Hybrid Cloud For Dummies

How Virtualization Complicates Managing a Hybrid Cloud

One of the most significant challenges of managing hybrid clouds is the need to coordinate the management of both virtual and physical environments. Virtualization is the process of separating resources and services from the underlying physical delivery environment. Many virtual systems can be created within one physical system. Although virtualization is not a prerequisite for cloud computing, this technology is in common practice at its foundation and is at the core of cloud service efficiency. While virtualization is the technology supporting many of the benefits of cloud computing, it also increases the complexity of managing cloud environments. In this section, we discuss two issues that add management complexity in hybrid cloud environments.

Lack of control over cloud resource management

SaaS, PaaS, BPaaS, and IaaS providers manage physical cloud resources and deliver cloud services to users through a virtual image. In hybrid environments, cloud users may need to manage the delivery of these virtual environments without the ability to control the performance and manageability of the resources. The following scenario illustrates the management complexities that may arise as a result.

Assume you have implemented a SaaS application to manage your customer sales interactions. You are able to provide these SaaS services to your sales force of 500 people without adding any additional servers to support the application. Your ...