Hybrid IT refers to an infrastructure that combines on-premises IT resources with third-party public cloud services. As organizations adopt hybrid setups to harness the benefits of both worlds, the role of IT support becomes critical yet challenging. This essay examines key aspects of managing IT support to ensure seamless operations in a hybrid IT environment.
Understanding Hybrid IT
Hybrid IT integrates private cloud or on-premises IT infrastructure with public cloud services. This provides flexibility to deploy applications either on-premises or on the public cloud depending on factors like costs, business requirements, and criticality of apps. Common public cloud services used in hybrid setups include IaaS, PaaS, SaaS, etc. from providers like AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud.
The Role of IT Support in a Hybrid Environment
In a hybrid setup, IT teams have to support technology across environments, including legacy systems, private cloud, multiple public clouds, etc. This requires staff with skills to handle various platforms and ability to coordinate across teams managing different systems. IT support’s role expands to capacity planning, access management, uptime monitoring, vendor management, etc.
Ensuring Seamless Operations
To prevent fragmented systems and ensure seamless functioning of hybrid environment, IT support needs to focus on:
– Single pane of glass for visibility into entire infrastructure
– Unified monitoring and management
– Automating IT maintenance and support tasks
– Standardization of processes across private and public cloud
– Identity and access governance across environments
– Business continuity and disaster recovery planning
Security and Compliance in a Hybrid Setup
Hybrid environments expand the attack surface with public cloud risks like misconfiguration, compromised credentials, insider threats, etc. IT support teams must implement tools like CASB, cloud security gateways, backup systems, etc. alongside security best practices for public cloud. Compliance adherence also becomes more complex with hybrid infrastructure.
Vendor Management and Collaboration
Hybrid IT warrants close coordination between in-house IT teams and public cloud providers. IT support needs to interface with cloud vendors for service provisioning, customizations, integrations, security controls, compliance audits, and other processes vital for smooth hybrid operations.
User Training and Communication
The technology landscape changes drastically for end-users with hybrid setups incorporating new public cloud apps and functionalities. IT support teams must conduct extensive training and provide resources to help users adopt new technologies for activities like provisioning infrastructure, self-service features, accessing apps spanning different environments and more.
Data Management and Backup Strategies
With business data distributed across private and public cloud infrastructure in a hybrid model, holistic data management and backup become critical for availability, security, compliance and e-discovery needs. IT support teams need to deploy data protection, archival and high availability tools that can handle diverse environments.
Future Trends in Hybrid IT Management
Emerging technologies like containerization, microservices architectures, IoT platforms, serverless computing, etc. will further the adoption of hybrid infrastructure. As hybrid setups get more complex, AI-driven operations, automated infrastructure provisioning, and predictive analytics will become imperative for IT support teams.
Conclusion
Hybrid IT is fast becoming the de-facto IT model for modern enterprises. Successfully managing IT support in these heterogeneous environments requires integrated tools, processes and skills alongside close coordination between internal teams and external vendors. IT leaders must strategize hybrid IT adoption with focus on security, compliance and seamless functioning.
