Hybrid cloud takes the world by storm: VMware leads the pack

By now, the cloud is much more than simply a mainstream technology. For many businesses, the cloud represents the solution used to underpin just about everything IT, providing support for a host of mission-critical enterprise purposes.

According to a RightScale’s 2016 State of the Cloud Report, around 29 percent of today’s companies can be considered “cloud focused,” with heavy cloud usage and goals for optimization. Another combined 51 percent can be categorized as either “cloud explorers” or “cloud beginners,” having a foot in the water, so to speak, or running multiple projects in off-premises environments.

While private and public clouds have much to offer, hybrid configurations appear to be the clear winner recently, with higher adoption rates than ever before. And although there are numerous vendors vying for a leading position in this marketplace, a move made recently by VMware may prove to cement the company’s already leading status in the hybrid cloud space.

Hybrid cloud adoption in 2016

According to RightScale, hybrid cloud adoption grew significantly over the last 12 months, with both public and private setups playing contributing roles in this market expansion. Overall, about 82 percent of organizations have a hybrid cloud strategy in place currently. In addition, private cloud deployments increasing by 14 percent helped the hybrid cloud sector grow from 58 percent to 71 percent year-over-year.

Even those that don’t already have a hybrid cloud strategy in place are putting considerable thought into potential deployments. RightScale found that approximately 95 percent of businesses today currently run applications via infrastructure-as-a-service offerings, or are experimenting with the technology.

VMware seeks to boost hybrid cloud solutions

The RightScale report noted that VMware’s vSphere solution is the top-tier technology when it comes to private cloud, with 44 percent of corporations leveraging the system to support their environments. The tech giant also recently made moves to ensure its leadership in the hybrid cloud market as well.

Forbes reported in late February that VMware signed an agreement with IBM in an effort to streamline the migration process from enterprise data centers to cloud solutions.

“Customers can choose to migrate data to IBM’s cloud seamlessly using VMware’s vCenter management and automation tools without having to rewrite data,” Trefis Team reported for Forbes. “VMware can capitalize on its growing hybrid cloud segment after establishing itself as a dominant player in the private cloud market over the last few years.”

Enterprises now increasingly seek to migrate data from on-premises environments to the cloud.

This partnership comes just in time, it appears, as a growing number of businesses seek to migrate their data from corporate data centers to off-premises, hybrid solutions. Partnering with a leader like VMware to make that move can not only help streamline the process, but inspire trust in enterprise leaders and IT administrators who may be wary about the difficulties involved with migrating such large amounts of data.

The hybrid cloud also opens up numerous possibilities for today’s companies. VMware pointed to a number of well-suited use cases for hybrid deployments, including:

• Application development and testing.
• Extending existing applications including email, data analytics and business intelligence solutions.
• Disaster recovery support.
• Creating next-generation applications, as well as modernizing traditional three-tier architecture applications.

The hybrid cloud will only grow in terms of its role in enterprise infrastructure, and VMware is positioned to not only help spur that market expansion, but become a leader in the hybrid sector.