What is Cloud Bursting?

What is cloud bursting?

Cloud bursting is a method of application deployment. It allows an application running on on-premises infrastructure or a private cloud to extend its processing and “burst” onto public cloud platforms when the demand for computing capacity increases beyond what is available on-premises.

A cloud bursting instance can span public cloud platforms, private clouds, or on-premises computing. The model relies on the public cloud’s ability to scale on demand and offer capacity on a dynamic basis.

Why is cloud bursting important?

Cloud bursting gives organizations the flexibility to handle unexpected demand without overbuilding their on-prem infrastructure. Instead of letting performance take a hit or scrambling to add capacity, IT teams can instantly scale into the cloud when it matters most. This helps optimize costs, improve user experience, and keep critical applications running smoothly. In today’s fast-moving digital world, cloud bursting is a smart way to stay agile, making sure your infrastructure is ready for anything without compromising control or efficiency.

Who benefits from cloud bursting?

Cloud bursting is advantageous for organizations that have uneven or unpredictable levels of computing activity. It enables them to deliver a consistent user experience, regardless of load. 

Examples include:

• Rendering of images or video, such as in computer-generated imagery (CGI). This process creates large spikes in computing after periods of relatively low computing activity.

• eCommerce transactions that grow quickly during a sale, exceeding the capacity of primary computing instances set to handle shopping volume.

• Data analytics or artificial intelligence (AI) computing cycles that grow substantially during training or pattern recognition sessions.

How does cloud bursting work?

There is more than one way to implement cloud bursting.

Manual bursting

In manual bursting, teams provision and de-provision cloud overflow instances by hand. This approach is generally for seasonal use cases when an organization can predict the need for cloud bursting in advance.

Manual bursting offers more control and is ideal for predictable, seasonal workloads, but it requires coordinated planning and execution.

Automated bursting

Alternatively, with automated cloud bursting, a specialized solution establishes parameters for bursting, such as when compute reaches 50% of capacity and then automatically diverts the computing load to the cloud when the parameters are met.

Automated bursting provides real-time scalability with minimal intervention, though it depends on having the right tools and configurations in place, and offers less control over resulting cloud costs.

Distribute load balancing

A third approach is to distribute load balancing between on-premises and cloud instances. In all three cases, the infrastructure supporting cloud bursting may vary based on a hybrid or multicloud approach. For instance, bursting can be from cloud to cloud in a multicloud architecture.

Distributed load balancing ensures continuous performance across environments, but it can add complexity to infrastructure management. Addressing this complexity at a platform level can significantly reduce the overhead associated with managing a distributed system.

Cloud management platforms like Nutanix can set up and orchestrate cloud bursting. For example, Nutanix NC2 enables users to rapidly burst capacity from their datacenter to the Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud platform as needed.

The role of cloud infrastructure in cloud bursting

A hybrid cloud, which comprises connected instances of on-premises and cloud compute, is the predominant approach to cloud bursting. In cases when on-premises compute exceeds its processing capacity, the workload bursts to the cloud.

Hybrid cloud is not the only way to execute cloud bursting. A multicloud architecture, which spans multiple platforms like AWS, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud Platform (GCP), will also work. In that scenario, a workload bursts from one cloud platform to another. Why would someone want this? The answer is that robust infrastructure, which can be realized by leveraging more than one cloud platform, helps ensure positive outcomes for cloud bursting. It enhances business continuity through greater resiliency. If one cloud platform fails, another takes up the workload. Additionally, using multicloud for cloud bursting helps avoid vendor lock-in in the cloud.

What are the key benefits of cloud bursting for enterprises?

Cloud bursting offers many benefits to organizations that deploy it. Key examples include:

• Planning for scalability - Cloud bursting can be a forcing function that pushes application owners and other stakeholders to assess resource demand and engage in capacity planning. This process helps prevent outages and other disruptions due to overload. Planning for cloud bursting also requires relevant teams to take application scalability into account during the design and deployment stages of the application life cycle. This way, they can rely on auto-scaling services and tools in the process.

• Effective cost management - While cloud bursting comes with a price tag, the method has the potential to save money by helping avoid over-investment in on-premises infrastructure. For example, procuring all the capacity needed for the peak season and letting it remain unused for the rest of the year will result in wasted capital expense (CapEx). A thorough cost analysis is required, however, including assessments of pay-as-you-go models versus fixed commitments to cloud capacity. Monitoring and controlling costs should also factor into the return on investment (ROI) analysis for cloud bursting.

• Ensuring disaster recovery - Cloud bursting can support a disaster recovery (DR) strategy. This might involve automating failover from on-premises compute instances to the cloud in the event of an outage. Alternatively, by continuously replicating data to the cloud, i.e., “mirroring,” cloud bursting enables high availability and DR.

• Managing peak load challenges - A well-planned and executed cloud bursting implementation enables stakeholders to predict and prepare for peak computing times, such as seasonal sales. Cloud bursting also makes it possible to implement real-time traffic management that can handle unexpected spikes in demand and preserve application response times for a good user experience.

• Optimization for application performance - A cloud bursting solution may include functions for application performance monitoring and optimization. By monitoring application performance levels and triggering cloud bursting when necessary, an organization can optimize application performance.

• Strengthening data security and compliance - Cloud bursting can be beneficial for data security and compliance, assuming proper policies and controls are in force. Any cloud bursting deployment, however, should be subject to careful security and compliance review, especially in multicloud architectures.

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What are the challenges of cloud bursting?

Cloud bursting can be challenging. For instance:

• Getting the parameters right - When should cloud bursting kick in? This parameter, and many others, should be based on service-level agreements and factors related to user experience.
• Choosing the right partners - Getting to success with cloud bursting means selecting a good cloud platform partner. Each of the major platforms has much to offer, but it’s important to evaluate their respective offerings against your specific needs and choose wisely.
• Keeping data secure and compliant - Shifting computing load between on-premises infrastructure and the cloud can expose organizations to risk of data breach and data loss.  Similarly, certain types of data, such as health records, may not be allowed on the public cloud at all, so there is compliance risk with cloud bursting that does not take data type into consideration.
• Thinking the whole process through from a business perspective - Cloud bursting is a technological construct, but it is all about business, e.g., ensuring good customer experience to maintain strong customer relationships.

When should an organization use cloud bursting?

Cloud bursting is best suited for organizations that experience fluctuating, seasonal,  or unpredictable workloads and want to maintain performance without overprovisioning on-premise infrastructure. It's particularly valuable when demand surges temporarily, like during seasonal spikes, development cycles, or data analytics runs. By enabling seamless scale-out to the public cloud, cloud bursting helps teams stay agile and cost-efficient while ensuring applications remain responsive under pressure. The key is having the right hybrid or multicloud architecture in place to support dynamic resource allocation without compromising control or visibility.

Nutanix solutions, including Nutanix Database Service (NDB), Nutanix Unified Storage (NUS), and Nutanix Cloud Manager (NCM), offer features and functionality that help application owners, security teams, and cloud managers overcome these challenges.