services and the clients website that is hosted at the Bison Grid data centre. The client wants to use the Microsoft public cloud to help reduce costs and increase flexibility but, would like to have seamless access to all services and data through their website.

Using Bison Grid and its hosted systems the client can connect between clouds, whilst keeping their local systems. As the business grows as workloads increase and more space is required on the hybrid cloud, the public side of the hybrid cloud can be increased without having to splash out on new servers, extending the business premises, or new investment in equipment.

In some cases, the hybrid cloud can be fully customised by Bison Grid to fully meet the customers’ requirements.