The term “hybrid IT” doesn’t mean having some on-premises-based IT activity and some public cloud-based IT activity. The point of hybrid is to use and optimise a mix of resources to deliver successful IT solutions.

It’s about finding a balance between available resources, which are ideally automated, granular, and flexible. It’s about making a multitude of resources work together with the option of introducing changes over time as the needs of the business shift.

This might be a completely new way of thinking about IT. But if you want the benefits of hybrid IT to come to fruition, it’s the mind-set you need to adopt.
The bigger picture of hybrid IT

For the successful adoption of hybrid IT, it helps to look at the bigger picture. After all, hybrid IT not only demands flexibility, it also affords flexibility.

As Mark Peters, Practice Director and Senior Analyst at The Enterprise Strategy Group, explains:

“Users should look for vendors/service providers that can match the broad flexibility that is the hallmark of the hybrid IT world. They should examine, but also look beyond, the product itself and through to the overall offering.

“’Hybrid IT’ does not come from simply creating a ‘smorgasbord’ of options and additions; it is about combining IT ‘ingredients’ to produce a variable range of IT ‘meals,’ suited to different seasons and appetites.”

The extensive reach of hybrid IT

“The logical rush to hybrid IT as a norm is helped by its breadth; the term can be used to embrace everything from convergence and software-defined systems through to rampant expectations and new applications,” adds Peters.

“For example, it can help to deliver IT-as-a-service; it may enable (where appropriate) more cloud applications to be used; it will invariably both drive and demand more data mobility, virtualised infrastructure, and modernised infrastructure; and if such things as these are done well, it is also likely to help minimise both cost and risk.”

Which is one of the main reasons why hybrid IT should be a serious consideration for any business. The demand for flexible and fast I/O in many places within a hybrid IT world will consequently translate to the need for an extensive range of placements and types of flash storage.

Keep your eyes peeled for a follow-up post, which explores why hybrid IT needs flash storage.