For many companies that have leveraged the cloud, it’s been either/or: public or private. Managed service providers can help their customers determine when it makes sense to use both in a multiple or hybrid cloud infrastructure.

In a recent report, Aberdeen Senior Research Analyst and Editorial Director of Information Technology, Jim Rapoza, said hybrid solutions, done right, take advantage of the benefits of public and private cloud technology while eliminating some of the drawbacks of each.

“In an effectively implemented hybrid cloud, much of the security capabilities of private cloud are retained, as the most critical and sensitive data stays on premise. But the hybrid cloud-enabled business is able to take advantage of the performance and scalability advantages of public cloud, as in the retail business that can take advantage of public cloud resources when there is a surge in sales or interest during the holidays,” said Rapoza in the report “How Leading Businesses Build an Agile Infrastructure with Hybrid Cloud.“

According to Abderdeen research, companies that have adopted the hybrid cloud are seeing more benefits than companies that have not adopted hybrid cloud in the following areas:

It’s important to note that Aberdeen’s Rapoza refers specifically to hybrid solutions that have been “effectively implemented.” Implementing and managing a multiple cloud environment is challenging, and Aberdeen’s research shows that companies are evaluating hybrid systems based on criteria that not only address their current infrastructure but also acknowledge the inevitable changes—and challenges— to cloud technology.

The No. 1 criteria for evaluating cloud solutions was integration with existing infrastructure, but also high on the list were scalability, support for standards and future feature set. The latter three criteria indicate that companies realize that cloud technology is still relatively new, and that ongoing implementation of a multiple-cloud infrastructure will require the ability to scale and the adoption of tools to manage that growth.

Dimensional Research recently did a study, sponsored by VMware, and found “mixed cloud” environments to be the “norm,” with 69 percent of respondents saying they are using the hybrid cloud approach.

But, notes Dimensional, “this places increased demands on the IT teams who must offer IT services faster and more reliably, at lower costs across multiple platforms. This, in turn, puts a premium on the ability to efficiently manage and operate multiple environments to meet business goals as well as growing compliance requirements.”

As companies’ multi-cloud implementations mature and grow, so, too, will their need for new management, governance and automation tools. MSPs can, and should, be on the front line when it comes to guiding customers in their implementation of multiple clouds and making sure they have the tools they need to be successful.

The VMware Cross-Cloud Architecture supports IT’s adoption of public or private clouds without creating cloud silos. This new architecture provides a control plane for common management, policies, networking, and security across private and public clouds. Organizations can discover what services exist across clouds, and can more easily build and operate cloud-native applications.

For more information on the Software-Defined Data Center please visit http://www.vmware.com/software-defined-datacenter/index.html.