Hybrid cloud is increasingly gaining interests of many organizations thereby increasing the numbers of adopters of hybrid cloud. However, it is giving rise to new terms like hybrid IT and hybrid enterprise. It is assumed that Hybrid IT is going to be the next evolution of the cloud.

1) Information on hybrid IT

Hybrid IT enables an organization to deploy both on premise and cloud services to comprehend organization’s overall IT resources and possessions. Hybrid cloud is evolving and changing the role of IT. It is a combination of internal and external services. With the actual deployment of cloud services, IT atmosphere is not specifically categorized into private, public or hybrid cloud. It is actually about management of IT infrastructure which offers swiftness and scalability along with that a great platform to provide applications. Hybrid IT is providing businesses the flexibility and scalability to transfer IT workloads and operate effectively and efficiently.

2) Hybrid IT effect

Hybrid IT architecture enables organizations to host their IT services some internally and some externally. Hybrid IT creates a balance between internal and external IT services. However in hybrid IT, the IT professionals should have a clear understanding about networks, its applications, datacenters etc. Management of IT infrastructures and integration of cloud services are indispensible to deliver quality of service that meets the set standards of business performance for any service provided by cloud provider. With Hybrid IT organizations can customize the infrastructures and solutions to achieve specific data, regulations, security, volume needs and scalability. Hybrid IT approaches would help businesses to scale and geographically expand to keep a pace with the changing market trends.

3) Identity crisis in IT

IT professionals are now working in Hybrid IT environments. IT professionals are constantly meeting with the changing market trends. Hybrid IT is one such market trend to which many organizations are shifting. IT professionals are not burdened with the accountability of maintaining the fundamental infrastructure thereby providing more flexibility. However, even this has an exception. Many IT professionals are facing difficulties because of many reasons like no direct control over data security issues in the cloud, rising complexities in management and monitoring etc. Without a trusted identity in hybrid cloud, hybrid cloud will not exist as it becomes patchy for users. Hybrid IT will not be able to reap benefits without IT professionals having mastered the technical skills of Hybrid IT.

4) Skills necessary for the success of hybrid IT

To manage and operate in a Hybrid IT environment, let’s find out the top most must have skills which IT professionals should possess. Skills include the earlier skills which were applied in the traditional environment plus the new set of skills required to manage in a Hybrid IT environment.

5) Automation

With evolution of Hybrid IT environment, automation is a must. Automation enables flexibility, swiftness, scalability etc. which is inevitable for organizations today. Automation is done with scripts. As more and more organizations are switching to Hybrid IT, they will be in need of more scripts for automation. Cloud accommodation providers are already making changes to move towards abstracting the barrier to consume accommodations by providing facile-to-use, pre-defined accommodations. Automation in the hybrid IT environment will abstract the layer of operations and integration with machine learning algorithms will take place which will scale, move, and remediate services in an automatic way.

6) Tools for monitoring and management of hybrid IT

With the acceptance of cloud and its understanding, monitoring the cloud and its operations is equally crucial. The range of different tools and processes across various platforms is not easy to manage. With hybrid IT environments, it is important to have an entire view of the on premise data center and the cloud. IT professionals can have an implement which enables them to combine, aggregate and have key performance metrics. On the other hand, they can control a monitoring vendor which provides solutions for their IT needs from their premises to cloud. Many companies irrespective of its size struggle in effective and successful implementation of Hybrid IT environment. Companies which are resistant to change will find the process of monitoring and management of Hybrid IT difficult. No matter if you have private cloud or Hybrid IT environment or public cloud, monitoring aspect will always be crucial. Discovery, alerting, remediation and troubleshooting are the main skills which IT professionals should possess with regards to monitoring. It helps IT professional’s conversion to Hybrid IT environment.

7) Vendor management

In Vendor Management, IT professionals will manage the technology aspects of the cloud environment, business aspects of cloud environment as well as the different pricing systems that change over time. IT professionals are not a part of the business dealings which cover the services and pricing terms. But with contracts and dealing becoming more nuanced, IT professionals need more and new skills. They need to understand the business contracts, its pricing, its benefits, using the cloud services efficiently, managing budgets, product management etc. Vendor Management is equally important for IT professionals as they are not restricted to just consuming vendor services. Now they are also liable for the management of vendor services.

8) Application migration

Application Migration to cloud is a tedious task. It may take many days and weeks to migrate an application to cloud. However, cloud service providers are successful in providing services for effective migration of applications to cloud. IT professionals have tools and technologies to migrate the applications in fraction of seconds. However, application migration is just the first step. The post migrations steps are also important and shouldn’t be ignored. IT professionals should apply the same skills they used to apply in traditional environment. Monitoring should be very well implemented as it is very crucial. Troubleshooting and remediation are also vital as it is not necessary that when things change it will always guarantee success. It can fail also. While application migration, chances are there for disasters to take place and cause loss of data. Therefore, Disaster Recovery and Back up plans should be well planned as it aids in smooth functioning of the business.

9) Distributed architectures

Working with distributed architectures was set out in high performance compute clusters with an aim of getting more work done. It requires working across multiple cloud service providers in multiple geographic locations. Always remember that these architectures abstract the fundamental resources, so IT professionals need to carry out their operations into quality of service standards for their users. IT professionals will take time to adopt to new skill sets to play a major role in Hybrid IT. They should get accustomed to cloud service providers in case of downtime or performance issues as the ultimate failover. However, the accountability of maintaining the architecture is beyond IT professional’s role but they should always take care of scale, flexibility, and most importantly the availability of services to build distributed architecture.

Business technology is evolving from traditional environment to Hybrid IT. IT professionals should be well equipped with new set of skills to operate in a Hybrid IT environment. The new skills will ensure business growth along with IT professional’s career durability.