Several deals solidify the hybrid cloud’s status as the cloud of choice

The hybrid cloud market is expected to grow from $38.27 billion in 2017 to $97.64 billion by 2023, at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 17.0% during the forecast period, according to Markets and Markets.

The research firm said the hybrid cloud is rapidly becoming a leading cloud solution, as it provides various benefits, such as cost, efficiency, agility, mobility, and elasticity. One of the many reasons is the need for interoperability standards between cloud services and existing systems.

Unless you are a startup company and can be born in the cloud, you have legacy data systems that need to be bridged, which is where the hybrid cloud comes in.

So, in very short order we’ve seen a bunch of new alliances involving the old and new guard, reiterating that the need for hybrid solutions remains strong.

HPE/Google

In April, the Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) and Google announced a deal where HPE introduced a variety of server solutions for Google Cloud’s Anthos, along with a consumption-based model for the validated HPE on-premises infrastructure that is integrated with Anthos.

Following up with that, the two just announced a strategic partnership to create a hybrid cloud for containers by combining HPE’s on-premises infrastructure, Cloud Data Services, and GreenLake consumption model with Anthos. This allows for:

• Bi-directional data mobility for data mobility and consistent data services between on-premises and cloud
• Application workload mobility to move containerized app workloads across on-premises and multi-cloud environments
• Multi-cloud flexibility, offering the choice of HPE Cloud Volumes and Anthos for what works best for the workload
• Unified hybrid management through Anthos, so customers can get a unified and consistent view of their applications and workloads regardless of where they reside
• Charged as a service via HPE GreenLake

IBM/Cisco

This is a furthering of an already existing partnership between IBM and Cisco designed to deliver a common and secure developer experience across on-premises and public cloud environments for building modern applications.

Cisco said it will support IBM Cloud Private, an on-premises container application development platform, on Cisco HyperFlex and HyperFlex Edge hyperconverged infrastructure. This includes support for IBM Cloud Pak for Applications. IBM Cloud Paks deliver enterprise-ready containerized software solutions and developer tools for building apps and then easily moving to any cloud—public or private.

This architecture delivers a common and secure Kubernetes experience across on-premises (including edge) and public cloud environments. IBM’s Multicloud Manager covers monitoring and management of clusters and container-based applications running from on-premises to the edge, while Cisco’s Virtual Application Centric Infrastructure (ACI) will allow customers to extend their network fabric from on-premises to the IBM Cloud.

IBM/Equinix

Equinix expanded its collaboration with IBM Cloud to bring private and scalable connectivity to global enterprises via Equinix Cloud Exchange Fabric (ECX Fabric). This provides private connectivity to IBM Cloud, including Direct Link Exchange, Direct Link Dedicated and Direct Link Dedicated Hosting, that is secure and scalable.

ECX Fabric is an on-demand, SDN-enabled interconnection service that allows any business to connect between its own distributed infrastructure and any other company’s distributed infrastructure, including cloud providers. Direct Link provides IBM customers with a connection between their network and IBM Cloud. So ECX Fabric provides IBM customers with a secured and scalable network connection to the IBM Cloud service.

At the same time, ECX Fabric provides secure connections to other cloud providers, and most customers prefer a multi-vendor approach to avoid vendor lock-in.

“Each of the partnerships focus on two things: 1) supporting a hybrid-cloud platform for their existing customers by reducing the friction to leveraging each solution and 2) leveraging the unique strength that each company brings. Each of the solutions are unique and would be unlikely to compete directly with other partnerships,” said Tim Crawford, president of Avoa, an IT consultancy.