Hybrid Cloud Market to Reach US$220 Billion by 2028

Hybrid Cloud Market Prediction: The Hybrid Cloud market size is expected to reach US$220.86 billion by 2028 from US$98.87 billion in 2023, with a CAGR of 17.44%. Hybrid cloud solutions, which combine a number of approaches to meet multiple requirements, have emerged as an interesting way to enable agility, scalability, and security all under one roof with the advancement of technology and the need for diverse business needs.

In this article, we look at the future of hybrid cloud market, including forecasts, key trends and the challenges that will shape the future of this space. Advances in AI and data analytics, strategic partnerships and the broader push by Amazon Web Services Inc, Microsoft Corp, and Google Cloud for cloud business from start-ups are poised to reshape the hybrid cloud market.

Factors driving the Hybrid Cloud market growth

Hybrid cloud solutions mitigate the high upfront capital expenditure of on-premises infrastructure and the long-term operational expenditure of public cloud services. Businesses can store their most used and critical data on the premises and can reduce their costs for cloud storage and bandwidth requirements. Meanwhile, they can scale to the number of nodes required in the cloud for some of their less critical applications.

Modern businesses need the power to quickly scale IT resources in response to new, ever-changing demands. Hybrid cloud solutions deliver this flexibility through a scalable, on-demand infrastructure. Organizations with moderate or large fluctuations in workloads (e.g. seasonal peaks due to high customer demand, or the release of new products) often benefit from this agility.

The layered security approach taken by hybrid cloud solutions combines the security advantages of private and public clouds. For data stored in private clouds that could be subject to less stringent security policies and compliance measures, businesses are able to demand more robust security features provided by public cloud providers.

The adoption of interoperability standards is crucial for ensuring seamless integration between various IT systems. Because hybrid cloud solutions typically include broad support for technologies and platforms, so they can readily be integrated with existing on-prem systems and new cloud-based applications.

The demand for scalable and dependable IT infrastructure has soared with the growing dependence of businesses on digital platforms to bolster growth and engagement as well. Hybrid cloud options offer the performance and customization required for a variety of online services - serving everything from e-commerce platforms and mobile apps to social media channels.

One of the key factors in fulfilling digital transformation objectives is the capacity for heterogeneous IT environments to work together seamlessly. Hybrid cloud solutions supply for this need with sturdy interoperability features offering an unbroken potential for connecting and managing every kind of various resources. Using an integration strategy like this boosts the performance of a business by revising workflows, cleaning data, and allowing for real-time decision making.

Market restraints that may hinder the growth

Hybrid cloud and migration are very difficult, especially in security and compliance. Depending on the industry and region, these regulatory requirements change, and staying compliant throughout on-prem and public patrimony can be a formidable task. Compliance with strict data protection and privacy requirements is another critical concern for organizations as they deal with complex legal and regulatory environments around the world.

Hybrid clouds are costly, especially for small to medium-size businesses (SMBs). You will spend money on provisioning and configuring new hardware, obtaining software licenses and revising your existing IT architecture. Also, the total cost of ownership starts to rise with other continuous operational expenses like upgrades and maintenance, and cloud services.

Lack of expertise in hybrid cloud management skills is the biggest hindrance to its adoption. With the hybrid cloud comes a whole host of specialized skills from on-premises and cloud to network management, cyber security and data integration to do this well.

These security benefits have led many businesses to adopt a hybrid cloud strategy, but deployment only has just begun as companies are understandably concerned with moving sensitive data and workloads to the cloud. The proliferation of data breaches, cyberattacks and loss of control over data is worrying too. Security and attention to the concerns raised are most essential while guaranteeing strong security controls over both on-premises and cloud environments.

Another challenge here is managing a hybrid cloud environment which comprises of multiple platforms, models and services each one running with its specific tools and management protocols. This only grows as enterprises move more applications and workloads to hybrid multicloud environments.

Recent Developments in the Hybrid Cloud Market

IBM Hybrid Cloud Mesh at ONUG: IBM Hybrid Cloud Mesh at ONUG, a SaaS solution, is designed to streamline the management of hybrid multicloud infrastructures. This offering focuses on "Application-Centric Connectivity" to automate the process, management, and observability of application connectivity across public and private clouds.

IBM Hybrid Cloud Mesh aims to provide secure, dynamic access to workloads and services while maintaining granular visibility and control, particularly important as enterprise data processing increasingly occurs at the edge. The solution leverages NS1’s DNS traffic steering capabilities to optimize performance, cost, and availability for applications across heterogeneous environments, supporting IBM’s mission to enhance digital transformation and intelligent automation for enterprises.

Qdrant Hybrid Cloud: Following an incredibly successful pre-seed campaign and partnership with NEAR, Qdrant is further solidifying their place in the market by rolling out the Qdrant Hybrid Cloud - the first-ever managed vector database to come to market supporting cloud, on-premise, and edge installs. It provides an unparalleled level of deployment flexibility with its Kubernetes-native architecture while supporting data sovereignty and privacy better than any other solution out there.

Qdrant Hybrid Cloud provides AI solution vendors scalability and security together, making it easier to deploy and manage AI applications across various environments. The platform also integrates with leading cloud providers and AI development tools, maximising its appeal as a heavy-duty AI and vector search workload offering for contemporary enterprises.

Cisco’s Innovations: Cisco announced a wave of new innovations to help its customers - and the industry at large - to manage and control hybrid cloud workloads and applications more effectively. The innovations include Cisco Intersight Platform with support for direct-connect of on-prem Kubernetes clusters to public cloud clusters and closer integration with Amazon EC2 for unified inventory and automation.

Cisco HyperFlex Hyperconverged Infrastructure brings HyperFlex Express for speedy hybrid cloud deployment, and systems leveraging 3rd Gen AMD EPYC processors for performance improvements. The Cisco UCS X-Series, in turn, is given new capabilities for GPU nodes and high-performance networking to further its AI/ML workload, and for data intensive apps support. The intention of these innovations is to simplify hybrid multicloud operations and further enhance application delivery.

Hitachi Virtual Storage Platform One: Hitachi Virtual Storage Platform One, targeting a unified hybrid cloud data platform that addresses data management across on-premises and public cloud sources. Able to support block, file, and object storage, this platform is built around a single control plane, data fabric, and data plane to manage mission-critical workloads.

It is purportedly the only storage solution specifically designed to cope with the issues posed by generative AI and ballooning enterprise data - and its applications. The platform includes AI-based management and intelligent workload balancing and integrated data migration for greater reliability and scalability.

Notable Partnerships in the Hybrid Cloud Market

IBM and AWS collaboration: IBM's collaboration with AWS to expand its software portfolio in the AWS Marketplace to 92 countries signifies a significant partnership in the hybrid cloud market. This alliance enables businesses worldwide to access IBM's data technologies and AI solutions directly through the AWS platform, streamlining procurement processes and leveraging AWS committed spend for IBM software purchases.

Industry analysts highlight the synergies between IBM's AI and hybrid cloud offerings and AWS's cloud infrastructure, creating a robust solution for enterprises. The partnership also intensifies competition among SaaS vendors on AWS, as IBM's expanded presence offers alternatives for customers seeking hybrid cloud, automation, and observability solutions.

Lenovo and Intel Partnership: In 2023, Lenovo announced enhancements to its hybrid cloud platform in partnership with Intel, leveraging the latest Intel Xeon Scalable Processors across its ThinkSystem portfolio. The collaboration aims to deliver improved computing power and memory capabilities, particularly for AI workloads, through ThinkAgile hyper-converged solutions and ThinkSystem servers.

Lenovo's expanded platform integrates AI acceleration with Intel's AMX technology, supporting AI inferencing and training on models with up to 20 billion parameters. Additionally, Lenovo offers TruScale as-a-service offerings for AI and hybrid cloud solutions, providing customers with flexible and scalable options tailored to their needs. This partnership underscores the growing importance of collaborative efforts in the hybrid cloud market to address the increasing demands of AI and data-intensive workloads.

Red Hat and Accenture Alliance: The expanded partnership between Red Hat and Accenture in the hybrid cloud market aims to accelerate open hybrid cloud innovation for enterprises worldwide. Together, they are jointly investing in co-developing new solutions to facilitate organizations' navigation through multi- and hybrid cloud environments, enabling them to define strategies and accelerate innovation.

The collaboration focuses on areas such as open hybrid cloud application and mainframe modernization, automation, edge computing, and sovereign cloud solutions to address diverse enterprise needs. By leveraging Red Hat's OpenShift platform and Accenture's expertise, the partnership aims to deliver transformative outcomes for organizations across industries, enabling greater operational efficiency and innovation in the cloud continuum.

Conclusion

As the hybrid cloud market continues to evolve, it presents a landscape ripe with possibilities for organizations seeking to modernize their IT infrastructure and drive innovation. With the convergence of emerging technologies, strategic collaborations, and evolving customer demands, the hybrid cloud market is expected to witness robust growth in the foreseeable future.

By embracing the flexibility, scalability, and security offered by hybrid cloud solutions, businesses can position themselves for success in an increasingly digital world. As we look ahead, it is clear that the hybrid cloud will play a pivotal role in shaping the future of enterprise computing, offering a pathway to greater efficiency, agility, and competitiveness.

FAQs

1. Is AWS a hybrid cloud?

Yes, AWS is a hybrid cloud provider that offers a consistent AWS experience across cloud, on-premises, and edge environments. AWS provides a broad set of compute, networking, storage, security, identity, data integration, management, monitoring, and operations services to build hybrid architectures that meet specific requirements and use cases.

2. What is an example of a hybrid cloud?

An example of a hybrid cloud is when a company like BlackLine deploys its private cloud infrastructure at a Verizon colocation facility, allowing them to retain control over their intellectual property while leveraging the scalability and cost-effectiveness of the public cloud.

3. What is hybrid cloud strategy?

A hybrid cloud strategy is a way for organizations to determine which applications and data should reside on which parts of a hybrid cloud infrastructure, defining what goes on public cloud infrastructure and what goes on private cloud infrastructure.

4. What is hybrid cloud in banking?

A hybrid cloud in banking is a computing environment that combines a private cloud infrastructure with a public cloud service, allowing banks to leverage the scalability and cost-effectiveness of the public cloud while maintaining control over sensitive data and applications on a private cloud.

5. What is the benefit of hybrid cloud?

The key benefits of hybrid cloud are cost efficiency by leveraging the scalability and flexibility of cloud infrastructure while maintaining control over on-premises infrastructure, and enhanced scalability and agility by rapidly delivering IT resources at a low cost to adapt quickly to changing business needs.