July 3, 2013 | Written by: David Beaumont
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Cloud bursting is an application deployment model in which an application runs in an internal cloud or a proprietary computing architecture which provides hosted services to a limited number of people (also known as a private cloud).
This kind of architecture is behind a company’s firewall. The application could also be at a data center. When the demand of the computing processes reaches its capacity and begins to spike, it “bursts” into a public cloud (available to the general public) when the demand for computing capacity sharply increases.
Think of the notion of a gas or electric stove. When you have the need to cook something on high you turn up the flame or increase the heat. If the requirement is to simmer the food you turn the flame or decrease the heat. You use what you need depending on the dish you are cooking.
This kind of hybrid cloud (combination of both public and private cloud) allows an organization to only pay for the extra computing resources when they are needed. Of course when considering cloud bursting, an organization should consider security and regulatory compliance requirements.
There is a kind of leverage with cloud bursting that companies have. This kind of hybrid cloud can use the public cloud during times of peak demand then be rolled back to the private cloud (internal cloud) when the demand has reduced.
What are your thoughts about cloud bursting?