SMARTER STRATEGIES

Hybrid Clouds Roll into the Picture, Part 2: Making Sense, Saving Dollars

Samuel Greengard | Date: 12-29-10 | Comments

Hybrid clouds are enabling organizations to adapt to changing environments without committing dollars or valuable resources.

In the first part of this series, we described how companies are starting to merge public and private clouds into so-called hybrid clouds.

One thing that makes a hybrid cloud so valuable is the ability to use cloud-bursting techniques to adjust to rapidly changing business conditions. In a traditional environment, an enterprise must conduct capacity planning and predict demand well ahead of time. It must then lock down the necessary server space or processing power. In a bursting environment, the same organization can adapt on-the-fly without committing dollars and resources.

It�s a concept that makes sense�and saves dollars�for SpaBooker, a Web-based firm that handles online reservations and bookings for spas, hair salons, golf courses, and other companies. The firm operates a proprietary booking and billing application in an internal cloud, and uses a public cloud to burst when demand spikes, such as during Mother�s Day and other holidays. Because the company must adhere to PCI (Payment Card Industry) Level 1 compliance standards, it isn�t feasible to place the entire infrastructure in the cloud, says SpaBooker Managing Director Daniel Lizio-Katzen.

Hybrid clouds are saving companies such as SpaBooker.com money, while providing increased reliability.

SpaBooker relies on Rackspace�s Windows Cloud Computing environment to provide processor capacity on an as-needed basis. The company typically taps into eight virtual machines, but the number can vary depending on real-time demand.

�We can scale the Website up or down within about five minutes,� Lizio-Katzen says. �We can provision new cloud servers on-the-fly because we have fully configured images residing within our IT environment. It�s simply a matter of deploying them.�

The approach saves money while ratcheting up reliability. For an e-commerce firm like SpaBooker, which displays results for dozens or hundreds of businesses, this is essential.

�We need as close to 100 percent uptime as we can get,� Lizio-Katzen says. �The environment has also helped us in terms of our testing and quality assurance processes. We have been able to design a far more efficient IT environment.�

(The third part of this series will provide key tips for IT departments looking to instate hybrid clouds.)