Hybrid Cloud Architecture for ERP
Key Points
- Hybrid cloud combines private (on‑premises) and public cloud environments that work together to run workloads and applications.
- In the example of “Acme Freight,” the company adds a new public‑cloud BFF (backend‑for‑frontend) for its mobile app while keeping the existing ERP system on‑premises, linking them via a secure tunnel to maintain interoperability.
- Performance bottlenecks during peak periods (e.g., holiday spikes) expose the limits of the monolithic ERP, prompting the team to refactor the application into microservices.
- By moving the core ERP components to the public cloud as microservices, Acme Freight leverages hybrid‑cloud flexibility to scale dynamically, improve reliability, and better support both internal and mobile users.
Sections
- Hybrid Cloud Explained with Acme Freight - IBM developer advocate Sai Vennam outlines hybrid cloud fundamentals by illustrating how a fictional freight company's on‑premises ERP system can integrate private and public cloud resources to run its workloads.
- ERP Monolith to Cloud Microservices - Acme Freight dismantles its monolithic ERP, containerizes the components with Docker, orchestrates them via Kubernetes, and migrates the workload to a public cloud to achieve scalability and escape vendor lock‑in.
- Resources for Hybrid Cloud Learning - The speaker directs listeners to additional hybrid cloud information via provided links and the IBM cloud blog.
Full Transcript
# Hybrid Cloud Architecture for ERP **Source:** [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3kGFBBy3Lyg](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3kGFBBy3Lyg) **Duration:** 00:06:34 ## Summary - Hybrid cloud combines private (on‑premises) and public cloud environments that work together to run workloads and applications. - In the example of “Acme Freight,” the company adds a new public‑cloud BFF (backend‑for‑frontend) for its mobile app while keeping the existing ERP system on‑premises, linking them via a secure tunnel to maintain interoperability. - Performance bottlenecks during peak periods (e.g., holiday spikes) expose the limits of the monolithic ERP, prompting the team to refactor the application into microservices. - By moving the core ERP components to the public cloud as microservices, Acme Freight leverages hybrid‑cloud flexibility to scale dynamically, improve reliability, and better support both internal and mobile users. ## Sections - [00:00:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3kGFBBy3Lyg&t=0s) **Hybrid Cloud Explained with Acme Freight** - IBM developer advocate Sai Vennam outlines hybrid cloud fundamentals by illustrating how a fictional freight company's on‑premises ERP system can integrate private and public cloud resources to run its workloads. - [00:03:16](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3kGFBBy3Lyg&t=196s) **ERP Monolith to Cloud Microservices** - Acme Freight dismantles its monolithic ERP, containerizes the components with Docker, orchestrates them via Kubernetes, and migrates the workload to a public cloud to achieve scalability and escape vendor lock‑in. - [00:06:29](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3kGFBBy3Lyg&t=389s) **Resources for Hybrid Cloud Learning** - The speaker directs listeners to additional hybrid cloud information via provided links and the IBM cloud blog. ## Full Transcript
Hi everyone, my name is Sai Vennam,
and I'm a developer advocate with IBM.
Today I want to talk about hybrid cloud.
If you're watching this video
then you're probably tasked with the very important role
of figuring out how hybrid cloud
fits in with your company's architecture.
Or maybe you're just a little bit curious about this cloud computing approach.
Either way,
essentially, hybrid cloud boils down into
a mixture of a private, as well as a public, environment.
And essentially the two are working in tandem
to run your workloads and applications.
To better explain hybrid cloud,
I want to start with an example.
Let's say we've got a fictional company, "Acme Freight",
who is essentially tasked with running shipments.
Acme Freight has an existing on-premises application,
an ERP application
- which many people might be familiar with,
is an "Enterprise Resource Planning" app,
which enables them to manage their shipments,
and make sure that they make it there on time.
But let's say that this ERP application is made up of 3 major sections.
We've got the BFF (Back-end For Front-end).
In the middle here we've got the chunk of the ERP application that runs things like
inventory, truck drivers, deliveries, shipments, that kind of thing,
and we've got, at the bottom here, a user registry
- human resources, that kind of thing.
So the BFF is going to basically handle
any time front-end requests are made to make sure
that web dashboard looks great.
But Acme Freight has just created a new mobile application
that needs a new BFF application
to actually serve those endpoints
so to do that, the team decided to create a new BFF layer
on the public side.
So, they've started with a new public cloud
and they've decided to deploy the back-end for this mobile application
on this cloud.
So, we've got the mobile BFF application here.
So, the main thing to keep in mind here,
so only the mobile BFF application is running in the public cloud.
So, they still need a way for this to interact with the existing ERP app.
To do so, they'll simply open up a tunnel
that allows the mobile BFF application
to work with those private endpoints
that the ERP application serves.
So, that's one of the key tenets of a hybrid cloud environment
is the fact that they must be interoperable.
Essentially meaning that the public components
and the private components are working in tandem.
So, so far, the truck delivery drivers
are loving this new infrastructure.
They're able to use their mobile apps to submit whenever a delivery is made.
But, what they've noticed is, during the holiday season
or peak hours, this whole system is bogging down
and it's leading to deliveries that are late
and shipments that are being missed.
To tackle this, Acme Freight decides,
"You know what? It's about time."
"We need to start breaking this monolith down."
So, they decide to move the ERP portion, the big chunk,
break it apart into microservices
and move it to a public cloud.
To do so, they take advantage of Linux container technologies,
things like Docker,
as well as container orchestration management tools like Kubernetes,
and, successfully,
they move that ERP layer to the public cloud.
Not an easy task.
So, we can imagine that there's a number of microservices
that represent that ERP application
that are running in a public cloud.
And they're working with
Docker technology and Kubernetes technology,
keeping everything orchestrated and scaled out.
That's one of the great things
about taking advantage of a public cloud,
is that there are seemingly endless
public resources to to scale out your application.
So, although they get to keep their existing on-premises ERP architecture,
they start moving to the public cloud
and take advantage of the scalability
and the capabilities that are offered there.
Another advantage of working with the public cloud -
you're no longer locked into a specific vendor.
Traditionally, with monolithic applications,
maybe you're working with a Java EE stack,
You're forced to use the capabilities that the stack allows you to use
But with public cloud you can go "window shopping"
- there are lots of open source projects out there,
programming languages that you can use,
and with micro-services speaking on public interfaces
all of those services can talk to one another
regardless of the technology that they're written in.
So, definitely,
by taking advantage of the public cloud,
they get to use cool third-party services.
So, Acme Freight decides, "You know,
we can do better with delivery rerouting
whenever there is a snowstorm or inclement weather,"
and, so to do that,
they hook up this ERP application to Watson
and take advantage of some of the cognitive capabilities
to power delivery rerouting.
So, effectively, where they were taking advantage of the portability features
offered by taking on a hybrid cloud architecture.
The last thing I want to touch on is security.
Although Acme Freight moved over
the mobile BFF piece as well as the ERP application
and to micro services - and, you know, in a perfect world,
maybe they've even phased out these two portions,
they continue to keep the user registry on premises
because that's something that they want to keep firewalled
- they want to keep it completely secure
and always on their own infrastructure and hardware.
That's one of the great advantages of hybrid cloud
is that they can continue to keep certain resources firewalled
and on-premises,
while taking advantage of the public cloud
to continue to run their applications and workloads.
So, together, hybrid clouds you get the features of interoperability
scalability, portability, as well as security.
All of these come together to enable developers
and companies to take advantage of the best of both worlds
when running their applications.
If you want to learn more about hybrid cloud,
check out the accompanying links or the IBM cloud blog.