Unlocking Agility: Why Hybrid Cloud is the New Normal

Last year, as part of our 2025 State of Cloud Report, we conducted a global survey of 1,420 IT professionals. The results quickly revealed that a hybrid cloud model is fast becoming the linchpin of successful cloud operations.

And it makes sense, as the hybrid model allows for optimal workload placement. When workloads run in the right cloud model, businesses can improve flexibility, scalability, cost efficiency and overall performance. Hybrid cloud enables organizations to strategically distribute workloads across private and public clouds, using private clouds to support security-sensitive or compliance-driven tasks, while public cloud handles less critical applications. It’s clear that for most organizations, workload optimization requires a mix of private and public clouds.

Below are some of the findings from our research that support this perspective:

1. Hybrid cloud is seen as a connector: Hybrid cloud allows for the integration of public, private and edge environments. It allows businesses to leverage the scalability and flexibility of public cloud while maintaining the security and control of private cloud.
2. Hybrid cloud brings increased efficiency: 82% of IT decision-makers using a hybrid strategy are satisfied with its efficiency — higher than any other cloud model.
3. Hybrid allows for expansion: 22% of respondents plan to expand hybrid cloud capabilities in the next 12-24 months, reflecting its growing importance.
4. Hybrid cloud bridges future and past: Hybrid cloud helps bridge legacy systems and modern cloud initiatives, with 92% of workloads already on some cloud platform and only 8% remaining on-premises.
5. Hybrid cloud is flexible and resilient: Hybrid cloud strategies are favored for their ability to provide flexibility, agility, and a unified approach to managing diverse workloads, making them indispensable in modern IT environments.
6. Hybrid offers the best of both worlds: Hybrid strategies allow organizations to benefit from private cloud advantages while accessing the flexibility and scalability of public hyperscalers.
7. The leaders use hybrid: Cloud Leaders, who have fully integrated cloud into their business strategy, are more likely to use hybrid cloud to optimize performance and minimize latency.

While these findings are interesting, what can you do with them? After all, while knowledge is power, action is key. Here’s a cheat sheet of sorts to help you effectively manage the complexity of hybrid cloud environments, optimize performance, enhance security and maximize the value of your cloud investments.

The hybrid cloud readiness primer

The following key steps will help you navigate complexity, optimize performance and maximize the value of your hybrid cloud investment.

1. Implement a unified management platform: Adopt a centralized platform that provides visibility and control across all cloud environments, enabling efficient resource management and security oversight.
2. Adopt cloud governance frameworks: Establish clear policies, roles and guidelines for cloud usage, data security and compliance to ensure accountability and streamline operations.
3. Leverage automation and orchestration: Implement automation for deployment, configuration management and resource provisioning to reduce manual errors and improve consistency across environments.
4. Optimize workload placement: Continuously analyze and optimize workload distribution across different cloud environments based on performance requirements, cost considerations and resource availability.
5. Enhance security measures: Implement multi-layered security strategies, including encryption, access controls and regular security audits to protect data integrity and privacy across all environments.
6. Invest in employee training: Provide comprehensive training and encourage certifications for staff to develop expertise in managing hybrid cloud architectures.
7. Perform dependency mapping: Identify and visualize relationships between applications, services and infrastructure components to better understand and manage system interdependencies.
8. Implement advanced monitoring and analytics: Utilize predictive analytics and machine learning algorithms to forecast potential issues, optimize resource allocation and automate complex monitoring tasks.
9. Adopt cloud-native technologies: Leverage containers, microservices and serverless computing to enable seamless scaling and improve flexibility across hybrid environments.
10. Maintain comprehensive documentation: Document all aspects of the hybrid cloud strategy, including configurations, processes and procedures, to ensure consistency and facilitate knowledge sharing.
11. Implement a FinOps discipline: By embracing the FinOps framework, organizations can enhance collaboration among finance, engineering and business teams to optimize cloud expenses. This strategic approach promotes efficient spending, helps ensure accountability and aligns investment with business objectives, effectively balancing cost control and innovation.

Embracing and mastering hybrid cloud opens the door to numerous possibilities, including workload-aware modernization (WAM). A workload-first cloud strategy can help your organization quickly improve resource efficiency, strengthen security and streamline operations — aligning your infrastructure with your goals and market demands. Download our WAM e-book to dive deeper into workload optimization, infrastructure impact and the core principles of an effective cloud strategy.