Renewed conversations are taking place around models that combine onsite and cloud infrastructure. Learn more about the hybrid cloud approach.
For years, cloud technology has been positioned as the path forward for systems integration. Cloud providers promise simpler and centralized management to enable scalability, increase flexibility, and reduce onsite infrastructure. This approach gives end-users a cost-effective and streamlined way to host systems ranging from AV and lighting to life safety and security.
But cloud-only deployments (where systems or applications are hosted, managed, and operated entirely in the cloud) aren’t always reliable or sustainable. As systems mature and reach end of life, what happens when the hosted service you depend on is no longer supported or is shut down by the provider? It’s a question that’s prompting the industry to rethink cloud deployment strategies.
Renewed conversations are taking place around models that combine onsite and cloud infrastructure. This hybrid approach helps minimize disruption risks while giving organizations more options for how and where they run their systems.
Understanding the Challenges with Hosted Systems
Cloud-hosted solutions centralize system processing and services by moving them out of the local environment and into the provider’s cloud. On paper, this offers many benefits:
- Minimizes the infrastructure footprint
- Lowers upfront investments
- Shifts uptime responsibility to the provider
- Offers quick and easy scalability
- Enables remote management and updates
- Reduces internal IT burden
In practice, however, cloud models can also create challenges like:
- Higher connectivity risk. If internet service is disrupted (even briefly), critical systems experience outages or reduced functionality.
- More complex licensing. As providers adjust their licensing models, users may face unpredictable costs and recurring fees.
- Potential loss of control. Providers can decide to drop a product, discontinue support for older versions, or alter functionality, leaving organizations stranded. Users then face the costly possibility of having to replace or redesign systems to keep services running or maintain compliance.
- Accountability gaps. When systems go down, the user may assume the integrator is to blame, even if the cause stems from decisions or outages on the provider side.
- Vendor lock-in. Once a system or data is tied to a provider’s platform, moving to another provider or bringing systems back on-prem can become costly and complex.
These issues could turn catastrophic in environments like hospitals and schools that rely on life safety systems to protect people and meet regulatory standards. Just a few minutes of downtime could endanger lives or violate compliance.
Opportunities for Integrators in Hybrid Approaches
As hybrid system design becomes a way to meet client demands for reliability and business continuity, the trend opens new opportunities for integrators to demonstrate their value.
Hybrid approaches preserve the benefits of cloud, such as scalability, remote management, and centralized updates, while also offering redundancies through onsite infrastructure.
Here’s where integrators can add value with hybrid approaches:
- Deliver tailored design expertise. Develop hybrid solutions for clients that combine on-prem and cloud resources to ensure redundancy and security. Offer custom solutions based on specific client risks. For example, redundancy may be the priority in a healthcare facility, while flexibility may be the main concern in higher-ed environments.
- Enhance resilience and redundancy. By building in local processing or onsite failover options, you can keep mission-critical operations running during service interruptions.
- Create client-managed portals. Developing centralized portals can unify multi-vendor licensing, cloud services, and local system visibility. This positions you as the “simplifier.”
- Expand advisory services. Serve as an expert who can guide clients through not only technology integration but also licensing, compliance requirements, and long-term planning. This advisory role builds trust and strengthens your influence as you move from “installer” to strategic risk manager and advisor.
If you don’t have the capabilities or resources to implement onsite infrastructure, it’s critical to collaborate with your client’s IT team or a trusted IT provider to ensure a robust hybrid deployment. Acting as a strategic advisor and coordinating these efforts allows you to maintain a central role in solution design and project management, even when you aren’t performing all installation tasks. This preserves client trust and satisfaction and opens up potential revenue sources through project management or partner margins.
Hybrid is the Future of System Design
For many applications, hosted services may remain the most efficient, cost-effective option. But, often, the cloud alone is not sustainable, especially when the stakes are high.
For many organizations, the right answer can be found somewhere in between: using cloud for what it does best while reinforcing it with onsite systems that support resilience, redundancy, and reliability.
This provides peace of mind for your clients while giving you a renewed role as an expert who designs solutions that work in the messy and unpredictable real world. By delivering hybrid architecture as an evolution of the cloud model, you can secure your role in the future of system design.
This article was written by members of NSCA’s Emerging Technologies Committee.
