At this point, for most businesses, the key question is not whether or not to use the cloud but how to use the cloud. For the smallest businesses, the public cloud is genuinely the best solution as well as the most obvious one. As businesses grow, however, the benefits of private cloud tend to become both more apparent and more obvious.
Before looking at the benefits of private cloud, it’s worth recapping the different types of clouds. The two key types of clouds are public and private. Public clouds are hosted on infrastructure that is owned and run by third parties. Private clouds are hosted on infrastructure that is owned and run by the entity that uses them.
Hybrid clouds use both public and private infrastructure in a variety of combinations, each with its own advantages and disadvantages.
The benefits of the private cloud have to be seen in comparison to both the public cloud and traditional on-premises infrastructure. The private cloud is not in direct competition with hybrid clouds as hybrid clouds incorporate private clouds. With that said, organizations that run hybrid clouds do need to decide what will run in the public cloud versus the private cloud. This means that they do still need to weigh up the benefits of private cloud versus other options.
As with everything else, the security of the private cloud has to be viewed in context. For smaller businesses, the public cloud is very likely to be the most secure option. This is because smaller businesses are less likely to have the necessary expertise to run a private cloud effectively (i.e. securely). Using reputable cloud service providers (CSPs) therefore often makes a lot of sense.
By contrast, larger businesses are much more likely to be able to run either a private cloud or on-premises infrastructure effectively (i.e. securely). Even if they don’t have extensive in-house technical expertise, they understand how to work with vendors who do. This means they can potentially benefit significantly from having infrastructure that is truly their own.
Running a private cloud is generally the most cost-effective way to achieve this. Furthermore, it can also deliver other benefits over both the public cloud and on-premises infrastructure.
Both private and public clouds offer flexibility but they offer it in different ways. Public clouds are much more scalable than any private cloud can be (at least given the current state of technology). Private clouds, however, are much more customizable than any public cloud can be (again, given the current state of technology).
Again, the relevance of this fact tends to increase in line with the size of the business. Small businesses tend to be very happy to stick with fairly mainstream configurations. They are therefore likely to be perfectly happy with the options available in public clouds. In fact, the extent of the choices available may be even more than they need.
As businesses grow, however, it becomes increasingly likely that they will want, or need, to push past the boundaries of what is available in the public cloud. One of the key benefits of private cloud is that businesses can customize their systems in as fine detail as they wish.
This follows on from the ability to customize systems. The more options you have to customize systems, the more options you have to optimize them for whatever it is they do. Again, the significance of this will typically depend on the scale at which you are operating.
If you’re only running an application occasionally, then it’s unlikely to matter too much if it’s a bit inefficient. The more you scale up, however, the more impact the inefficiency has. Also, if an application is (potentially) business critical, then some businesses may prefer to optimize it even if it isn’t used often.
With the public cloud, there are no upfront costs but you pay ongoing costs for as long as you use it. With the private cloud, there is an upfront cost but the ongoing costs are much lower. Essentially, you are only paying for the core expenses of running a cloud (e.g. electricity). You are not paying to make a profit for a vendor on top of that.
Again, the relevance of this point usually grows in line with the size of the company. SMBs may not process or store enough data ever to justify the cost of implementing a private cloud. Larger companies, by contrast, may be able to achieve meaningful long-term savings by moving their processing and storage to a private cloud.
Read More:
The Importance Of Cloud Security Compliance: Ensuring Data Protection And Privacy
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