Jerome Evans, Founder and Managing Director of firstcolo GmbH, comments on the widespread AWS cloud outage. This led to disruptions in numerous customer networks worldwide for about seven hours.
The AWS outage at Amazon, one of the largest and most significant cloud providers worldwide, sheds light on the dependency many companies have on public cloud providers. Not only major customers were affected, but Amazon itself. While large cloud providers offer high availability and a wide range of services, these very advantages are a strong incentive for many customers.
However, these offerings can also turn into a cost trap. A broader portfolio of use in public cloud environments often comes with additional costs. These are often not clearly foreseeable in advance, significantly increasing the financial risk for companies.
The high-availability promise of the public cloud can only be fully realized when individual services and networks are set up in a decentralized manner. Otherwise, even a small system error can trigger a far-reaching chain reaction. This was precisely what was observed in the current case, with numerous web services affected simultaneously.
To avoid such scenarios, comprehensive and diverse redundancy concepts are required. For this reason, companies should consider implementing a hybrid cloud infrastructure. This model combines the advantages of both worlds. On the one hand, it offers the scalability of the public cloud. On the other hand, companies benefit from the higher security levels and clearly calculable costs of a private cloud.
If either the public cloud or the private cloud being used fails, affected services can be quickly launched in the other environment. This ensures continued operation, significantly reducing the unavailability of one’s own IT infrastructure.
Therefore, if a company asks whether an investment in a hybrid cloud is economically worthwhile, the answer is a clear yes for many medium-sized businesses. Larger companies and corporations, in particular, have already recognized this added value and are increasingly relying on hybrid cloud solutions. With a clearly defined cloud concept and professional advice, operational costs can be reduced, while also creating room for the introduction of further cloud applications.
