If you’re struggling to make the business case for moving to the cloud, consider this: moving to a hybrid cloud allows you to scale up computing, networking and storage capabilities without a significant upfront investment.

Moving to a hybrid cloud also enables you to you to keep some applications and data on-premise if you feel they’re too sensitive for public platforms or if you think your on-premise infrastructure is a more efficient, reliable and secure environment. You can have the best of both worlds by running a private cloud in tandem.

Ultimately, moving to a hybrid cloud lets you choose the best option for each workload so you can move data back and forth as your business requires.

Hybrid cloud is a balancing act

The advantage of public cloud platforms is that it can help you computing resources at the pace of business.

Moving to a hybrid cloud lets you spin up new resources quickly without spending a great deal of cash all at once because the public cloud provider has taken care of investing in the hardware and the staff necessary to manage it. This is especially beneficial for businesses with many locations that must all access the same data and applications, such as remote work endpoints.

Hybrid cloud also enables you to run legacy systems in parallel with “cloud first” IT initiatives and map out over the longer term how you might migrate older systems to the cloud. This allows you to be thoughtful about all the operational considerations that come with moving applications and data to the cloud, such as optimization, ongoing management, and security.

Moving to a hybrid cloud model reduces the amount of on-premise IT you must manage and maintain, but you still need people who understand the public cloud platforms you’ve chosen. Not all platforms are the same, even if the workload is the same. Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure may differ in how they handle something as simple as a data backup function. It’s important that you have in-house cloud skills while also consider partnering with a cloud services provider.

This is especially important when it comes to security because your IT team is still responsible for some elements of it, and it varies depending on the public cloud provider. Regardless of the platform, cloud security is a shared responsibility. You need to understand what aspects of security you’re responsible for configuring and what the public cloud provider is taking care of. Otherwise, you increase the potential for security incidents that result in data breaches, compliance failures, lost customers and lost revenue.

Improve how you do things

Moving to a hybrid cloud is also an opportunity to improve your business processes and how you do things day to day.

You won’t get the benefits of cloud applications, either in the public cloud or your own private cloud, if your migration plan doesn’t reflect your strategic business goals. When you move data and applications off legacy IT, you need to look at how you’re going optimize your business functions; otherwise, you’re just replicating existing inefficiencies over to new technologies.

You only gain the efficiencies and cost effectiveness of the hybrid cloud if you spend smarter. It’s not just about moving to the cloud, it’s about moving the right applications and data to the appropriate cloud. Your primary driver for moving to a hybrid cloud should be optimizing your business, and you still need to make a business case for it because it does require financial investment.

Even if you’re only now just looking at how to leverage the cloud for your business, an incremental approach in partnership with a cloud services provider can help you find the right mix public and private cloud and on-premises systems so you can get the benefits that come with moving to a hybrid cloud.