Cloud Bursting Explained

What is Cloud Bursting?

Cloud bursting is an application deployment model where an on-premise or private cloud-based application bursts into a public cloud when the demand for computing capacity increases. This allows organizations to scale their infrastructure up or down in response to changing workload requirements, effectively managing their computing resources and costs.

The primary idea behind cloud bursting is to leverage the elasticity and scalability of public cloud platforms to handle peak workloads, while maintaining the majority of the application’s operations on the organization’s own private infrastructure. When the on-premise or private cloud resources are exhausted, the application “bursts” into the public cloud to access additional computing power, storage, or other resources as needed.

This approach enables organizations to optimize their IT infrastructure and costs by utilizing their own resources for normal or expected workloads, and only using public cloud resources when the demand exceeds the capacity of the private infrastructure. This helps to avoid the need to over-provision and maintain expensive on-premise hardware to handle occasional spikes in demand.

How Does Cloud Bursting Work?

Cloud bursting is typically facilitated by a hybrid cloud architecture, which integrates the organization’s private cloud or on-premise infrastructure with one or more public cloud platforms. The process of cloud bursting involves the following key steps:

1. Monitoring and Workload Detection: The first step in the cloud bursting process is to continuously monitor the on-premise or private cloud infrastructure and detect when the workload exceeds the available computing capacity. This is often achieved through the use of cloud management platforms or automation tools that can monitor resource utilization and trigger the cloud bursting process when certain thresholds are reached.

2. Workload Burst to the Public Cloud: Once the need for additional computing resources is detected, the application or workload is seamlessly “burst” into the public cloud. This is typically done through the use of a cloud orchestration or management platform that can automatically provision the required resources in the public cloud and migrate or scale the application accordingly.

3. Dynamic Resource Allocation: The public cloud resources are dynamically allocated to the application to handle the increased workload. This may involve scaling up virtual machines, adding more storage, or increasing network bandwidth, depending on the specific requirements of the application.

4. Application Burst Management: The hybrid cloud management platform or automation tools are responsible for managing the bursting process, ensuring that the application is properly scaled and load-balanced across the private and public cloud resources. This includes monitoring the workload, adjusting resource allocation, and eventually scaling back the public cloud resources when the demand decreases.

5. Cost Optimization: Cloud bursting aims to optimize the use of computing resources and minimize costs by only utilizing public cloud resources when necessary. The hybrid cloud management platform or automation tools often include cost management and optimization features to help organizations track and manage the costs associated with the public cloud usage during the bursting process.

Benefits of Cloud Bursting

Cloud bursting offers several benefits to organizations that need to handle variable or unpredictable workloads. Some of the key advantages of cloud bursting include:

1. Scalability and Flexibility: Cloud bursting allows organizations to quickly scale their infrastructure up or down in response to changing workload requirements, providing the necessary computing resources on-demand without the need to over-provision their private infrastructure.

2. Cost Optimization: By only utilizing public cloud resources when needed, organizations can avoid the high costs of maintaining excess on-premise infrastructure to handle occasional spikes in demand. This can lead to significant cost savings and more efficient use of IT resources.

3. Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity: Cloud bursting can be used as a disaster recovery strategy, where the application can burst into the public cloud in the event of a local or regional outage, ensuring business continuity and minimizing downtime.

4. Improved Performance: Bursting into the public cloud can provide access to additional computing resources, such as faster processors, more memory, or higher-performance storage, which can improve the overall performance of the application during periods of high demand.

5. Reduced IT Complexity: Cloud bursting allows organizations to leverage the expertise and infrastructure of public cloud providers, reducing the complexity and overhead of managing and maintaining their own on-premise infrastructure.

Challenges and Considerations in Cloud Bursting

While cloud bursting offers significant benefits, it also comes with its own set of challenges and considerations that organizations should be aware of:

1. Network Latency and Bandwidth: Effective cloud bursting requires reliable and high-performance network connectivity between the on-premise or private cloud infrastructure and the public cloud. Latency and bandwidth limitations can impact the application’s performance and responsiveness when bursting to the public cloud.

2. Data Security and Compliance: When bursting into the public cloud, organizations must ensure that sensitive data and workloads are properly secured and comply with relevant regulations and industry standards. This may require additional security measures, such as data encryption, access controls, and compliance monitoring.

3. Application Compatibility and Portability: Not all applications are designed to be easily “burst” into the public cloud. Factors such as the application’s architecture, dependencies, and the ability to scale horizontally or vertically can impact the feasibility and complexity of the cloud bursting implementation.

4. Cost Management and Optimization: While cloud bursting can help optimize costs, it also introduces the complexity of managing and optimizing the costs associated with the public cloud usage. Organizations must carefully plan and monitor their cloud bursting activities to avoid unexpected or excessive public cloud costs.

5. Hybrid Cloud Management Complexity: Implementing and managing a hybrid cloud environment that supports cloud bursting can be a complex undertaking. Organizations must invest in the right cloud management tools, processes, and expertise to effectively orchestrate and monitor the bursting process.

Real-World Examples of Cloud Bursting

To better understand the practical applications of cloud bursting, let’s explore a few real-world examples:

Example 1: Retail Seasonal Demand

A large e-commerce retailer experiences significant spikes in online traffic and orders during the holiday shopping season. To handle these peak demands, the retailer uses cloud bursting to seamlessly scale its infrastructure. During the off-season, the majority of the workload runs on the organization’s private cloud, but during the holidays, the application bursts into the public cloud to access additional computing resources, such as web servers and database instances, to handle the increased traffic and transactions.

Example 2: Financial Services Risk Analysis

A financial services firm runs complex risk analysis models and simulations to assess market risks and make informed investment decisions. These workloads can be highly resource-intensive, especially during times of market volatility. The firm uses cloud bursting to leverage the computational power of public cloud platforms to run these simulations, only bursting into the cloud when the on-premise resources are exhausted. This allows the firm to access the necessary computing power without the need to maintain a large, expensive on-premise infrastructure.

Example 3: Scientific Research and High-Performance Computing

Research organizations and universities often require significant computing resources for tasks such as climate modeling, molecular dynamics, or particle physics simulations. These workloads can be highly parallelizable and benefit from the scalability of cloud computing. By using cloud bursting, these organizations can leverage public cloud resources to run their computationally intensive simulations and analyses, while maintaining their core research infrastructure on-premise.

These real-world examples illustrate how cloud bursting can be a valuable strategy for organizations that need to handle variable or unpredictable workloads, allowing them to optimize their IT infrastructure and costs while maintaining the flexibility to scale up or down as needed.

Implementing Cloud Bursting: Key Considerations

Implementing a successful cloud bursting solution requires careful planning and consideration of several key factors:

1. Application Architecture and Compatibility

Ensure that your application is designed to be cloud-agnostic and can seamlessly scale across on-premise and public cloud environments. This may involve adopting a microservices-based architecture, containerization, or other cloud-native design principles.

2. Hybrid Cloud Integration and Automation

Invest in a robust hybrid cloud management platform or automation tools that can effectively orchestrate the bursting process, monitor resource utilization, and dynamically allocate resources across the private and public cloud environments.

3. Network Connectivity and Performance

Ensure that you have the necessary network infrastructure and bandwidth to support the data transfer and low-latency requirements of the cloud bursting process, especially during periods of high demand.

4. Security and Compliance

Implement robust security measures, such as data encryption, access controls, and compliance monitoring, to protect sensitive data and workloads when bursting into the public cloud.

5. Cost Management and Optimization

Develop a comprehensive cost management strategy to track and optimize the usage of public cloud resources during the bursting process, ensuring that the benefits of cloud bursting outweigh the additional costs.

6. Testing and Validation

Thoroughly test your cloud bursting setup, including simulating various workload scenarios, to ensure that the process works as expected and that the application can seamlessly scale across the hybrid cloud environment.

By addressing these key considerations, organizations can successfully implement a cloud bursting solution that provides the necessary scalability and flexibility to handle their variable workloads, while optimizing their IT infrastructure and costs.

Conclusion

Cloud bursting is a powerful application deployment model that allows organizations to leverage the scalability and elasticity of public cloud platforms to handle peak workloads, while maintaining the majority of their operations on their own private infrastructure. By seamlessly “bursting” into the public cloud when the on-premise or private cloud resources are exhausted, organizations can optimize their computing resources and costs, improve application performance, and ensure business continuity.

However, implementing a successful cloud bursting solution requires careful planning and consideration of factors such as application compatibility, hybrid cloud integration, network performance, security, and cost management. By addressing these key challenges, organizations can unlock the full benefits of cloud bursting and position themselves for success in an increasingly dynamic and resource-intensive business environment.

As the demand for scalable and flexible IT infrastructure continues to grow, cloud bursting will likely become an increasingly important strategy for organizations seeking to balance the advantages of private and public cloud computing. By staying ahead of the curve and proactively exploring cloud bursting solutions, you can position your organization for long-term success in the ever-evolving world of cloud computing.