Split Decision: Is Hybrid The Future Of Cloud?

By Gennifer Biggs, Business Solutions magazine.

Egnyte CEO Vineet Jain understands the unease felt in the channel when it comes to cloud computing. "We've had success with cloud, but we have always known there were shortcomings to pure cloud computing," explains Jain, who launched Egnyte as a cloud-based solutions vendor in 2008. Then, the vendor offered a hosted file server that replaced physical servers, allowing its partners to eliminate their customers' hardware and software overhead while increasing performance. The cloud-based solution did just what the hype says cloud can — lowered capital expenditures, improved productivity, and provided a recurring revenue stream. But some nagging questions remained. "We were still asking a company to entrust us with all its corporate data, and they were loath to let it go many times," explains Jain. Plus, two technology glitches stood between full cloud operability — latency and the issue of offline access remains. "We see that problem in not only obvious situations like an employee on a plane, but also when end users still depend on the public Internet for connectivity. Even a few minutes of lost connectivity can have a big impact, and that remains a top-of-mind issue."