Keep On-Site and Online Systems Working Together With Public and Hybrid Cloud

Public cloud means your servers and data run on a provider's shared platform, such as Microsoft Azure or Amazon Web Services, and you pay for the capacity you use. Hybrid cloud combines public cloud with systems you keep on-site, and sometimes with a private cloud, connected so they work as one. Most small and mid-sized businesses are already hybrid in some way, often without a plan for how the two sides fit together.

Systems that need to be close to people or equipment: software that controls machinery or specialty devices, very large files that people open all day, phone and security systems tied to the building and older applications that can't run in the cloud yet. Most other workloads are candidates for the public cloud. The mix changes over time, so BCA reviews it as equipment ages and needs change.

Usually through an encrypted site-to-site connection between your office firewall and your cloud network, so servers on both sides can talk to each other privately. Staff working away from the office connect with their own secure sign-in. BCA sizes the connection for the traffic between the two and can add a second internet connection so the link stays up if one provider has an outage.

No. BCA links your on-site user accounts with your Microsoft cloud accounts, so each person signs in with one username and password, protected by multi-factor authentication. When someone joins or leaves, their access changes in one place for both sides.

Yes, and some businesses do, often because a software vendor runs best on one or a team already has workloads there. Using two public clouds adds settings, bills and security rules to keep track of, so BCA recommends it only when there's a clear reason, and manages both to the same standards when you do.

It has more places to protect, which is why it needs one set of rules. BCA applies the same sign-in requirements, update schedules, monitoring and backup standards to your cloud and on-site systems, and limits what can pass between them. Gaps usually appear where the two sides meet, so that's where we look first.

BCA. Your team contacts the same help desk whether the problem is in the office, in the cloud or somewhere in between, and the technician who picks it up can see both sides. Our average response time is under 15 minutes.