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Clouds are everywhere these days. How did this happen? A word that was previously reserved for meteorologists (who are never right, anyway) and obviously-challenged-individuals (“he’s walking around with his head in the clouds”) has become the “it” word in IT. Even people with their heads stuck in the sand now look to the cloud for answers.

How many times have you heard, “It’s in the cloud”?

Historically, the term “cloud” has had a spotty track record. Whenever something was cloudy, it was not clear. Whether that was your vision, your memory, or the water in your glass, cloudy was not desired. Seattle is a beautiful town, but people go crazy there because it rains so much and it’s always cloudy.

In IT and business, cloud is clearly the new bright. But there’s a catch – there is not just one cloud. In fact, there are many types of clouds. Public clouds, private clouds and - the socially acceptable offspring of an encounter between public and private clouds - hybrid clouds.

Cloud Classification

A public cloud is a type of cloud that is used by many different organizations or individuals at the same time. It is relatively inexpensive and allows a user to store data offsite.

What if you need more privacy and increased security? While Mick Jagger demanded, “Hey, you, get off of my cloud!”, you could opt for your own cloud, a private cloud, which is used by a single tenant. While these cost more, they have many benefits, including increased security, control, and for many industries, a private cloud is the only way to meet regulatory compliance standards.

The cloud is a critical way to store lots of data and get things done quickly.

The dreaded “L” word

Now that we have that straight, there is one, small catch… when public clouds interact with private clouds, it can slow things down… to a crawl. When different types of clouds and services interact, everything gets delayed. In a world that craves instant gratification, it is instead spontaneous frustration. This is known as latency, and it kills business innovation. Whoever said, “Better late than never” evidently was not in business.

At Panzura, we say, “Better never latency.”

Hybrid Cloud = Power Tool

Thanks to hybrid cars, the term “hybrid” does not inspire visions of power and acceleration. Hybrid cars are economical, which is to be admired… as long as someone else is driving them.

Panzura has made hybrid cloud solutions more like a Porsche or a Maserati – fast, powerful, and even (gulp) economical.

Shift the balance of power in the fight against ransomware.

Download Whitepaper
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Talk about powerful and hybrid clouds, let’s talk tools…

Milwaukee Tool, which designs and manufactures power tools, found itself growing at a 20% rate year over year -- for the last five years. They rely on interaction between the different teams as they generate ideas both in the United States and Asia. The latency they were experiencing was not only extremely frustrating, but it was also hurting innovation, communication and it was costing them business.
Users within their own company could not open files – it just took too long. They would just give up. Milwaukee Tool needed data integrity with no file corruption. They needed to work on files collaboratively without stepping on each other’s work and overwriting changes. As they put it themselves, they needed “a single source of truth” for all of their users.
Using Panzura as the foundation for their hybrid cloud initiative, they eliminated their latency challenges. Opening files was easy and fast. They reduced the time to open files from 30 to 40 minutes to only 40 seconds. Can you say VROOM, baby?
Efficiency sure isn’t a sexy word, but more power that costs less is certainly worth a whistle.
Along the way, Milwaukee Tool reduced their operating costs because Panzura’s Hybrid Cloud solution compressed their need for storage. Size does (too) matter.

You can learn more about their story here

Every organization’s needs are different, but we all can benefit from Hybrid Cloud solutions.

The advantages of hybrid clouds are clear. You get things done from multiple locations like you’re all in the same room… without having to contend with the aroma of your coworker’s freshly-nuked egg white casserole.

What the hell is a hybrid cloud? It’s the way you work better – faster – more collaboratively, in the cloud.

If you’re cirrus about how hybrid clouds can work for you, we should talk.