What is one of the main benefits of using microservices in hybrid cloud architectures?

One of the main benefits of using microservices in hybrid cloud architectures is improved scalability. Microservices architecture allows applications to be broken down into smaller, independent services that can be developed, deployed, and scaled independently. This means that if one specific service experiences high demand, it can be scaled up to meet that demand without needing to scale the entire application infrastructure.

In a hybrid cloud environment, organizations can take advantage of the cloud's elastic capabilities to scale specific microservices on-demand, deploying them to a public cloud for peak times while maintaining other services on private infrastructure for security or compliance reasons. This flexibility in scaling helps organizations optimize their resource usage and cost-effectively respond to varying workloads, ultimately enhancing operational efficiency.

The other options do not align with the fundamental advantages of microservices in a hybrid cloud setup. Increased hardware costs and longer deployment times are typically drawbacks of traditional monolithic architectures rather than benefits of microservices. Similarly, limited flexibility contradicts the intrinsic benefit of microservices, which is to enhance adaptability in the development and deployment processes.