Businesses are moving to the cloud for many reasons. Based on our intentions, we can group these organizations into four categories:
- Cloud only: This typically applies to new businesses. They aren't willing to invest on on-premises solutions at all. They are running their operations completely on the cloud. This model is ideal for businesses who are concerned about availability and scalability. Hybrid Identity is irrelevant for these types of businesses as there is no on-premises footprint.
- Future cloud only: There are organizations that already have an on-premises infrastructure, but are willing to move completely to the cloud in coming years. They have already decided there will be no more on-premises infrastructure refreshments and that all the new investments are already going toward the cloud. For them, Hybrid Identity is an intermediate solution. On-premises compatibility is no longer a concern for them when they want to implement a new service or feature.
- Permanent hybrid: Due to legal requirements, compliance requirements, or business requirements, some organizations are not going to be cloud only, but they are comfortable with using cloud services, which helps them improve their current operations. Most of these solutions will be hybrid compatible. They are going to continue investing in the improvements of the on-premises infrastructure.
- Forced to cloud: On rare occasions, some organizations have to move to cloud services as they have no other option. This could be due to a vendor who no longer provides on-premises solutions and has moved completely to a SaaS solution. Alternatively, it could be due to a partner who moved their services to the cloud. For them, Hybrid Identity is just to get authentication to an app or a service using the same on-premises identities. There will be no additional investments to improve the identity infrastructure using Azure AD or associated services.
So, which category does your organization fall into? We must understand the organization's cloud approach correctly before we propose a design. Most of the time, designs get rejected not because of the technical reasons, but due to a mismatch of interest or budget.