Hybrid cloud storage is a critical part of hybrid cloud management. It brings together the best of both worlds—the scalability and flexibility of public cloud storage with the increased security, customizability and control of storage deployed on premises. While hybrid storage provides significant benefits, it rises and falls of the availability of strong, reliable network connections between private and public cloud, and alignment of data access between on-premise and public cloud environments.
In this post, we’ll review hybrid cloud storage uses and architecture, and show how NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP can help synchronize storage between public and private clouds.
In this article you will learn:
Hybrid cloud storage refers to a combination of on-premise and cloud resources. When deployed successfully, hybrid storage is transparent to users, behaving just like a storage system with a single component.
You can implement hybrid storage using proprietary storage software or a cloud storage appliance. A cloud storage appliance is a stand-alone device or virtual machine that you can use to transfer and sync data on-premises and in the cloud. Examples of storage appliances include AWS Storage Gateway and Azure StorSimple.
You can use hybrid storage for a variety of purposes. The most common use cases include:
When implementing hybrid storage, there are several hybrid cloud architectures you can choose from. Architectures can combine on-premise and public clouds, public and private clouds, or a mixture of on-premise, public and private cloud services. Whichever setup you use, keep the following considerations in mind:
Most hybrid cloud storage combines on-premise storage and public cloud storage.
Examples of public cloud storage include Amazon S3 or Azure Files. These services are built on data servers connected to the public Internet. To use these services, you upload your data to the cloud server which then forwards it to multiple resources for redundancy. To access or manage this data, you typically connect to the server via a web-based interface.
Cloud storage services use large numbers of data servers to ensure scalability and availability. With multiple servers, your data remains accessible even when servers fail or require maintenance.
Examples of on-premise storage include disk arrays, traditional hard drive, object storage devices, or virtualized storage, such as SAN or NAS. These storage systems are hosted and maintained in your data centers.
On-premise storage systems provide you greater control over your data and are often less affected by network issues. However, these systems do not inherently provide data redundancy or scalability.
Network connections between storage services are vital to hybrid storage systems. If storage services aren’t connected, you are simply operating multiple distinct storage structures. This prevents data synchronization and often increases management effort.
To connect your services, you can use the following methods:
Using one or more of these methods, you can connect your storage services, applications, and users. Through connection management, you can ensure that data is accessed from the appropriate location, regardless of whether it’s on-premise or in the cloud.
Hybrid storage can provide a number of benefits, including:
NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP, the leading enterprise-grade storage management solution, delivers secure, proven storage management services on AWS, Azure and Google Cloud. Cloud Volumes ONTAP supports up to a capacity of 368TB, and supports various use cases such as file services, databases, DevOps or any other enterprise workload.
In particular, Cloud Volumes ONTAP provides Cloud Manager, a UI and APIs for management, automation and orchestration, supporting hybrid & multi-cloud architectures, while NetApp data replication and synchronization technology SnapMirror will seamlessly move and synch your data.