Hybrid cloud is becoming increasingly attractive to CIOs. However, the big question that the hybrid model raises is which applications to keep on the private cloud and which to move to a public cloud. A move to hybrid cloud presents opportunities to optimize or augment applications, including those that will be kept on-premise, writes Wikibon Analyst Brian Gracely in “Aligning Application Portfolios with Hybrid Cloud Strategies”. Getting maximum value requires a strategy based on the optimal placement and treatment of each application.

Gracely suggests organizing the application portfolio into five categories:

1. Do Nothing: Some applications are best left alone.
2. Optimize: Cloud offers opportunities to increase performance of many applications, such as using virtualization to provide more resources to them.
3. Augment: Existing systems of record on premise can be augmented with cloud-native systems of engagement or systems of intelligence.
4. Migrate: Public cloud can offer opportunities to cut operations expenses by migrating some applications out of the data center. The catch is that it is often difficult and expensive to move the associated data.
5. Replace: Applications that demand large amounts of resource and do not provide the business with competitive advantage may be candidates for replacement with software-as-a-service offerings.

Gracely provides a list of kinds of applications and the possibilities and challenges of moving them from the data center to the public cloud.

“The focus of any hybrid cloud project or architecture should be on enhancing business value and reducing the risks of this transitional process,” he writes.

Image © Wikibon 2015