Hybrid Cloud Service Selection Strategies: A Qualitative Meta-Analysis

Hybrid cloud computing enjoys the benefits from the two worlds of private cloud and public cloud. The combination of the two unique clouds introduces new challenges that must necessarily be addressed before adoption. Much work has been done tackling these challenges from various perspectives that have contributed to a diffusion of the main issues confronting the hybrid cloud. A harmonization of the various research themes was the motivation for this study. The goal was to identify, make a high-level categorization and describe thematic areas that address the unique challenges arising from combining two or more distinctive cloud deployment models. This paper, through a qualitative systematic literature review contributes to the synthesis of themes arising from proposed interventions to hybrid cloud challenges. A total of 34 studies were synthesized resulting in three thematic areas of data security, cost optimization and performance enhancement. The study showed majority of research on hybrid cloud challenges belonged to one or more of these thematic areas that can aid enterprise leaders formulate strategies for hybrid cloud adoption.