In years gone by organisations had to decide whether applications and parts of their infrastructure had to be in the cloud or on-premises. But thanks to hybrid IT, businesses are no longer faced with this choice.

Not only does hybrid IT provide a mix of capabilities, it can also overcome certain challenges that come with modern technologies.

But what are the main obstacles SMBs have to overcome when considering hybrid for their IT infrastructure? And what are the biggest benefits they can enjoy by adopting a hybrid approach to IT?

IT Infrastructure Challenges

On account of the rapid rate of technological innovation and change, it’s perhaps no surprise that a lack of in-house expertise is the biggest challenge for 31% of SMBs according to the Aberdeen Group. Other challenges include:

  • Concerns around security – 29%
  • Under-utilisation of resources – 21%
  • Too many disparate/disconnected tools – 19%
  • Infrastructure is too complex – 18%
  • Demand exceeds resources – 18%

Key Benefits from Deploying Hybrid IT

With a hybrid approach to IT, businesses have the increased security and performance that comes with their on-premises systems. What’s more, they can also leverage the cloud’s ability to deploy applications quickly, keep infrastructure costs down and scale capacity as needed.

In fact, businesses with a deployed hybrid cloud are:

  • 50% more likely to have better application performance
  • 43% more likely to have succeeded in building an agile IT infrastructure
  • 38% more likely to have seen a reduction in overall IT expenditures
  • 35% more likely to have reduced the amount of downtime they experience

So, why limit applications and services to just on-premises or the cloud when businesses can leverage the best features of both with hybrid IT? You can even avoid the limits that come with just cloud or on-premises.

Aberdeen Group has revealed the gains that SMBs have achieved with a hybrid approach to IT include:

  • Improve IT flexibility – 78%
  • Reduced risk – 79%
  • Reduced the amount of downtime – 79%
  • Reduced overall cost of IT expenditures – 78%
  • Improve visibility and control over IT – 68%

In order to get the most out of a hybrid approach to IT businesses need to enable well-designed systems with high performance, reliability and the ability to scale.