Hybrid cloud frameworks are sets of guidelines, best practices, and architectural patterns for designing and managing hybrid cloud environments. These frameworks help organizations seamlessly integrate and manage a combination of on-premises infrastructure, private cloud resources, and public cloud services. Here are some notable hybrid cloud frameworks:
Azure Arc:
- Provider: Microsoft Azure
- Overview: Azure Arc extends Azure’s management and governance capabilities to on-premises, multi-cloud, and edge environments. It enables organizations to centrally manage and secure resources across different locations using Azure services and tools.
Anthos (formerly Google Cloud Services):
- Provider: Google Cloud
- Overview: Anthos is a hybrid and multi-cloud platform that allows organizations to build, deploy, and manage applications consistently across on-premises data centers, Google Cloud, and other clouds. It provides Kubernetes-based container orchestration and application management.
VMware Cloud Foundation:
- Provider: VMware (with partnerships with multiple cloud providers)
- Overview: VMware Cloud Foundation is a comprehensive software-defined data center (SDDC) platform that allows organizations to run their workloads consistently across on-premises, private cloud, and public cloud environments. It integrates VMware virtualization technologies with various cloud providers.
AWS Outposts:
- Provider: Amazon Web Services (AWS)
- Overview: AWS Outposts extends AWS services to customers’ on-premises data centers. It allows organizations to run AWS compute, storage, and other services locally while seamlessly connecting to the broader AWS cloud.
IBM Cloud Satellite:
- Provider: IBM Cloud
- Overview: IBM Cloud Satellite enables organizations to manage and deploy cloud services consistently across different environments, including on-premises data centers, edge locations, and multiple public clouds. It leverages IBM Cloud services and Red Hat OpenShift.
Open Hybrid Cloud:
- Provider: Red Hat (acquired by IBM)
- Overview: Red Hat’s Open Hybrid Cloud strategy involves using open-source technologies such as Kubernetes and OpenShift to create a unified environment for managing workloads across private and public clouds, as well as on-premises infrastructure.
Cisco Hybrid Cloud Platform for Google Cloud:
- Providers: Cisco and Google Cloud
- Overview: This framework allows organizations to build and manage hybrid cloud environments that combine on-premises infrastructure with Google Cloud services. It emphasizes security, networking, and workload mobility.
Nutanix Clusters:
- Provider: Nutanix
- Overview: Nutanix Clusters extends the Nutanix hyper-converged infrastructure platform to public cloud environments, allowing organizations to run their virtualized workloads seamlessly across on-premises and cloud resources.
These hybrid cloud frameworks are designed to simplify the complexity of managing diverse infrastructure components and cloud services while providing consistency, security, and flexibility. Organizations choose frameworks based on their existing technology stack, cloud provider preferences, and specific hybrid cloud requirements.
Key terms in plain language
Open a term for a concise explanation of language used on this page.
Cloud Computing
Computing resources—such as applications, servers, storage, or databases—delivered from remote infrastructure and scaled as requirements change.
Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)
Cloud-based servers, storage, and networking that customers configure and manage without owning the underlying data-center hardware.
Software as a Service (SaaS)
Software accessed as an online service instead of being installed and maintained entirely on the customer’s own computers or servers.
Disaster Recovery (DRaaS)
A plan and service for restoring applications, data, and operations after an outage or disruption. DRaaS provides recovery infrastructure through a managed cloud service.
Identity and Access Management (IAM)
The systems and policies that determine who a user is, what resources they may access, and how that access is authenticated and reviewed.
API
An application programming interface is a defined way for software systems to exchange data or request functions from one another.