Hybrid cloud

Hybrid cloud is an operating model that connects privately controlled infrastructure with one or more public cloud services so applications, data or management span both environments. It does not necessarily mean workloads move freely between them; portability depends on architecture, platforms and data design. Organisations may use it for latency, regulation, existing investment, resilience or phased migration, but each additional boundary adds identity, networking, monitoring and support complexity. Design should define workload placement, connectivity, ownership, data flows, consistency, security controls, cost and failure behaviour. Common tooling can improve visibility but does not erase provider differences. A useful hybrid model has a stated reason for each workload and tested recovery paths, rather than maintaining two environments merely because both already exist.