Download Forrester – Its a Hybrid Cloud World

If your company is using cloud computing services today, it’s highly likely you are already in a hybrid cloud configuration. The key question is whether you are actively managing this reality.

Whether your company uses software-as-a- service (SaaS) or deploys applications to a cloud platform, there is a high likelihood those services are connecting back to at least one resource in your data center. For example, enterprises using SaaS-based sales force automation software usually connect this application to their on-premises enterprise resource planning (ERP), finance, or eCommerce systems. That integration makes your environment a hybrid cloud, potentially exposing your company to vulnerabilities, increased costs, and operational challenges. Enterprises need to acknowledge this reality and start managing their hybrid state now, rather than viewing hybrid as some mythical future state when public cloud meets private cloud. Too late — you’re already hybrid.

In January 2014, HP commissioned Forrester Consulting to evaluate the state of enterprise hybrid cloud environments and how they are being managed. Forrester developed a hypothesis that tested the assertion that enterprise IT operations teams struggle to recognize and manage this hybrid state — a hypothesis that was proven out.