2019 will be the year of the hybrid cloud, claim federal executives. As offices like FedRAMP, OMB, and GSA continue to promote cloud computing as the path to IT modernization, hybrid cloud can help alleviate the regulatory compliance and security requirements that agencies must adhere to. With a hybrid strategy, agencies can maintain legacy applications and an on-premise infrastructure, while leveraging the public cloud for extra storage or compute power as needed, or when they need to introduce new services.

In a year in which we’ve witnessed the carnage of the Atlanta ransomware attack and U.S. government agencies remain on high alert about possible Russian cyber-attacks against U.S. critical infrastructure and electoral systems, new research shows that the cybersecurity landscape is evolving quicker than agencies can respond.

Hybrid clouds are increasingly seen by government agencies as a comfortable solution to both their desire and mandates to move to the cloud. Highly sensitive data can be stored on-premises in a private cloud – using their existing infrastructure – while lower risk data and non-sensitive computing workloads can be placed in the public cloud or where they fit best. Hybrid clouds also let agencies quickly move when situations change.