Hybrid cloud computing is an environment that employs both private and public cloud services, allowing companies to leverage different types of cloud services to meet a variety of customer needs. There are two primary deployment models - public clouds which are owned and operated by third parties for use by other organizations, and private clouds which are owned and operated by a single organization. A hybrid cloud combines these models, using a private cloud with public cloud services where the environments touch each other. This allows organizations to combine services and data from different cloud models to create a unified, automated computing environment.