The right cloud strategy can help local businesses save money, gain competitive advantages and increase innovation. A growing strategy is the hybrid cloud, a solution that combines the optimal use of resources from both private and public clouds.

For example, a business might opt to use the public cloud during predictable high-volume sales periods such as the holiday shopping season, and the private cloud for highly transactional uses that are sensitive to latency.

Microsoft recently released its hybrid cloud solution called Azure Stack, which Hawaiian Telcom and SystemMetrics will be the first in Hawaii to offer local business customers. Azure Stack is a stand-alone appliance (think “black box”) that runs the same services available on the Microsoft Azure Public Cloud. Whether it be Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) like Windows virtual machines or Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) like Remote Desktop Services, one can utilize these services in a local environment and easily migrate to the Microsoft Azure Public Cloud when scale or additional computing resources are required.

Some Hawaii businesses have been reluctant to enter the cloud market because the closest public cloud data center is 2,500 miles away on the mainland. Data packets going back and forth over this distance might not make for a good user experience when running certain applications. With the hybrid cloud, the platform is on premises and runs on dedicated hardware, eliminating the latency issue. And when you need more resources, you can easily move data or “burst” to the Microsoft Azure Public Cloud and leverage a direct connection via the new trans-Pacific Southeast Asia-United States (SEA-US) cable, which offers higher performance than a standard connection over the public internet.

This hybrid cloud solution also addresses security concerns that may have prevented some businesses from moving to the cloud. Microsoft Azure Stack has the highest level of security compliance from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and is locally housed in SystemMetrics Tier 3 (99.982 percent uptime) Endeavor Data Center on Oahu, which has 24/7 manned security.

Moving to a cloud environment offers multiple benefits, which include eliminating the upfront and ongoing costs of purchasing and upgrading new hardware and software, and employing specialized information technology staff to manage these elements. This new Microsoft Azure Stack Hybrid Cloud option is ideal for business customers in Hawaii who want to leverage the benefits of a local cloud offering along with local sales and support.

Ken Van Orman is senior product manager of data center, cloud and managed services at Hawaiian Telcom. Reach him at Ken.vanorman@hawaiiantel.com.