Hybrid IT Infrastructure: Physical, Virtual Resources Coming Together
Replacement of physical data centers and legacy systems is one topic that has become a major point of discussion with the emergence of innovative computing solutions like cloud and virtualization.
With internet revolution and ever-increasing digital solutions, many firms started adopting smart solutions, which is eventually becoming a concern for traditional physical data centres and other hardware resources.
Wiping off this concern, here is one trending IT concept that is coming as a cohesive resultant of physical and virtual software models. And, the industry calls it ‘Hybrid IT Infrastructure‘.
A Snapshot
Hybrid IT infrastructure, as the name suggests, typically involves collaboration between both physical and virtual resources, which make it a cohesive physical-virtual model.
While promoting the need for innovative virtual solutions, Hybrid IT infrastructure also maintains a balanced stand for physical resources that have been serving many IT purposes.
Rather than replacement of legacy systems, Hybrid IT model proposes more consolidated and enhanced physical data centers.
Upon effective implementation, Hybrid IT model offers a high level of flexibility in development of new processes and deployment of profitable business solutions.
A properly managed Hybrid IT infrastructure model facilitates a customer-centric approach while also easing ways to run complex operations, huge database and critical applications like Big Data, among others.
With the increasing cloud adoption across firms, the IT industry estimates that more than 60 percent of firms are keen on adopting Hybrid IT infrastructure solutions in the future.
Overall, three factors make salient features of a Hybrid IT Operations model:
- Simplified application and server deployment
- Secured data and infrastructure security
- Effective resource management
Innovative Solutions, Traditional Services Along!
Inclusion of both physical and virtual platforms as a single model, whenever required, is one special advantage with the deployment of hybrid infrastructure.
According to the renowned research analyst firm Gartner, the rise of cloud services, expansion of industrialized services and a decline in traditional Data Center Outsourcing (DCO) are leading to the increased adoption of hybrid infrastructure services across IT firms.
With the changing trends of hosting, cloud and legacy services, Gartner predicts 90 percent of firms to go for deployment of hybrid IT infrastructure management solutions by 2020.
“As the demand for agility and flexibility grows, organizations will shift toward more industrialized, less-tailored options. Organizations that adopt hybrid infrastructure will optimize costs and increase efficiency,” says DD Mishra, Research Director, Gartner.
According to Gartner, the traditional DCO market is expected to shrink from a value of USD 55.1 billion to USD 45 billion by 2020.
Whereas, cloud services, hosting and colocation services, and Infrastructure Utility Services (IUS) are poised to witness an upward trend.
While the Cloud services market are expected to grow from USD 23.3 billion in 2016 to USD 68.4 billion by 2020, the hosting and colocation market is expected to grow from USD 53.9 billion in 2016 to USD 74.5 billion by 2020, followed by the IUS market that is expected to grow from USD 21.3 billion in 2016 to USD 37 billion by 2020.
The combined market for DCO/IUS, hosting and cloud Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) accounted for 49 percent of the USD 154 billion worth global data center services market in 2016.
Whereas, a tilt is expected towards cloud, IaaS and hosting by 2020, with DCO/IUS expected to contribute to 35 percent of the USD 228 billion worth global data center services market by 2020.
“This means that by 2020 traditional services will coexist with a minority share alongside the industrialized and digitalized services,” adds Mishra.
A 2016 Gartner survey of 303 DCO reference customers indicates 20 percent of hybrid infrastructure services deployment across firms, while another 20 percent are looking out for the adoption of similar solutions over the next 12 months.
Overall, hybrid IT infrastructure holds a promising future and is really the next big thing, an effective combination of traditional and innovative solutions.