Hybrid cloud storage bridges on-premises infrastructure and cloud storage — using storage gateways, caching appliances, and tiering software to give on-premises applications cloud-scale capacity while maintaining the local performance they require.
Many enterprises have on-premises applications that can't be migrated but need more capacity than on-premises storage can economically provide. Hybrid storage provides the bridge — cloud scale with on-premises performance.
A structured advisory process — from discovery and market evaluation to negotiation and post-deployment optimization — tailored to your specific environment and objectives.
We assess the specific use cases driving hybrid storage requirements — NAS tiering to cloud, backup vaulting, file share extension, or application-specific cloud integration — and design the appropriate hybrid approach for each.
We evaluate storage gateway platforms — AWS Storage Gateway, Azure StorSimple/File Sync, Nasuni, Panzura, and others — against your on-premises storage environment, application requirements, and cloud target.
Hybrid storage performance depends on cache hit rates — keeping the active working set on-premises while tiering cold data to cloud. We design the cache sizing and data locality policy that maintains application performance.
Hybrid storage replication consumes WAN bandwidth. We design the WAN optimization strategy and bandwidth allocation that prevents storage replication from impacting other network-dependent applications.
These are the dimensions that consistently separate successful deployments from costly ones — and the questions RLM will help you answer before any commitment.
Hybrid storage performance depends entirely on cache hit rates for active data. Evaluate cache sizing requirements based on your actual working set size — data that's accessed in a typical business day or week.
Hybrid storage gateways must present the same protocols (NFS, SMB, iSCSI) that your existing applications use. Evaluate protocol support and the compatibility testing required for your application stack.
On-premises applications must remain operational when the WAN link to cloud is degraded or unavailable. Evaluate how the gateway handles WAN interruption and the behavior of cached vs. non-cached data during outages.
Data replicating between on-premises and cloud must be encrypted in transit. Evaluate encryption standards, key management, and the compliance certifications relevant to your data classification.
Hybrid storage should integrate with your broader backup and DR strategy. Evaluate how the gateway's cloud storage integrates with your cloud backup platform and DR recovery procedures.
Hybrid storage platforms add cost — hardware or virtual appliances, software licensing, and support — on top of cloud storage costs. Model total hybrid TCO including all components against the cost of on-premises storage expansion.
"RLM helped us rationalize our multi-cloud spend and identify over $1.2M in annual savings. Their approach was methodical and unbiased — exactly what we needed."
"Our migration was stalled for months. RLM came in, assessed the gaps, and helped us select a managed services partner that got us across the finish line in 60 days."
Start with a no-cost conversation with an RLM cloud advisor — vendor neutral, no agenda, just clarity on the right path forward.
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