We've seen an outpouring of research validating the growing importance of the hybrid cloud as an operating model for organizations of all sizes. For example:

Research and Markets just published a report predicting that "the hybrid cloud market is expected to grow from $25.28 billion in 2014 to $84.67 billion
by 2019, at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 27.3 percent from 2014 to 2019."

A recent study by Peer 1 Hosting has hybrid cloud adoption tripling by 2018.

In a Computer world article by Sharon Gaudin late last year IDC analyst Frank Gens predicted an increasing "hybrid movement" in 2015, that would be enough to boost the entire cloud market. In the same article Technology Business Research predicted 50 percent growth in hybrid cloud for 2015.

The growth rate is so significant that it is predicted to have a material impact on the once high growth enterprise (premise) data center industry.

"Use of on-premises hosting is expected to fall from 31 percent to 17 percent in the next three years," Peer 1 Hosting said, "while private cloud hosting could decline from 52 percent to 41 percent during that time frame," based on Talking Cloud, citing Peer 1 Research

The high growth rate is understandable. Thus far the barriers to hybrid cloud adoption have been related to the processes, risks and costs to extend security and compliance-related controls and services into the cloud. And those barriers are shrinking with every investment the IaaS providers make in enhanced security and compliance capabilities and with the evolution of hybrid cloud automation software.

AUTOMATION BARRIER

A recent survey published in CRN.Channelweb.co.uk "found that 41 percent felt that migrating complex apps to the cloud is 'more trouble than it's worth.'"There is good reason for the findings: the traditional body shops and various tools, typically do not automate the vast number of processes involved with extending the network, security and management services from the premise into the cloud. This lack of automation has left plenty of costs and risks on the table, especially for larger enterprise cloud environments.

While public clouds have a well-worn path to automation once you are in the cloud, the lack of implementation when it comes to hybrid clouds is primarily due to customers and service providers building islands of automation.

The lack of use or adoption of available APIs leads to inefficiencies in process and a reduced TCO benefit to users and service providers alike. That will change in coming years.

THE RISE OF HYBRID CLOUD AUTOMATION

Hybrid cloud automation software has matured and is now more capable of extending critical network and security services needed to address security and compliance requirements for physical, virtual and mixed environments. Automation has spread from mere image conversion or server-level blue printing tools to platforms that automate the discovery, blueprinting, provisioning and synchronization of entire app stacks, services and databases for migration to the cloud or cloud DR. That evolution allows organizations to deploy physical and virtual app workloads into hybrid clouds.

As a result larger environments are adopting hybrid cloud operating models. For example, MyPoints shuttered its western regional co-location facility and moved its 100-plus legacy server environment into AWS using hybrid cloud automation software.

The automated hybrid cloud allowed MyPoints to save money and increase trust in its DR environment.

AUTOMATION MATTERS

So as enhanced security and compliance make the cloud more enterprise-friendly, the key migration and deployment processes for extending security and networking services into the cloud are becoming increasingly automated. As that happens, hybrid cloud deployments will become even larger and adoption will increase at a faster rate.

The missing link for the hybrid cloud for those still waiting for the hybrid cloud DR payoff? Robust software that automates otherwise manual processes required to bridge the premises and the cloud. It is not a coincidence that organizations are turning to software to automate their journey into the cloud.