A Framework for Controlling and Managing Hybrid Cloud Service Integration

In this paper, we first describe the challenges and pain points of adopting off-premise cloud-based computing services by enterprise users. To address these challenges, we have developed a hybrid cloud architectural framework for controlling and managing network of integrated computing services in on- and off-premise cloud environments. We identify three types of integration patterns that are commonly observed and describe support in the hybrid cloud framework for such patterns. The framework allows creation, modification, and management of integrated hybrid cloud services. Using this framework, we describe how solutions can be designed for policy-based access to cloud services from on-premise environments and for policy-based secure access to on premise data from off-premise cloud based services. The framework offers capabilities for (i) on-demand capacity expansion or cloud-bursting, (ii) service composition and management across multiple cloud domains, (iii) unification and customization of service offerings from multiple cloud service providers, (iv) seamless integration of common workload management services such monitoring, metering, and security, and (v) unified governance of IT operation across the hybrid cloud. We then describe a realization of this architecture that has served as the basis of IBM's hybrid cloud solution offerings and describe how the hybrid cloud framework described here mitigates some of cloud adoption risks and lowers or eliminates the inhibitors.