Modern businesses, even if not completely internet-based, rely on high-quality storage and IT infrastructure to keep them running smoothly. We’ve moved on from the early days of single points of failure, relying on managing your own servers on-site, to a mix of internal servers, distributed servers and of course, cloud providers.
Cloud is becoming a bigger part of business operations and shows incredible growth. According to Grand View Research, the global cloud computing market size was estimated at USD 752.44 billion in 2024 and is projected to grow at a CAGR of 20.4% from 2025 to 2030.
Organizations are increasingly seeking flexible, scalable, and cost-effective IT infrastructure solutions, and the hybrid cloud model has emerged as a compelling answer to these needs, offering a balanced approach that combines the benefits of both private and public cloud environments.
Now, hybrid is a bit of a broad term since it encompasses a range of cloud configurations, the strategic reasons companies migrate to hybrid models, and highlights major SaaS companies successfully leveraging hybrid architectures.
Understanding Hybrid Cloud Architecture
A hybrid cloud is an integrated cloud computing environment that utilizes a mix of on-premises infrastructure, private cloud services, and third-party public cloud services. These components work together seamlessly, allowing data and applications to be shared between them.
The key to an effective hybrid cloud is the ability to distribute workloads across platforms based on computing needs,cost efficiency, and security requirements.
Different Hybrid Cloud Implementation Models
1. Public-Private Hybrid
The most common hybrid cloud configuration combines public cloud services (like AWS, Azure, or Google Cloud) with a private cloud infrastructure. Organizations maintain sensitive workloads and data in their private environment while leveraging the public cloud for less sensitive operations and to handle demand spikes.
Example Implementation: A financial services company might process and store customer financial data in their private cloud while running their customer-facing website and marketing analytics on public cloud infrastructure.
2. Multi-Public Hybrid
This model involves utilizing multiple public cloud providers alongside private infrastructure. It helps organizations avoid vendor lock-in, optimize costs by selecting the best-priced services from different providers, and create redundancy for critical applications.
Example Implementation: A global e-commerce company might use AWS for its primary operations in North America, Azure for European markets, and maintain its own data centers for its core transaction processing systems.
3. Edge-to-Cloud Hybrid
This increasingly popular configuration extends the hybrid model to include edge computing resources. Data processing occurs closer to where it's generated before being transmitted to centralized cloud environments.
Example Implementation: A manufacturing company might use edge devices to collect and process real-time equipment performance data on the factory floor, sending only relevant insights to their cloud environment for long-term storage and advanced analytics.
4. Distributed Cloud Hybrid
This newer model involves public cloud providers distributing cloud services to different physical locations while maintaining central management. These services can be integrated with private infrastructure to create a hybrid environment.
Example Implementation: A healthcare organization might use distributed cloud services to maintain compliance with regional data residency requirements while still benefiting from cloud scalability and management.
Why Companies Migrate to Hybrid Cloud Models?
Hybrid cloud models provide organizations with the flexibility to choose the optimal environment for each workload. This strategic advantage allows companies to innovate faster, experiment with new technologies, and adapt quickly to market changes without being constrained by traditional infrastructure limitations.
Cost Optimization
By moving appropriate workloads to public cloud environments, companies can convert capital expenses to operational expenses and pay only for the resources they use. Meanwhile, workloads with predictable resource requirements can remain on private infrastructure, often at a lower total cost than if they were hosted in a public cloud.
According to Flexera's 2023 State of the Cloud Report, organizations implementing hybrid strategies reported cost savings of 23% on average compared to pure public cloud implementations.
Security and Compliance
Hybrid architectures allow organizations to keep sensitive data and critical applications in secure, controlled environments while still benefiting from cloud technologies. This is particularly important for industries with strict regulatory requirements, such as healthcare, finance, and government.
For instance, HIPAA compliance in healthcare or PCI DSS in finance often necessitates certain data controls that are more easily implemented in private environments.
Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery
Hybrid clouds provide robust disaster recovery options by allowing organizations to maintain backups across different environments. A company can replicate critical data and applications between private and public clouds, ensuring business continuity even if one environment experiences an outage.
Gradual Cloud Migration
For established enterprises with significant on-premises investments, hybrid cloud serves as a practical transitional architecture. Organizations can migrate workloads incrementally, testing and validating cloud approaches without the risk and disruption of a complete infrastructure overhaul.
Major SAAS Companies Using Hybrid Cloud Models
Microsoft
While Microsoft is a major public cloud provider with Azure, the company maintains a hybrid approach for many of its own operations. Microsoft 365 and Dynamics 365 both leverage hybrid architectures to provide customers with flexible deployment options. Microsoft's Azure Stack and Azure Arc specifically enable hybrid scenarios, allowing consistent development and management across environments.
Adobe
Adobe Creative Cloud utilizes a hybrid cloud model to deliver its creative tools. While the software interface and many features are cloud-based, resource-intensive processing can occur locally on users' machines. Additionally, Adobe maintains private cloud resources for its development operations and certain enterprise-focused solutions.
VMware (now part of Broadcom)
VMware has been at the forefront of hybrid cloud enablement with solutions like VMware Cloud Foundation. The company itself operates a hybrid infrastructure, using its own virtualization technologies alongside public cloud resources to deliver its SaaS offerings, including Workspace ONE and VMware Horizon.
SAP
As a leading enterprise software provider, SAP employs a hybrid architecture for many of its solutions. SAP S/4HANA Cloud can be deployed in various hybrid configurations, and SAP itself maintains private data centers while leveraging public cloud resources for development, testing, and certain customer-facing services.
Salesforce
Although known primarily as a SAAS pioneer, Salesforce has embraced hybrid approaches, particularly for enterprise customers with specific security or compliance needs. Solutions like Salesforce Private Connect and Hyperforce enable customers to integrate Salesforce with their private infrastructure, while Salesforce itself maintains a mix of its own data centers and public cloud resources.
Going hybrid with your business
The hybrid cloud continues to evolve as a preferred infrastructure model for organizations seeking the best of both private and public cloud environments. By strategically distributing workloads across these platforms, companies can optimize performance, security, and costs while maintaining the agility needed in today's business landscape.
As cloud technologies continue to mature, we can expect hybrid implementations to become increasingly sophisticated, with seamless integration between environments and intelligent workload placement becoming the norm.
For organizations beginning their cloud journey or reassessing their current strategy, a well-designed hybrid approach offers a balanced path forward that can adapt to changing business requirements.
Whether you're a startup looking to scale efficiently or an established enterprise navigating digital transformation, understanding the hybrid cloud options available and learning from successful implementations can help inform your own cloud strategy for maximum business impact.