What is a Hybrid Cloud Deployment Model?

A hybrid cloud combines a private cloud, where the cloud resources are dedicated to an individual organization, and a public cloud, where the services are offered by third-party vendors like AWS or Azure. In Flexera’s survey of 753 cloud decision-makers and users, fielded in winter 2025, 73% of respondents’ organizations used a hybrid cloud.

This means that instead of using just a public or private cloud, a hybrid cloud allows you to decide precisely where data and applications should be stored and processed.

A hybrid cloud combines the private cloud to secure critical information and the cost-effectiveness or flexibility of the public cloud to service specific requirements.

Advantages:

• Flexibility: Select the most appropriate platform for every workload.
• Scalability: Resources can be scaled up or down depending on the demands of the business.
• Cost-efficiency: To cut your costs, manage it well by strategically using public cloud resources.
• Security: Ensure data protection by having sensitive data stored in the private cloud.
• Compliance: Adhere to regulatory demands by storing certain types of information within an organization’s local environment.

Disadvantages:

• Complexity: The overall management of two environments is not an easy task, and that calls for close cooperation and coordination.
• Security concerns: An increase in environments and connections relates to an expanded scope for security management, where consistent settings across these components are important.
• Cost Management: When costs are not effectively controlled and monitored, chances of their increase can arise.

When implementing a hybrid cloud, organizations should consider:

• Data Integration: It is crucial to maintain data consistency and integration of the private and public clouds.
• Security: Ensure proper measures have been put in place to enhance the security of data in both clouds.
• Network Connectivity: Ensure that there are strong and safe links between the two clouds, such as a VPN or a private connection like Azure ExpressRoute, which does not go over the public internet (Microsoft Learn).
• Skills and Expertise: Make sure your IT team has the necessary skills to accommodate the features of a hybrid environment.

Yes, SaaS can be deployed in a private cloud, which is referred to as Private Cloud SaaS. This offers several benefits, including:

• Enhanced Security: Possessing control over data and security measures.
• Customization: Ensures the SaaS solution addresses the unique requirements of an organization.
• Performance: Dedicated resources, by not being shared with other tenants, contribute to performance predictability.

Hybrid is a widely used option among cloud deployment models: 73% of respondents’ organizations used one in software vendor Flexera’s survey of 753 cloud decision-makers and users (Winter 2025).

• Healthcare: Patient information should be stored on a private cloud for privacy and regulatory issues, while the public cloud can be used for data analysis and other research purposes.
• Retail: Deploy e-commerce websites on a public cloud to accommodate high traffic during promotional campaigns and store customers’ data on a private cloud.
• Finance: For production environments, a private cloud can be used to host core banking applications for security and redundancy purposes, while a public cloud can be used for non-production use.
• Government: Store sensitive information on a private cloud while using a public cloud to host public-related services.