Hybrid cloud is the architecture that combines on-premises infrastructure (in the customer's datacentre) with public cloud (Azure, AWS, Google Cloud), operated as a coherent environment with data and workloads flowing between the two as needs dictate. For many Portuguese companies, pure cloud is not realistic (critical legacy systems, latency requirements, regulatory concerns), and pure on-premises loses flexibility; hybrid is the compromise that makes sense.
In typical implementations, on-premises infrastructure holds sensitive data or latency-critical systems (an industrial ERP linked to PLCs, for example), while public cloud absorbs elastic workloads (BI with seasonal peaks, e-commerce on Black Friday, temporary test environments). The orchestration — single identity, secure networking between zones, consistent security policies — is where the real complexity lives.
INFOS designs hybrid architectures combining its own datacentre (INFOSCloud) with Azure (a Microsoft partnership since 2006). The MULTI ERP can run on on-premises infrastructure, INFOSCloud or the customer's Azure; BI MyBusiness-ITV typically in the cloud; critical production-control systems frequently on-premises. The workload-by-workload choice is guided by RTO/RPO, latency and compliance.