An ever-expanding universe of cloud platforms, services, and applications have become fundamental to business and IT operations. Credit: Metamorworks / Shutterstock The cloud is no longer some distant, separate place. Yes, Amazon, Microsoft, and Google maintain unimaginably vast expanses of servers in cloud data centers around the world – as do thousands of SaaS providers. But those clouds and the services they deliver have become so entwined with customers’ on-prem operations, they’re now vital components of almost every enterprise IT estate. This intermingling takes many forms. For starters, Amazon, Microsoft, and Google now enable you to snap off a piece of their platforms in the form of racks of managed servers that live in your data center, preloaded with the same software that powers public clouds. Some of these on-prem cloud outposts can offer access to the gamut of services hosted by the cloud mothership. The enterprise data center is also veering toward the virtualized, containerized, ultra-scalable cloud model. For example, Dell, HPE, and Lenovo now offer on-prem clouds in the form of cloud infrastructure software running on pay-per-use hardware, overprovisioned to give you the headroom to increase capacity on the fly. Meanwhile, the big three cloud players are starting to tackle edge computing, offering mini-cloud solutions that quash cloud latency by delivering compute power and services physically close to far-flung transportation hubs, medical facilities, manufacturing plants, and so on. “Hybrid cloud” is the umbrella term for the endless combinations of on-prem and public clouds. In this Tech Spotlight, we dig into the complexities of hybrid cloud computing, with an emphasis on solving the challenges that arise from managing these intricate matrices of services and infrastructure. Along the way, we highlight “irresistible” cloud services that make the big public clouds so attractive in the first place. The cloud has become the modern model of computing – agile, scalable, rife with API-accessible services that can be strung together into powerful, purpose-built applications. It’s not in the sky anymore. It’s at the foundation. Related content how-to Using the apropos command on Linux By Sandra Henry-Stocker Apr 24, 2024 3 mins Linux news 2024 global network outage report and internet health check ThousandEyes tracks internet and cloud traffic and provides Network World with weekly updates on the performance of ISPs, cloud service providers, and UCaaS providers. By Ann Bednarz Apr 24, 2024 38 mins Internet Service Providers Network Management Software Cloud Computing news Accelsius offers liquid cooling without a data center retrofit NeuCool technology works with existing data center equipment and configuration. By Andy Patrizio Apr 24, 2024 3 mins Energy Efficiency Data Center news Nvidia supercomputers: new collegiate, research systems come online Georgia Tech's dedicated AI supercomputer is a cluster of 20 Nvidia HGX H100s; the DOE's Venado is the first large-scale system with Nvidia Grace CPU superchips deployed in the U.S. By Andy Patrizio Apr 24, 2024 3 mins Supercomputers Data Center PODCASTS VIDEOS RESOURCES EVENTS NEWSLETTERS Newsletter Promo Module Test Description for newsletter promo module. Please enter a valid email address Subscribe