Key Take-Aways

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Introduction

"Hybrid Cloud" is a deployment architecture where you combine two or more different cloud-based deployment models (public, private, community, et. al.). Given the sensitivity around enterprise documents, enterprise content management (ECM) is an area ripe for hybrid cloud solutions.

So as you would expect, ECM vendors are increasingly claiming support for hybrid cloud solutions. That sounds very alluring, but as a customer, you should remember that "hybrid cloud" can mean many different things. This paper analyzes various approaches and offers advice on how to find the right fit.

Three Alternative Models

"Cloud" infrastructures can have many variations (SaaS, IaaS, PaaS, Managed Hosting) and within each of these models,  a cloud deployment can be a private, public, community or hybrid. Hybrid is perhaps the least straightforward, because of the wide number of different approaches.

Within the ECM technology space, you'll find at least three major variations on hybrid architectures.

1. Different components of the solution on different "clouds"

This is a common option in which you can install different components of the solution on different types of cloud infrastructure. You could for example, install the software on Amazon, then use your in-house storage along with an internal directory. One reason for this type of deployment is that not all components offered by the vendor are equally supported on all deployment models.

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2. Single application instance with multiple storage options

This is more popular with cloud-based file sharing and sync vendors such as Accellion, Citrix, and Oxygen. You run only one instance of the file management software but use multiple storage options. Using this mechanism, you can keep a highly confidential set of files within your private cloud (or simply your own on-premise storage array), while allowing more generic documents to reside in the public cloud.

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3. Multiple application instances as well as multiple storage options

Some vendors allow you to install their tool on a private cloud as well as a public cloud. In this case, you will probably have different instances of the software as well as storage. Of course, you might still be able to use same physical servers depending on your architecture but they're still logically different. Alfresco (Alfresco Cloud) and Microsoft (Office 365) go a step further and allow you to synchronize your content between the public and private deployments. Remember that the external and internal deployments are completely different on their own.

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Conclusion

Chose #1 if...  #2 is ideal when...  #3 makes most sense where...

You may not have much choice here, because your preferred or incumbent vendor works a certain way.  In the event, make sure you investigate the details of what they mean by "hybrid," so you can plan and set expectations accordingly.