Cloud Bursting: Explained

cloud bursting: explained

The world of IT and the needs/requirements that come along with it are constantly changing. One day, your infrastructure works great, and the next it’s crashing with an overflow of data. Seasons, days of the week, or even hours of the day can change the demand of your servers. To ease the stress of this issue, Cloud Bursting was created with the help of public and private clouds. But what is Cloud Bursting?

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What is Cloud Bursting?

Cloud Bursting is an application hosting model that utilizes both the public and private cloud, creating a custom hybrid cloud model. It’s a cloud computing configuration that has been around for years but recently gained more traction due to the pandemic. Cloud Bursting is utilized when an organization's servers are on a private cloud or in a data center and they reach or are about to reach, capacity during a peak time of service. Instead of crashing or having to purchase more premium private cloud storage for just a short amount of time, they employ a public cloud to handle the overflow of traffic. This delivers uninterrupted service that is also fast and reliable for not only users but employees too. It is a reliable resource that is always there and only paid for when needed. The name “Cloud Bursting” is very fitting since when in use, the surplus traffic “bursts” into the public cloud until things have slowed down enough to return back to its original private cloud.

 

How does Cloud Bursting work?

 

How Does Cloud Bursting Work?

The first step to implementing cloud bursting begins with measurements of the existing infrastructure to even know when hitting capacity is close. This can be done through DevOps Monitoring tools and techniques that specify the capacity thresholds of their infrastructure. Then, in order for the private cloud to access the additional computing resources, it needs to be triggered to burst into the public cloud, which can happen in different ways. It can be done manually, which isn’t the most efficient technique and is typically only used for testing purposes. It can also be automated, eliminating the need for manual intervention and deploying when needed, then resetting when the spike of service is over. The most popular approach though is distributed load balancing where storage, compute instances and monitoring all work together to deploy data center workloads to the pre-provisioned cloud.

 

Advantages & Difficulties of Cloud Bursting

Even though Cloud Bursting is essential to many businesses, no tactic is perfect. There are many advantages but also some difficulties that come along with it.

Advantages:

  • Budget Efficiency: Save money over time by only paying for what you need, when you need it.
  • Business Continuity: Minimize operational disruptions for not only your customers but employees too.
  • Flexible Scaling: Meet traffic demands with the flexibility of Cloud Bursting to increase capacity on a whim through scalable cloud computing.

Difficulties:

  • Networking: There can be issues with connections between public and private clouds when low latency and high bandwidth are required.
  • Compliance: Businesses need to watch out for regulatory compliance requirements and if cloud bursting is compatible with their existing applications.
  • Security: Adding in a public cloud component to your infrastructure could allow for increased exposure to attacks.

 

When is Cloud Bursting Needed?

Cloud Bursting is a great configuration for businesses that need it, but who can reap the benefits of it? When considering cloud bursting, an organization must first look into their regulatory compliance requirements and make sure that it is even compatible with their infrastructure and apps. Another factor to be considered is the sensitivity of the business's data. Cloud Bursting may not always be recommended for organizations that have sensitive information, as bursting it into the public cloud might put that data at more risk. Cloud Bursting is mostly recommended for businesses that experience frequent jumps in volume traffic on their private cloud servers where they would benefit from the extra space of a public cloud. Some examples of this would be food delivery services that have certain peak hours every day, or retail stores during a seasonal sale like Black Friday.

 

Partnering with DSM for Your Hybrid Cloud

Sometimes sticking with just a private cloud doesn’t address all your concerns. If you think your organization’s workload could benefit from a hybrid cloud model, utilizing both a public and private cloud, don’t hesitate to reach out today! Our experts can help analyze your existing infrastructure and work together with your IT team to come up with a hybrid cloud plan that works for you.

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